Olivia Newton-John gained numerous hearts as Sandy within the blockbuster movie Grease – nevertheless it nearly didn’t occur.
“John [Travolta] was set before anybody else was even attached to the movie,” casting director Joel Thurm advised Fox News Digital in regards to the 1978 musical.
“Paramount figured that they could do Grease if John was in it. That was a given.”
“John really wanted Olivia for the role of Sandy,” Thurm shared. “We talked about it and I said, ‘It’s a great idea.’ But my problem was to make Olivia work. Olivia did not want to do it initially. She didn’t leap at this opportunity.”
Thurm shared his account of bringing the beloved movie to life in a brand new memoir titled Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, the place he dished on his time in Hollywood.
According to Thurm, the singer was “embarrassed” and “humiliated” over how she got here throughout in a British science-fiction film she made years earlier than titled Toomorrow. The 1970 movie advised the weird story of aliens that kidnapped the pop group Toomorrow, whose “vibrations” from their devices are wanted for survival. “She met John and she liked him,” Thurm defined. “She also liked the role of Sandy, but she was really cautious. She said, ‘I was embarrassed by the last movie that I did, and I don’t want that to happen again.’ By this time she’s a huge worldwide star and busy on tour. But we all thought she was perfect, that she was Sandy. So, she said, ‘All right, well, in that case, I’d like a screen test.’ That is the first and only time I’ve ever heard of an actor or actress asking for a screen test.”
There have been different the reason why Newton-John was hesitant about saying sure to Sandy.
“Olivia didn’t consider herself an actress and was wary of acting in general and taking on a leading role in a high-profile film opposite, in her view, a ‘much’ younger man,” Thurm wrote.
“She was 28 and Travolta, 23. She really should have had no worries about that. Forty years later in her Sandy costume, she looked remarkably the same up until her passing.”
Immediately, Thurm and his crew ready for Newton-John’s display take a look at in hopes of lastly profitable her over. The scene they selected for her was on the drive-in the place Danny (Travolta) makes a transfer on her, and she or he rebuffs his advances. What was speculated to be a comical scene was met with silence.
“The first take, there was no laughing from the crew,” Thurm recalled. “And this wasn’t a little screen test. This is a full movie crew on a sound stage. No laughter. Second take, no laughter. Third take, no laughter. At this point, I’m getting really worried. I’m thinking, ‘Oh God, if she thinks it’s her fault that nobody’s laughing, what’s going to happen?’”
“I immediately pulled out from my back pocket a copy of the original Grease musical that was running in New York,” Thurm continued. “I went to the same scene and read it. I said, ‘Here’s why it’s not working.’ The movie dialogue was all changed. So I gave the play dialogue instead to John and Olivia. They looked it over, and in the next take, the crew was roaring with laughter. The second take, same thing. So we knew we were home. The tapes were sent to Olivia and John. But by the time we were looking at it in a screening room, Paramount executives already saw it and were thrilled. Olivia was perfect for the role, as we all already knew. And thankfully, Olivia liked it too because we had no backup for the role. She was it.”
There was one one who wasn’t leaping for pleasure over the dialogue change – producer Allan Carr.
“Allan asked me if I was responsible for the dialogue switch,” stated Thurm. “Like a little kid, I said, ‘Yeah! And wasn’t it great?’ He just glared at me and walked away. And from that moment on, I was on his s**t list because I changed his dialogue. But the truth is, he screwed up with that dialogue. It wasn’t right for John and Olivia. It just wasn’t as good or funny as the stage version. That, plus a little improvisation from the actors is what you see in the movie. There’s virtually none of the original movie dialogue in the actual movie.”
“As for Olivia, when I think of her, I think of how smart she was,” Thurm shared. “She didn’t just take the role. She wanted to prove herself. That’s how she maintained her position as a worldwide pop star for so many years.”
The Hopelessly Devoted to You songstress later recalled how she didn’t instantly say sure to the function of a pleasant lady who toughens up within the remaining act and will get her man.
“I worried that at 29 I was too old to play a high school girl,” Newton-John advised The Telegraph in 2017.
“Everything about making the film was fun, but if I had to pick a favourite moment, it was the transformation from what I call Sandy 1 to Sandy 2. I got to play a different character and wear different clothes, and when I put on that tight black outfit to sing ‘You’re the One That I Want,’ I got a very different reaction from the guys on the set.”
Thurm stated the star by no means misplaced her sparkle as Sandy.
“In 2019, just before Covid, they showed the movie in Florida and afterwards, John and Olivia came out in costume,” he stated. “The time we spent together was absolutely wonderful. She was incredibly kind to everybody. She made sure that at every event, she would connect with those in the audience who had questions about cancer or might be going through the same thing.”
“And I think that was part of why she lived so long with this disease,” he shared. “I think it really helped her to talk about it. It helped her when she knew she was helping others … Her spirit was always up. She was just an incredibly special human being. I miss her.”
The entertainer handed away in August 2022 at age 73 following a prolonged battle with breast most cancers.
This article initially appeared in Fox News and was reproduced with permission.
Source: www.news.com.au
