Olivia NewtonJohn and John Travolta in Grease. Photo / Supplied
Olivia NewtonJohn and John Travolta in Grease. Photo / Supplied
Turns out Olivia Newton-John very nearly didn’t play what would become one of her most iconic roles - Sandy in Grease.
Casting director Joel Thurm told Fox News that John Travolta “wanted Olivia for the role of Sandy ... 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 has opened up about bringing the beloved musical to life in a new memoir, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director.
John Travolta went on to play Danny Zuko and the rest, as they say, is history. Photo / Supplied
In the book, Thurm claims Newton-John was “embarrassed” and “humiliated” over how she appeared in a sci-fi movie called Toomorrow, made years before.
“She also liked the role of Sandy, but he 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.”
He added, “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.
“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.”
Thurm and his team prepared for her screen test, hoping to win her over with the drive-in scene. But what was supposed to be a funny moment was met with silence.
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“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,” he wrote.
“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.”
Producer Allan Carr wasn’t exactly overjoyed over the dialogue change, he added, but Thurm blamed him for “screwing up” the dialogue.
“I 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.”
Thurm applauded Newton-John’s determination to “prove herself”, saying, “that’s how she maintained her position as a worldwide pop star for so many years.”
She later recalled worrying she was “too old” to play a high schooler.
“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,” she told The Telegraph in 2017.
“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.”
In his book, Thurm paid tribute to the star, recalling the moment Newton-John and Travolta appeared in costume after a showing of the film in Florida in 2019.
“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.”
Newton-John died in August 2022 at 73 after a long battle with breast cancer.
