Family Matters
IT'S no coincidence that. Olivia Newton-John has stayed away from acting in recent years.
Olivia has an aversion to screen sex and violence and claims there have been few opportunities to tackle projects with artistic merit.
If a project is unsuitable for her eight-year-old daughter. Chloe, to see, then Olivia's not interested.
Olivia, who has had to contend with cancer and a very public separation from her husband, Matt Lattanzi, happily discusses return to acting in the Nine Network series, Banjo Paterson's The Man From Snowy River.
Olivia, cast as the headstrong Joanna Walker, says: It's a family show, so everything is handled very responsibly. I don't want to be part of a show that isn't like that and I wouldn't want my daughter to see anything that had gratuitous nudity or sex in it.
I don't judge people who do get involved in those projects... it just comes down to my personal choice. By the same token, I won't be watching my work until the episodes have been and gone. I get nervous watching myself on screen because you see mistakes and there's nothing you can do to change them.
All acting is demanding. but the job was made easier by the fact that I had a lovely house to stay in while I was filming (near the Victorian town of Daylesford).
I did have a scary scene to do, which involved riding alongside a truck on a hill. Luckily, the horse I had was beautiful.
Joanna, Olivia's character in the series, was raised by her aunt after the disappearance of her father during early childhood.
She has started a search for her father and arrives in town because it was the last place he was seen.
Because I haven't done any acting for such a long time, this was a lovely way to get back into it.
says the star of the movies Grease and Xanadu.
Olivia, the host of Nine's Wild Life series, is considering other acting projects at home and in the U.S.
Clearly, her health is good. She cites the release of her album, Gala, as a major factor in her healing process.
Doing the album was not about feeling sorry for myself because I was sick, but about not giving in. It (being ill) wasn't a question of Why me? It became a question of Why not me?
she says.
Darren Devlan
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