Quite often poor Randal had to tell all of us to just settle down because we were becoming too rowdy. But when the cameras stopped rolling, the party rocked on. Hormones were abundant even though most of us had left high school behind many years ago.
Jeff Conaway was the first one to greet me when I arrived on set, and he was very kind and sweet. As a wonderful side story, he met Rona when she came to visit me on the set, and they fell in love and were married.
Maybe I should have been the chaperone this time around!
(I planned a beautiful engagement party at my house to take place on the 4 July weekend. I had a dance floor put over my swimming pool and 150 people were invited. Two days before the party, they had a big fight because Jeff wanted her to sign a pre-nup. She didn’t believe in it although she would never have asked for a dime. So, they broke off the engagement. I had my assistant Dana call and say we were still having the party. A few people didn’t get the message and turned up with wedding gifts. It was a who’s who of guests. Six months later, they made up and we went to Vegas. They were married after we saw Frank Sinatra that night.)
Jeff believed in total authenticity when it came to his character. A few times he could be seen sucking the neck of accomplished stage actress Stockard Channing. Why? Well, they weren’t dating, but Jeff insisted that when Riz got ‘a hickey from Kenickie’ he had to give it to her himself.
No stunt hickeys for him!
I wasn’t very experienced in the acting world, but I had so much support from the cast. Didi in particular was so loving and she took me aside to go over our lines together before shooting. It felt as natural as Sandy’s relationship with Frenchy. Life imitating art.
‘Just be yourself, Liv,’ she told me, and it was good advice. Soon I felt I was Sandy – she felt real to me.
John was equally protective of me, and he proved it during the big bonfire scene where Rizzo pulls Sandy through the crowd and then shoves her into Danny Zuko’s face. Remember, Danny’s absolutely shocked to see Sandy because she’s supposed to be back at school in Australia. At first, Danny lovingly yells, ‘Sandy!’ One glance at his ‘boys’, however, and he gets embarrassed and begins to act cool in front of the T-Birds. Sandy is devastated when her summer crush is nothing more than a jerk.
I did the first take, only to have John walk right in front of the camera during my close-up.
‘Sorry, I messed up,’ John apologised to Randal.
Gently, John took me by the arm to one side of the parking lot. ‘Liv, I did that on purpose because I don’t want them to use that take,’ he whispered. ‘I know you can do better.’
I had great love and support from him – and the feeling was mutual. I would be forever grateful for his concern.
Now, let’s set the record straight. Did I ever date John Travolta?
On the set of Grease, John would tell me, ‘Liv, it’s every guy’s dream to have you as their girlfriend.’
‘I don’t know about every guy,’ I teased.
Yes, we really liked each other and there was an attraction, but we would never date because we were both involved with other people at the time and both of us have a loyalty streak that runs deep. Later, our busy lives meant we went our separate ways. The truth is it never went beyond friendship with John despite the fact that the fans wanted (badly) for us to become a couple in real life.
I asked John Travolta about it the other day and this is what he remembered:
‘At the time, we were both involved with other people and we were respectful towards the people we were with, so . . . that was that,’ he said.
‘Never the twain met in that way,’ he said with a smile. Then he reminded me, ‘It almost happened between us a few other times, but it didn’t. Sometimes life just offers you the wrong timing. We had to leave it as dear friends.’
In the end, we left the making out to Sandy and Danny, but the deep feeling of sisterly love I have for John continues to this day.
And since we’re on the topic, let me just say it wasn’t tough having to kiss John Travolta – professionally speaking. In fact, it wasn’t tough at all, although having to do it in front of the crew was a new thing for me. Most of us don’t kiss someone in front of thirty people! When it came to our lip locks, there was the lighting guy on one side and a microphone in my face on the other. I was trying to keep the right angle and stay in character. It wasn’t particularly romantic.
On screen, however, it was the type of chemistry that you can’t fake. You either have it or you don’t.
We had it – thank goodness.
