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.
That outfit would pull the shy Olivia Newton-John out of her comfort zone in other ways, and it even gave me the courage later on to release the song Physical. That last scene in Grease instantly changed my image. It wasn’t long before I would release an album with a cover shot by Helmut Newton, the famous German fashion photographer and close friend of my father.
On my album cover for Soul Kiss, I looked very sexy and sultry, with absolutely nothing on my back — a look Helmut created. I also held a riding crop. Me — really!
One thing was clear: Sandra Dee was no more!
The actual filming of You’re the One That I Want presented a few challenges. I couldn’t really eat or drink that day on the outdoor set located on the grounds of John Marshall High School in Los Angeles. I limited myself to a few sips of water and no food, and joked that I was getting dehydrated and #2 might pass out. At lunch, they actually had to unstitch me to eat and then re-stitch me after a bathroom trip. It was a painstaking process, but there was no other choice, and it was definitely worth it.
That exhilarating feeling was multiplying when the cameras rolled and we began singing that great song, which was so reminiscent of the fifties.
You better shape up
’Cause I need a man
And my heart is set on you!
It was a rocky number with a bit of yodelling that was really catchy, and it had a wonderful hook.
You’re the one that I want
Oo-oo-oo, honey
The one that I want
Oo-oo-oo
The one I need. Oh yes, indeed
Oh, that John Farrar. He’s so brilliant.
‘There is a look on my face as Danny sees Sandy for the first time dressed this way. It’s pure lustful shock,’ says John Travolta. ‘I wish I could say I planned that look, but it was so organic that day on the set. I just took one look at Olivia and it was written on my face. She was the one we all wanted!
‘In that moment, she was everything mixed into one,’ he adds. ‘She was every fifties sex symbol all at once. Pow! Yet she was an original who you had never seen before. The quintessential package. Was she Marilyn? Liz? Or Ava? She was all of these things we wanted to see, but even more.
‘I got this buzz just from looking at her,’ he says.
As for the dance, which culminated in me leaping up and wrapping my legs around John’s waist, he said, ‘We improvised with her wrapping her legs around me. Pat wanted to find steps that were natural to us and we did with this jump. I knew that we had to end the song with something big or that number would be anti-climactic. You always have to put a button on a big number. Lifting her in my arms and her wrapping her legs around me was a button to that song.
‘I said, “Why don’t I lift you up in one joyous swoop?”’
I was game for anything and raced towards him. Suddenly, I was in the air. John was strong and caught me as my legs wrapped around him. We were off, racing across the high school field for the last number, We Go Together.
You’re the One That I Want was released as a single in April 1978, before the film even opened. Within weeks, it would be number one on the pop charts. Every time I turned on a radio, there were songs from the movie playing.
One last thing about that moment: I wasn’t an expert smoker. Remember how I said I tried it as a girl and hated it, and then again to develop a sultry voice (couldn’t do it, choke, choke, choke). It was Pat Birch who told me to take just one puff and then purposely toss the cigarette onto the ground, putting it out with my stiletto as John comes towards me. I was awkward about it, actually no acting needed, which showed that the newly confident Sandy still had a bit of the good girl underneath.
Number #1 was lurking, which was why she didn’t know what to do with that cig. People say it is so sweet and charming to see both Sandys struggling to come together as one.
A little thing that translated into a big moment.
We wrapped Grease in the autumn of 1977 and had the long wait until 16 June 1978, which was our official release date. As I ushered in the New Year, I was invited to see what was called the ‘unsweetened’ first cut version of the movie. This meant I’d be watching it without all of the finished music or many of the special effects. These screenings are usually top secret and ours was conducted on a grey January day on the Paramount lot where it all began.
John Travolta was there along with Alan Carr, John Farrar and a bevy of Paramount executives who were nervously hoping (and praying) that this would be a big hit. I could see the worried look in their eyes as they silently wondered, Did we indeed reinvent the movie musical? Would Paramount be seen as risk takers or fools?
Again, all that made Grease wasn’t all there that day.
The animated opening sequence was still a work in progress, and Randal was still editing the Hopelessly Devoted to You scene. Despite these gaps, the general consensus was that Grease was ‘a fun movie’, but there was still a general anxiety about how audiences would respond to such a clean movie set in the 1950s. It was 1978 and the world was in a different place. Would those fifties ideals seem dated and silly?
We would have to wait a few months to find out.
An extract from Olivia Newton-John’s memoir Don’t Stop Believin’, published by Penguin.
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