According to IMDb trivia, Newton-John requested a screen test because she questioned whether she had the acting experience and the right look to play a high school student.
Why Olivia Newton-John Almost Turned Down Sandy
Newton-John was 28 when “Grease” went into production and turned 29 during filming, while Sandy was written as a teenager. That age difference made the singer uncomfortable with the idea of stepping into the role, particularly because she had relatively little acting experience at the time. Before “Grease,” her film work had been limited to two movies.
Source: IMDb
There was another problem to solve. Newton-John did not feel confident that she could convincingly perform an American accent, which created an additional obstacle for a character originally written as an American high school student. The production ultimately found a solution by making Sandy an Australian transfer student, allowing Newton-John to use her natural accent.
A screen test with John Travolta helped settle the question of whether the two performers could work together. Travolta, who was 23 at the time, was already attached to play Danny Zuko, and the test gave Newton-John an opportunity to see how the central pairing would work before she committed to the picture.
The decision paid off for both the flick and Newton-John. Released in 1978, “Grease” became the year’s highest-grossing film and turned its central romance into one of the defining movie musicals of its era. Its soundtrack was also a major success, with “You’re the One That I Want” and “Summer Nights” becoming major hits for Newton-John and Travolta.
Newton-John also negotiated changes to Sandy that made the character better suited to her. Her version of the character was given a more assertive personality, and her transformation into a leather-clad greaser became one of the hit’s most recognizable moments. “Grease” was later selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2020 for its cultural, historical or aesthetic significance.