Every day on the Grease set, Alan would tell us, ‘I’ve seen the dailies and they’re amazing.’ You never know if a producer is just being a cheerleader. I had the hardest time watching the rushes of what we filmed that day – I have always hated to watch myself and still find it nearly impossible.
Now, I can actually watch the movie, but back then . . . Forget it!
I guess when you’re young, you’re so insecure about every imperfection. Now I look back and think, ‘You were perfect! Look at that skin tone. Look at that baby face!’ But on the Grease set, Sandy Olsen herself was her own worst critic. Luckily, there was no time to dwell on it because we were working twelve-hour days.
On the weekends, all thoughts of rushes and dailies were put away. Alan threw massive cast parties as his gorgeous house in Beverly Hills to celebrate and keep the energy levels up.
Here are a few Sandy particulars, starting with her all-American pure looks. I had a great team including the legendary Albert Wolsky who created the costume design for Grease and then countless other films, including All That Jazz and Bugsy. During the early fittings, I must have tried on hundreds of poodle skirts and spun around so many times I should still be dizzy. Famed hairdresser Arthur Johns, my personal stylist at the time, did the famous Sandy fifties flipped ’do and the curly look at the end. Yes, that was all my own hair. My make-up artist Connie Ortega was equally as wonderful and would give me honey masks in the morning before putting my make-up on to create that pure, good-girl, dewy look. I was grateful to my mother that I did look very young for my age – a Sandy bonus. (I look at my daughter at age thirty-two now and she’s absolutely perfect. What was I worried about in those days?)
It wasn’t enough for Sandy to just look the part, though. I had to learn to really move. I’d been promised that I wouldn’t have to join any of the dancing scenes, but one day on set, I could see Pat Birch watching me intently as I was having some fun and dancing around. Later, she remarked, ‘Olivia, you can actually move. You’re a natural.’
All of a sudden, I found myself in a choreography class.
The original plan was that Sandy would not dance with Danny during the American Bandstand dance-off scene. Plans were rapidly changing and soon I would be hand jiving like the rest. Before we did one twist on camera, there were three weeks of dance rehearsals with Pat at the helm. Each day, she had us warm up, stretch and then memorise the choreography. It was really playful, plus great exercise. And the fact that my dance partner was John had me over the moon.
He recalls, ‘I loved dancing with Olivia. It was really beyond your average dancing. It wasn’t novelty dancing for the movie, but somewhere between novelty and Broadway choreography. I told Olivia, “With a little encouragement, you can do it. You can go the distance.” And to Pat I said, “Why not try Olivia for the dance scenes? The fans will love it.”
‘I was thrilled to find that Olivia is an amazing dancer,’ John says. ‘She tried it and it was perfect. What happened is on film forever. It’s part of movie history.’
It wasn’t long before it was time to shoot the ‘Hand Jive’ – this wasn’t just a big night shoot, but an entire week of filming in a different high school gym located in downtown Los Angeles. The popular American rock and roll group Sha Na Na took the stage each day and that infectious music blasted from the speakers. There hadn’t been a big musical scene like this one done for a long time, and you could
feel the excitement in the air – and unfortunately you could smell the sweat. It was stifling hot in that gym as well, and we couldn’t run the air conditioning because it would interfere with the sound recordings.
Each night for that week, we would hand jive for hours, and it was electric. John threw me into the air – we practised it about a million times – and then tossed me between his legs. I can still feel it now – his hands on my waist and the rush of air sweeping through my hair and over the ripples of that spaghetti-strap white chiffon dress. In that moment, well as I would find out, everybody wanted to be that girl.
Once we had that scene in the can, it was off to shoot the drive-in scene, which was filmed at the real Burbank Pickwick Drive-In, an old-fashioned make-out spot for movie lovers where sadly a shopping centre now stands. I’ll never forget John reaching over to grab me in the car. Of course, I was nervous, but that worked because Sandy wasn’t exactly calm given that she was trapped in a car in Make Out Central. All I could do was imagine what it was like to be seventeen again with my first boyfriend!
