The fated pairing of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John wasn’t all the time a given when it got here to casting the roles originated on Broadway in 1972 by Barry Bostwick and Carole Demas.
Linda Ronstadt and Marie Osmond had been among the many names advised to play Sandy, Travolta recalled to Entertainment Tonight, “and I stated, ‘They’re fantastic, however each man on this planet needs Olivia Newton-John as their girlfriend.’ And I knew that ‘trigger I felt the identical manner…And I stated, ‘When you do not see this, you guys are nuts.'”
Carrie Fisher, Bye Bye Birdie star Ann-Margret and The Partridge Household‘s Susan Dey had been additionally on the listing of doable Sandys.
When producer Allan Carr raised the thought of Newton-John, she did not instantly say sure. (However when she did, Sandy was rewritten to be Australian.)
“I used to be very anxious about making one other movie, as a result of my music profession was going effectively,” the “Bodily” singer recalled to Vanity Fairin 2016, “and I didn’t need to mess it up by doing one other film that wasn’t good.”