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The casting director behindGreasesays the movie was “better for” its use of adult actors playing high schoolers.
“People might say the cast is too old, butGreaseis not a documentary; it’s a fantasy,” Thurm said in the oral history, which covers how the original Chicago-based stage musical was adapted for the big screen.
“It is a non-PC fairytale that is better for the cast not being teens,” Thurm added. “The only thing that was important was that the cast all looked about the same age as each other, which they did.”
John Travolta, who starred as Danny Zuko inGrease, famously stood out as younger than much of the rest ofGrease’s principal cast during filming in summer 1977 at age 23. In the outlet’s new oral history, actor Michael Tucci, who played Sonny LaTierri, said he originally believed he was “too old for the role” as he had entered his 30s before production on the film had started.
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The lateOlivia Newton-John, who costarred as Sandy, was 29 at the timeGreasewas filmed;Stockard Channing, who played Rizzo, was the principal cast’s oldest member at 33 during filming, according to a 2016Vanity Fairarticle about the production.
InThe Guardian’s oral history, casting director Thurm added that “there wasn’t a question in my mind” thatGreasewould prove popular after its release in 1978.
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Olivia Newton-John and Didi Conn inGrease(1978).Paramount/Rso/Kobal/Shutterstock
“John was already pre-set, and John asked me, ‘What do you think of Olivia?’ I said, ‘She’s wonderful.’ He said, ‘What do you think of her for Sandy? That’s a great idea.’ And once John said that, and that’s who John wanted, I stopped anything else,” he said at the time, later explaining that Newton-John “didn’t jump at the offer.”
“She said, ‘Okay, I want to see a screen test with John and myself and then I’ll let you know if I want to do it,’ " he recalled.
Thurm confessed this was a first for him, telling PEOPLE: “I think I’ve never heard of a case where an actor being offered a role said, ‘I want to see me before I say yes.’ But that’s how smart she was.“Block Article
source: people.com