By the way, all the sexual innuendo in Grease was what made it fun for adults while it sailed over the heads of the kids. I loved the part where Danny Zuko is left all alone at the drive-in. He sings a sad song and watches the screen where the hot dog jumps into the bun.
I would never be able to look at hot dogs – or buns – in quite the same way again!
Grease is a musical filled with wonderful songs, but halfway through shooting Randal thought that we needed a few fresh tunes that would help define the movie experience. I brought in my old mate John Farrar, who quickly wrote ‘You’re the One That I Want’. I remember John coming to the set really early in the morning and telling me he had been up all night working on something new. He played me the song just once, singing all of the parts, and in that moment, I knew it was a hit.
John Farrar recalls, ‘Randal wasn’t particularly enamoured with “You’re the One That I Want” at first. Olivia really liked it and so did the cast. But the director was shaking his head.’
Randal quickly changed his mind, though, which was fortunate. The song went on to become one of the bestselling singles of all time, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide. How did John come up with the joyous, infectious ‘Oooo oooo ooo’ part? ‘I needed something between some of the lines and added “Ooooo oooo oooo”. It just fit,’ he said.
John would also write another major number for Grease: ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’. After the movie wrapped, we needed one more song, so John wrote it and then Randal and I went back to the set with a skeleton crew to record Sandy’s moment of heartbreak as she stares into that blue plastic kiddie pool.
‘Hopelessly’ ended up climbing both the country and pop music charts, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 List. It even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. I was honoured to sing it at the Academy Awards – despite the fact I’d eaten some bad clam chowder a few weeks before at a very fancy restaurant in England and had a raging fever of 102 degrees. I was feeling terrible, but I was determined not to miss that amazing experience.
In fact, I had hepatitis, the infectious one you get from bad seafood, and since this was the Oscars I had to kiss a lot of people. Then I had to call them later on and tell them to get tested! Even my doctor said, ‘Dearie, why did you have to kiss so many people?’
Alas, we lost to ‘Last Dance’, but that was fine. I love Donna Summer.
Meanwhile, Louis St. Louis and Screamin’ Scott Simon gave us another song named ‘Sandy’. Who could forget when John crooned, ‘Sandy, my darlin, you hurt me real bad’? Louis wrote that song in about fifteen minutes. It didn’t hurt that his first girlfriend’s name really was Sandy.
In this business, it doesn’t happen all the time, but when magic is in the air you can feel it.
‘Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee’, written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, was in the original stage play and a highlight of the second act. We filmed that scene at a private residence in East Hollywood with all the Pink Ladies present to make fun of poor, unsuspecting Sandy who just wants to find a few friends.
I hadn’t done too many girly sleepovers when I was young and wanted to really experience what it felt like to have a group of girls gang up on me. There I stood in my virginal long white nightgown (buttoned oh-so-far up) and said in my I-can’t-believe-it, crushed voice, ‘You making fun of me, Riz?’
I felt devastated for Sandy, especially when that bullying Riz just brushed it off and replied, ‘Some people are just so touchy.’ Just looking at wonderful Stockard, the ringleader of my angst, with her smirk and Sandy wig, I felt deeply uncomfortable in real life. I was so in character that it was really affecting me and I wanted to burst into tears.
It turns out, so did someone else! ‘I felt so protective of Olivia and Sandy that it was tough for me to be mean to her during this number,’ remembers Didi Conn. ‘It was my job to be mean to her! But I just hated that she was being bullied.’ As for Frenchy’s big ear-piercing moment, audiences saw her take Sandy’s virgin pin to do the job. ‘I couldn’t use a real pin on her ears, but I did tweak her hard enough with my nail that it gave Olivia a real startle for the cameras,’ Didi said.
After we shot the sleepover, it was time for the big finale. Little did we know that a pair of sleek, skin-tight black pants would set off a worldwide tremor that would last for – oh, about four decades.
