Olivia jumps back from 50s to 40s in new movie Xanadu
By Bob Thomas, The Associated Press
HOLLYWOOD- Olivia Newton-John waited more than two years before attempting another film after the immense success of Grease. Two years once seemed an enormous gap in a movie career, but the industry has changed. Instead of being guided by the studios, stars now make their own career decisions, often with the aid of agents, managers and assorted hangers-on and relatives.
Newton-John appears to make her own decisions. She remains essentially feminine, yet there’s no mistaking the strong will of a singer who started performing as a teenager in Australia and then ascended through England’s music world.
“I had a number of offers for films after Grease - straight acting roles as well as musicals,” she recalls. “Time was going on, and I was tempted. But I never had the instinctive feeling that I had for Grease . I had a feeling Grease would be successful, though I never realized it would be such a big hit. I had seen the show seven years before in London, and I liked the idea that in the movie script the girl got to change in the end. I had also seen John Travolta on television, and had a feeling he would be a star this was before Saturday Night Fever had been released”.
“Why was Grease so successful? It was a period that many people remember fondly. Even those who weren’t around then found it to be a very romantic period”.
“It was a big hit in Australia, where they especially liked it because I played an Australian. People in Melbourne, my home town, were upset because I said in the movie that I was from Sydney. I tried to explain that more people in the world had heard of Sydney than Melbourne.”
Olivia said she had an “instinctive feeling” for her current film, Xanadu, which has been described as a contemporary fantasy with the feeling of a 1940s musical.
Recently, she was working with co-star Michael Beck in the garish old Los Angeles Theater in the heart of downtown. Or at least she was getting ready to work, as a hairdresser added a few touches.
“It’s a new style for me,” said the singer. “I play a muse in the picture, so we wanted a slightly period look. It’s not ‘now’ and not ‘yesterday, but somewhere in-between.”
Her songs for Xanadu were written by her producer, John Farrar, who also provided the Newton-John solos in Grease - “Hopelessly Devoted to You” (gold record) and “You’re the One That I Want” (platinum).