Hayley Mills Reveals the Role Walt Disney Wouldn't Let Her Take: 'It Was a Wonderful Part'
Hayley Mills Reveals the Role Walt Disney Wouldn't Let Her Take: 'It Was a Wonderful Part'
Angela AndaloroTue, April 21, 2026 at 4:38 PM UTC
0
Hayley MillsCredit: Cindy Ord/WireImage -
Hayley Mills won an Oscar for her role in Disney's Pollyanna
Mills recalls meeting Walt Disney for the first time, alongside parents John and Mary Hayley Mills and siblings Jonathan and Juliet
Mills talked about the moment on an episode of the Rosebud podcast, which debuted the weekend of her 80th birthday
Hayley Mills is looking back on her Disney past.
The actress, best known for Pollyanna and the original version of The Parent Trap, appeared on the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth, alongside sister Juliet Mills. The episode came the same weekend that Hayley celebrated her 80th birthday.
Hayley, who did six Disney films in her early career, recalled meeting Walt Disney himself in London with her family.
"We all got into a taxi, and it was pouring with rain. And then suddenly Mummy said, 'Stop.' And she said, 'I'll be right back.' And she jumped out, she rushed back. And we were living in a flat in Hay Hill off Berkeley Square. And Dad was fuming and saying, 'Wow, we can't be late, this is really awful.' And then she came running out again, in the rain, clutching this white Pekingese puppy that had actually been given to us by Vivien [Leigh]."
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Hayley explained the dog was originally given to Leigh by Laurence Olivier, "Because he was in New York, falling in love with Joan Plowright."
"He gave her lots of gifts, and he wanted her to be happy, and he got this beautiful flat in Sloane Square with new carpets, lime green carpets. And then he gave her this beautiful little sleeve [Pekingese] called Suki, who peed all over her lime green carpet. She said, 'That's it.' So she gave the puppy to us," she explained.
The puppy came along for the meeting and "covered us in white fur" before they arrived at the meeting with Disney.
"We went up in the lift, total silence, got to the door, the Harlequin suite. And there's a plaque on the door with a dancing Harlequin in red and white stripes. I can see it clearly to this day. And we're all standing there with Suki snuffling away. And then the door opens, and there is Walt Disney," she recalled.
The Mills familyCredit: Moviestore/Shutterstock
"We all stood in dead silence. And even Mummy, who never stopped talking. Nobody said a word. It's like... we couldn't believe it. It was like, gobsmacked. So we walked in, and we had a wonderful meeting, and it was brilliant, because I really think that I got the job of Pollyanna because of Suki, because I didn't have to answer questions and be on my best behavior. We played on the ground. He did, too. Walt got down on his knees."
Advertisement
Disney got along well with the whole Mills family. Hayley remembers him as "A darling man. A good, kind, generous, humorous, warm, genuine human being."
Asked if she ever got any memorable advice from Disney, Hayley recalled asking him about the positivity in Disney films.
"He said, 'I try to show people the best in themselves.' And I think that is why his movies are so, one of the reasons they're so successful, is people come out feeling happy about being a human, happy that there are things to feel good about, about the world."
Hayley Mlils and Walt DisneyCredit: Keystone/Getty
Hayley admitted that fitting into the Disney fold became harder as she hit puberty. She admitted, "Adolescence got me in its grip. I remember Peter McHenry saying to me when we were doing The Moonspinners, and he was sitting rather miserably on the beach, staring out into the Aegean. I went up unwisely and said, 'Are you all right?' Or something like that. And he said, 'I'm riling against fate.' I said, 'Oh, why?' He said, 'Oh, it's this awful twisted adolescence.' "
She continued, "I think adolescence is a dreadful time for so many kids. And you suddenly go from being so... spontaneous and in the moment and just loving being where you are and what you're doing and not judging yourself, to suddenly, you become aware and self-aware, and it's horrendous."
For Hayley, "It started slowly when I was doing The Parent Trap, and I was 14. I would get up early in the morning, which is not my best time. I'm not a morning person. And I would hang a towel over the mirror so I didn't have to see my face. So I never had a great feeling about my looks or anything like that, which is just as well. It must be awful to get very old, having been very beautiful, and to see it's gone. So self-consciousness of adolescence made life on the set excruciating for me."
Hayley Mills in "The Parent Trap" (1961)Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty
Brandreth also asked Hayley about being considered for the titular role in Lolita, which she turned down, in part, because of her relationship with Disney and at the advisement of Walt Disney.
"I didn't understand the full implications of Humbert Humbert's obsession with Lolita, but I could see that it was a wonderful part and I'd love to have played it. She was fascinating. I would love to have played it. But I totally understand Walt's resistance," she noted.
"I was 14, and who knows if I'd done it, where it would have taken me. And then, of course, what happened is that the... The films that I did with Walt were of a certain type. We tried to, you know, mom and dad and my agent, tried to mix it up a little bit by doing other things, so it wasn't just an absolute Disney image the whole time, but Disney films were very potent, and they were very widely distributed, whereas at that time English movies didn't get great attention."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
