Hopelessly Devoted
What would Grease have been - just another syllable instead of the word? without Olivia Newton-John’s good girl in bad girls’ clothing? and would aerobics have been anything to get excited about had we not had her hits Let’s Get Physical to sweat to?
Despite her contributions to 70s and 80s pop culture. Newton-John who collected four Grammys and numerous chart topping singles, was never a star whose persona screamed 2Pay attention to me!” Hers was a more understated celebrity - even when she wore those impossibly tight pants in the highest grossing musical of all time. Simply put the England born and Australia raised performer had class.
Decade later, nothing has changed (except perhaps the spandex) Newton-John who has had her fair share of troubles, surviving, among other things breast cancer, divorce (from Xanadu co star Matt Lattanzi) and the bankruptcy of her fashion enterprise Koala Blue, lives in a not surprising unpretentious Malibu home in California. And true to form she is more than happy to pass the acting torch on to her daughter Chloe Rose - or at least share it with her. In showtime’s Wilde Girls Newton-John’s Jasmine is a former teen singing sensation who is now a veterinarian living in Georgia. Her teenage daughter Izzy (played by rose in her first major role” knows nothing about her mom’s past career or fame. But Izzy has a voice of her own and when she has the opportunity to record in Hollywood Jasmine is less than eager to let her daughter go.
On this sunny October afternoon, Newton-John 53 and her only child 15 perch on a couch in their living room that faces a rose laden garden (the Pomeranian, Irish Setter and other family pets have been banished to another part of the house). Although the two don’t look much alike, they share the same easy smile and relaxed, if not downright languid demeanour. and they’re clearly close, often deferring to and leaning against each other. Which is not to say it’s always this blissfully calm chez Newton-John.
Question - Chloe, in the film your characters Jasmine and Izzy get into some big arguments. How true to life is that?
Chloe Rose: We do fight, ‘cause we’re mother and daughter and I’m a teenager and she’s, you know, not. We obviously have different opinions, but she’s always supported the idea of me pursuing my career, so the concepts of the fights [in the movie] are different. But we do fight a lot.
Q - The two of you do have good rapport on film.
Newton-John: Chloe was great to work with. There were a couple of times where I kept flubbing my lines. [During] a big scene for her…
Chloe Rose: …where I had to cry over and over and over…
Newton-John: …I kept messing up Actually it was good, because she was so frustrated with me that it added to the scene. She was very professional she never lost it with me.
Q - Chloe, your character isn’t as savvy or familiar with the entertainment industry as you are. Is there anything you two do have in common?
Chloe Rose: I think I want it as much as she does, to be a singer. She also knows who she is and she sticks to what she believes in. I’m stubborn like that. Q - Olivia what advice have you given Chloe about acting?
Newton-John: I’ve told her about the pitfalls and that there are no guarantees of success. Longevity is probably the most important thing we’ve talked about sustaining a career.
Q - What are your fears for her?
Newton-John: I don’t have any fears for her. I have confidence in her. I think she’ll do very well. If I didn’t believe she was talented, I’d be saying, “Darling, go and study nursing or [take] secretarial courses.”
Chloe Rose: I have fears.
Q - What are they?
Chloe Rose: The business can make you so unbelievably overwhelmed you never get the chance to be alone with yourself, and I think that would make me depressed. If I had to choose between my career and my spirituality, I’d choose my spirituality. I hope that’s not a conflict.
Newton-John: Honey, you can always find the time. We say we can’t, but we can if we really watch the time.
Chloe Rose: I’m just saying that I’ve seen diaries on young stars on MTV just this nonstop go, go, go, and I feel for them. I can see they probably want that time.
Newton-John: And I’ll watch that because I don’t want you to get overwhelmed. When I was Chloe’s age, well up into my 20s and 30s, I was always nervous [about] performing. Chloe’s got the same perfection thing that I have; she wants it to be just right. And it takes getting to my age to realize that nothing is ever [perfect].
Q - Let’s talk about the music in the film.
Newton-John: We sing a song at the end, “You Loved Me Into It.” Friends of mine had written us a song because I had called them months before, and at the last minute their publishers wouldn’t allow them to give it to us. We had two days before we were recording, and we didn’t have a song for the duet. It was too late to get anyone to do it, so I called the production company and said, “Please find me a guitar and send it over to the hotel,” and I wrote it in a night. When I first played it for Chloe, she said, “Mom, that sounds like something else.”
Chloe Rose: It sounded like that Whitney Houston song, “I Will Always Love You.”
Newton-John: I woke up the next morning and had a totally different song in my head. Thank God, I was so freaked.
Q - Is it difficult promoting a movie considering what’s going on in the world right now?
Newton-John: It’s hard to get into that space where you get made up and have your picture taken, but right now people probably would enjoy the movie because it’s family entertainment. [It all] feels strange. I was on tour [in Florida] on September 11; I couldn’t get home for two and a half weeks. I was going to fly from there to my next job in Ohio, and, of course, couldn’t, so the bus came and we drove a thousand miles. We were on the bus the whole time watching this thing unfold. I felt terribly isolated from Chloe because she was here in Malibu and I was on a bus in the middle of nowhere.
Q - How has it affected you, Chloe?
Chloe Rose: It’s made me think a lot about how lucky I am. Especially [when I see] these documentaries on the people in Afghanistan and the way the food is. When I go to the supermarket and I see the thousands of [kinds of] food… how much we consume and waste disgusts me. It really makes me want to do a lot more for the planet.
Q - What’s next for you both?
Newton-John: I’m writing a book about my life. [And] Koala Blue wine it’s happening next year.
Chloe Rose: I’m going to make an album in Australia. I’ve written a lot of songs, but it’s certainly not going to be out this year; it’s a long process.
Newton-John: [After] a fund-raiser for breast cancer, I’m actually taking six months off.
Q - To have some time to yourself?
Newton-John: Yeah, and to be with Chloe, who’s starting to work now I want to make her cups of tea.