Patrick Stoner: Do you still live in Australia?Olivia Newton-John: I go back to Australia all the time, and I consider it home also -- two homes, really. I need to go back there and listen to the birds and breathe the air.
Stoner: Ah, you BREATHE there? That must be nice.
Newton-John: [laughs] Yes -- better than here in L.A., right? I need the oxygen.
Stoner: As I was watching GREASE, it seemed to me that these characters seem to tap into a fantasy about the high school we all wanted but never had.
Newton-John: True.
Stoner: Please tell me that you weren't as happy in your real high school.
Newton-John: You're quite right. I went to school in Australia, and it was very much the uniform, skirts below the knees, socks and shoes, gloves and hats, separate entrances for boys and girls -- separate stairs even. It was very different from the high school of GREASE. So, I really enjoyed making the movie because it was the fantasy I never had.
Stoner: Well, speaking of fantasizing, I heard that you helped choose that famous leather-looking, skintight costume that she wears at the end of the movie.
Newton-John: We all sat around and played with costumes, and I tried things on, and I found this very elastic material -- sort of spandex -- in the wardrobe department. The trousers were real -- already made. In fact, I still have them. I felt the material the other day, and the elasticity has almost completely gone out of them. It's much thicker than the Spandex they have now.
Stoner: A lot of the elasticity has gone out of me since then as well.
Newton-John: [laughs] Oh, yes, yes, me too.
Stoner: OK, the question you have to hear: You worked with the young John Travolta when he was very hot; then he went into a decade-long downturn in his career, and now he's back on top. Did you sense then that he had it in him to do all of that?
Newton-John: Well, yeah. Oh, yes, honestly. He was always a wonderful actor. When you make a movie, you always believe it's going to be successful, but so much is in the hands of the director and the script. So, for him, it was just a matter of time because he had it all. He's back where he should be.
Stoner: So are you. I can't figure out how I've aged in the past 20 years, and you haven't.
Newton-John: Oh, that is so nice. Thank you very much.
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