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How's this for a Hollywood
fairy tale? Make your big-screen directorial debut
with a little movie called Grease, rake in a zillion
dollars, then spend the next twenty years making even
more hit movies and earning critical accolades. Sounds
easy, eh? Just in time for the long-awaited DVD debut
of what is still the most financially successful movie
musical of all time, we got the chance for a quick chat
with Randall Kleiser on how he made it all look so simple.
Interview by Peter M. Bracke
Here we are over 20 years later still talking about
Grease. Did you have any inkling at all at the time that
the film would have such influence and longevity?
When we made "Grease" we thought it would be
a little teen movie that would be popular with young people
for a summer. We had no idea that it would become so popular
in so many countries for such a large demographic.
The casting of both John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
was crucial to the film's success. Why did you choose
to cast them?
John was already set, as was part of a three-picture
deal with Robert Stigwood. Olivia Newton-John was our
first choice to play Sandy, but she was nervous about
acting, whether she would feel comfortable with us and
could pull it off at all. She requested a screen test
to see how it would all work. Afterwards, she would decide
if she would do the movie.
It was very unusual, because normally the producer requests
the test to determine whether they want to hire someone
or not. Olivia was concerned about playing a seventeen
year old. I told her it was a bigger than life musical,
that all the actors were going to be about the same age,
late twenties into thirties. It would be a style; a kind
of surreal high school.
The day of Olivia's test, John Travolta was made aware
of her fears and helped her feel as relaxed as possible.
He took her under his wing and joked around with her.
We used the drive-in scene for the test. Olivia came across
naturally and was able to handle the comedy beats. She
looked great. When she saw the test, she agreed to do
the picture.
All of the musical numbers in the film obviously had
to be meticulously staged, yet feel almost improvised.
What influences in your directorial style did you draw
from when designing the film?
My background was basically being an extra in movie musicals
and watching how they were staged. and I worked on "Camelot",
"Hello, Dolly", "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
and several Elvis Presley musicals. Pat Birch choreographed
the original Broadway play and we were lucky enough to
have her on the film. She is responsible for the loose
improvisational style, although we did rehearse for five
weeks.
A number of songs that appear in the movie ("Hopelessly
Devoted to You," etc.) were not in the stage musical,
but written expressly for the film after Olivia Newton-John
signed on. What was the impetus in creating these new
songs?
Both John and Olivia had it in their contracts that they
would have a solo song. The ones in the play were not
hit material. At the Drive-In, when Olivia's character
leaves Travolta alone, there was a song in the play called
"Alone at a Drive-In Movie". None of us felt
this would work effectively in the screen version and
our musical director, Louis St. Louis, wrote the song
"Sandy" to replace it.
Now. the challenge was how to stage it so it was interesting,
as we didn't want him to just sit in his car and sing.
When I was in high school I used to go to the Main Line
Drive-In (which is now a housing development). Just below
the screen there was a small playground for kids to amuse
themselves at dusk waiting for the movie to start. I loved
the idea of Travolta sitting on the kid's swing, pining
away for his girlfriend. The popcorn trailers that ran
between drive-in features encouraged viewers to visit
the refreshment stand with animated countdowns of when
the next movie would start.
We sent away to a Chicago distributor for about twenty
vintage 50's popcorn trailers, but they didn't arrive
until the night we were shooting at Burbank's Pickwick
Drive-in (now a shopping mall). Bill Hansard, the industry's
top process projectionist, ran the trailers one by one
on the drive-in screen as the crew sat around waiting.
My eye was caught by one that had a hot dog jumping into
a bun at the end. I asked Bill if he could synch that
action up to the end of the song. The end result looked
like it had been carefully planned instead of improvised
on the spot. Thinking back, I guess I should have played
more of the ending on Travolta; this was his solo. But,
I was so excited by the animated hot dog falling into
synch that I was swept along and didn't shoot a close-up.
One of my regrets...
As we went into production, there was no song for Olivia
and no idea where we would put it. It was not even on
the production schedule. John Farrar, who had written
for her in the past, came up with "Hopelessly Devoted
to You" about halfway through production. I had never
heard a demo before, and it was hard for me to imagine
the finished product listening to the author singing the
song with a guitar, (but) Olivia was convinced it would
work.
Time was running out and we had to figure out where to
put the song and how to integrate it into the story. We
came up with the idea of Sandy wandering around the backyard
singing about Danny after the slumber party. A set was
quickly built. It was one of the last things shot, almost
in one take.
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