Olivia wants to go to Drama school - Joepie

Translation from Dutch:

In Joepie's popularity poll, she was voted best actress, but Olivia Newton-John herself has been questioning her acting talent in recent weeks.

This came to light when Olivia had a candid conversation on Toni Tennille's weekly talk show about the success of Xanadu and her new film plans.

Even host Toni was surprised when Olivia, in front of millions of viewers, quite frankly admitted that she wasn't a fluent actor. I get film offers because Hollywood knows I'm a cash register winner. But no one has ever told me I'm a born actress. The directors must have been furious by now.

Does Olivia have the ambition to break through as a serious actress? It certainly seems that way.

Before I accept a new film role, I'd like to attend acting or film school. But my manager, Lee Kramer, thinks that's foolish of me. It's true that I don't need it to finally break through as an actress. I earn more money than I can ever spend. But that's not important to me any more. If I start something, I want to do it right. That's all.

Toni also asked Olivia if she wasn't too old for the roles they offer her. Film is a fairy tale. With half an hour's work, the makeup artist can make me twenty again, but also sixty. How old you feel inside is much more important. I sometimes struggled to portray Sandy in Grease. That backfired. After the film, the audience still saw me as an innocent teenager. After a few months, I couldn't stand that any more. I had to break that image, or I'd still be walking around with a ponytail and wool socks.

A favor to a friend

Olivia isn't always so spontaneous with her answers during interviews, but she clearly made an exception for Toni Tennille. Since Olivia often works in Hollywood, she and Toni have become the best of friends.

It's indeed very difficult to get Olivia for a TV interview, Toni said afterward, but it was a favor to a friend. Olivia asked me for her show Hollywood Nights a few months ago. I would have loved to accept the offer, but on the scheduled recording dates, I had to record a new LP, so that was impossible.

But Olivia didn't give up that easily and in the end I said yes. In return, she came on my talk show.

Olivia couldn't reveal much about new film plans. I go through a few scripts every day, but they're usually variations on Grease or Xanadu and I refuse to do that any more anyway, she says.

The reviews for Xanadu were generally bad. At first I was really angry about that, but in retrospect there was a lot of truth in it. The film was built around a number of good songs, the story was secondary and the audience immediately saw that. By the way, the soundtrack of Xanadu did much better than the film itself.

Two songs from it, the title song Xanadu and Magic are among the best-selling singles of the past year.

As a singer, Olivia is absolutely at the top. It remains to be seen whether she can also get the world under her wing as a serious actress.