Olivia Newton-John recalls her co-superstardom with John Travolta, 1979
Initially I was anxious about doing ‘Grease’. My music career was doing well at the time I’d had a couple of hit records and won a few awards - and the last movie I’d made, the sci-fi musical Toomorrow, had been a disaster.
Then, in 1977, I met Allan Carr, the producer of Grease, at a dinner party at Helen Reddy’s house in LA She was the first Aussie singer to make it in America, and was very kind to me. She and her manager-husband Jeff Wald used to invite me round quite a lot after I moved from London to LA in 1974.
I’d lived in London for about 12 years. I was a regular guest star on Cliff Richard’s TV show and in 1974 I had sung for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. I came fourth (Abba won with Waterloo that year). After that I knew it was a good time for me to go for a hit in the US.
I still remember my first night in LA. My sister and I checked into the Sunset Marquee, a funky hotel off Sunset Strip where rock’n’roll people used to stay. During the night we heard gunshots, then saw flashing lights outside, and I remember thinking, what are we doing here? But I still moved there, and rented a house down by the ocean.
I never knew if Allan Carr set up that dinner at Helen’s just to meet me. He thought I was perfect for the role of Sandy, but I was unsure. I’d seen the stage show in London, with Richard Gere playing Danny, and I remember liking the fact that there were two Sandys: the innocent Sandy and the raunchy version.
But I was worried about playing a teenager: I was 28 at the time. I told Allan I wanted to do a screen test first.
That was the first time I met John Travolta. When I saw our screen test together - the drive-in scene - I knew it would work. I was a bit nervous about acting, but John was encouraging. Once, when I was doing my close-up for a scene, he shouted “Stop” and started waving his hands around in the shot. I said, “What’s up?” and he whispered in my ear, “I think you can do better than that”. He’d messed it up so we could shoot it again, which was really sweet.
The huge success of Grease was something I could never have imagined. At the LA premiere, John and I arrived in an open car, and fans started climbing all over it they were almost in the car with us. It was really scary.
John and I went around the world together promoting the film. Wherever we went, we got the same reaction. Even now people ask me, Where’s Danny? and they ask him the same, Where’s Sandy?
John and I have stayed great friends ever since. After Grease, we wanted to work together again, and in 1983 we made the film Two of a Kind. It was a flop, though the soundtrack did well.
There’s been talk recently of a Grease reunion film, but I don’t think it will happen. It’s hard to rekindle something so iconic.
Olivia Newton-John’s album ‘Indigo: Women of Song’ is out now