You could call this a tale of two Sandys. You see, I never thought of my role in Grease as only playing one character. Even back when I did the screen test, I knew that I was reading Sandy #1 – as I liked to call her. After weeks of filming, she came easily to me because most of us have #1 in us. But we also have a bit of Sandy #2! Number two smoked, wore black leather and high heels, and wrapped her legs around a boy as he danced her through the grounds of the high school. Sandy #2 was deliciously wild and there was a great build-up of excitement inside me to finally bring her to life.
The first step was the costume department. It was decided that #2 would have to ditch the poodle skirts and prim high collars and wear all black, leaving nothing to the imagination. Albert Wolsky didn’t disappoint. He found these body-hugging, high-waist, skin-tight, black sharkskin pants (even better than leather!) that were actually from the 1950s. They were so old, and there was just one pair, so there was no room for error. One rip and – disaster.
When I tried on those pants for the first time, the zipper was broken and Albert didn’t want to rip them trying to put in a new one or remove the old one. Instead, I’d be sewn into them each morning!
My first thought after hearing this complex fashion fix: What if I need to pee? What am I going to do?
One of the most memorable moments of my entire career was the first time I stepped out of the wardrobe trailer in full Sandy #2 mode to show Randal. When I say we went full out, it’s an understatement. I had the sexy, curly hair (thank you, Arthur Johns), thick black eyeliner and mascara galore. My lips were slathered in bad-girl red lipstick, my top was squeezed tight, and my legs and bee-hind were poured into those pants! Tell me about it, stud, indeed! The final touch was red peep-toe sky-high heels from my own closet. Yes, I suggested the shoes, knowing I could move in them because I wore them in my real life. Don’t ask me how I used to wear these shoes, but I did!
Unfortunately, I gave them away for a charity auction a few years after the movie, never knowing how special they would become – or how much money they would have brought in for my hospital!
On that night when Sandy #2 was debuted, there were gasps, catcalls and a lot of whistling.
My first thought after that reaction: What have I been doing wrong all these months? All these years!
John was actually filming the song ‘Sandy’ during the moment I left my trailer and strutted my way across set. There he was sitting on that swing set and feigning a broken heart, when I slunk past. I remember he stopped singing, mid-note, as his head jerked up and his eyes popped.
‘Tell me more! Tell me more!’ he stood up and shouted. We laughed so hard because it was exactly the reaction I wanted.
John Travolta remembers, ‘I couldn’t believe it. It was just so right to see her with that Marilyn Monroe hairdo, holding the cigarette, and in those sky-high heels. It was just too good to believe. It was so perfect. And I knew the audience would have the exact same reaction that I was having – a heart palpitation.’
It felt empowering as pure adrenalin and the idea of claiming my own sexiness rushed through my body. It wasn’t anti-feminist – it was my choice in that moment. All the men on the crew began to do double and triple takes as they turned around to stare at me with jaws that headed south. I think a sandwich or two hit the floor.
I heard a grip whisper, ‘Who’s the new broad? She certainly puts the sizzle in Grease.’
‘It’s just me,’ I said, and smiled.
That night wasn’t about acting. It was about acting out. Later, I would hear that all the girls on the set immediately wanted that outfit, and all their guys were willing to buy it for them – immediately! If only I had thought to make copies of those pants and sell them, I could have made a fortune.
In that moment, I memorised the feeling. I knew exactly what jolt Sandy would experience and the emotions that would race through her when she stepped out of the crowd as this new version of herself.
This was a lightbulb moment for me personally, too, because I was more of a hippie-bohemian type when it came to my personal dressing style, and this was va-va-va-boom! Later, people would say it was a terrible message to give young girls, as in we were telling them to sex it up to get their man. But it was about choice. Wear those pants, or a dress down to the floor. Empowerment comes from calling your own shots and being who you want to be.
Don't Stop Believin' Page 9
