November 13, 2025 • 42 mins
The iconic Frenchy from ‘Grease’ is on the pod!
Pink Ladies royalty, Didi Conn, joins Kevin with great ‘Grease’ stories, including how she got the part of Frenchy, the role she thought was better, and the Grease 2 that never was. Plus, a preview of the film’s 50th Anniversary celebration, the personal story that makes her emotional, and a special surprise guest!
For fun, exclusive content, and behind-the-scenes scoops, be sure to follow on Instagram @andthatswhatyoureallymissedpod & TikTok @thatswhatyoureallymissed!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to and that's what
you really missed today we have I've been so excited
about this. We have an icon, a living legend, someone
who has shaped the very core of who we are.
D d Con frenschie from Greece and Greece too, among
(00:29):
a plethora of other stage and TV and film project
She has just had the most incredible career and she
is the kindest. I had a chance to meet her
in person in her life a couple months ago, and
so I was very much.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Looking forward to this conversation to actually get into the
grease of it all, because I was too scared to
ask her when I first met her. So, without further ado,
this is the icon de Dcon. Okay, did he thank
you so much for doing this?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Of course? Of course, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh my goodness. So obviously I met you a couple
a few weeks ago, two months ago. Whenever it was
because you and my boyfriend Austin did a movie together,
that's right, that I am very excited about. And every
day he would come back and just tell me how
obsessed he was with you.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, Austin is not only gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
He's not so bad.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, but he's he's such a sensitive, I mean, beautiful
inside and out person. And I mean he's a revelation,
that guy. This is like, all of a sudden you think, wow,
what a wonderful actor, so handsome, and then he sings
and then he composes, and he's just he's fabulous, beautiful man.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That is very sweet of you to say. I I
you know, I'm biased, so I agree. So on this
podcast today it's just me. But Jenna and I have
been watching musical some of our favorite musicals because we
watched all of Glee. We finished that and we're like, well,
let's keep watching musicals. And we wanted to go start
with things that we were obsessed with growing up that
(02:22):
you know, informed us, that made us who we are,
and obviously Greece is one of those things. We had
very Pearl on a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Good, yeah, good, and.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Like, what a sweet sweet man. And his memory is crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh I know, well he goes back to what bye
by no not by b Yes, yes, yes, Oliver, he
was in Oliver.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It was Yes. His career is absolutely insane, and you know,
having not to compare Glee to Greece, I'm not trying
to do that, but having a small taste of being
a part of something that changed our lives, that meant
(03:09):
so much to us as well as other people. And
I know how fun it was for us inside of
just making it. Even if nobody watched it, we had
the best time making it. And when we met briefly
a couple weeks ago, you like very quickly alluded to that,
and it has stuck with me, and so I wanted
to just talk to you about, like, how did this
(03:31):
journey happen for you? Where did How did Grease find you?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
How did Grease? Well? I was in la I had
already I had made the film You Light Up My Life,
and then I was also on a series with Danny Thomas,
and then I did a movie called Almost Summer, and
my agent said, they want to see you for a
(03:59):
Greece do you know a show? And I had seen it,
but I don't really remember it, you know, And then
they said, but you have to come looking like the part. Oh,
And I said, well, what's the part? She said, Well,
she wants to be she wants to go to beauty school.
She wants to drop out. Oh okay, So ever since
(04:20):
I can remember, I wanted to be in show busy.
You know, I was a dancer when I was younger.
Then I remember going to dancing school every Saturday with
my friend Paula. And then when we were about fifteen,
she stopped going. So we had to go from Brooklyn
(04:41):
to Manhattan and we had to get off of Bloomingdale's
and she just shopping getting boyfriends. And I said, hmm,
maybe if I stop dancing, I'll get boyfriends too. Well.
I was always acting. I was always making up acting,
making up stories, know, doing all the plays in high
(05:02):
school and all that stuff. Anyway, I could relate to
Frenchie's career drive that she wanted to go to beauty school.
And as as luck would have it, I went to
Western Costumes, got a fifties outfit, you know Western Costumes.
Every floor they have a different period of clothing, a
(05:25):
you know, a little outfit. And now this is really
I don't know, maybe the stars were aligned. I'm driving
home and I'm thinking, you know, I better get my
hair done. It's like this is not French. Have a
big do. Some reason, I ever thought about getting a wig.
But on the way home, I had been in La
(05:47):
that point four or five years, went a different way,
and what do I see Frenchie's beauty parlor?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, So I went there and there was little friends,
she with a big hair. I didn't tell her because
I wanted to just talk to her about beauty school
and getting into the It was amazing, because.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Now that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And she told me all these stories about how she
always wanted to be a beautician and all her dolls. Look,
the hair is a cut, all all this guy and
and what school was much more about not only color
and cuts, but psychology and etiquette. I mean, who know
(06:36):
these things? Then the next thing was to pick up
my script, and I went to Paramount to get it.
And you drive up to Paramount and hard and he
hands you, you say your name, hands you an envelope. Well,
this envelope was so skinny, and I said, wait a minute.
(06:57):
I looked and there was one page and it said
men are rats worse than that, So what does this
have to do with anything? And then I saw that
he had fatter envelopes on his desk, and I said,
excuse me, And any chance that that there's a whole
script in one of those. He said, pull over, pull over,
So I went pulled over, came up, and sure enough
(07:19):
he had one whole script. I had to go under
his desk and read up to that because I want
to know what happened before, you know, Yeah, well I
found out. I found out Rizzo was a better part.
But that was just you're looking looking with Fred. But
(07:41):
but then I saw what happened, that she had befriended
Sandy and you know, and that that he had, you know,
disappointed her. And so then I went to the audition
and I walked in and they just, I don't know,
they say that they I opened my mouth and I
got the part. I remember them sitting there. There was
(08:05):
a little office and Alan Carr and the casting agent
Joel Thurm, and the choreographer Pat and Randall Claisa director,
and they said, well, what do you think of the script? Script?
And I just told them the story I just told
you was the better part. They said no, no, And
(08:25):
actually at that point they hadn't found a Rizzle. They
wanted Lucy Arnez, but her mom wanted her to not
to do a screen test. They wanted her to do
a screen test and really, yeah, so that was But
then it was a regular audition, babe. We had to
come in there with like two hundred people, you know,
(08:49):
and learn the stroll a dance, which I also was
screwing up like crazy. And Kelly Ward, who ended up
playing Putsy, he said I would take a break because
they would have. We were in a sound stage and
hours of b were on a bleachers and I don't know,
(09:11):
I just every time everybody's going this way, I'm going
this way. And I asked him. I kept getting it wrong,
and I thought, well, that's the end of that. And
then they did something I didn't like. Honestly, kept down
and said, oh, you can go, you can go, you
can go.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, I hate when that happens, but.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
In front of each other. You come next day or
you know, I didn't like. Yeah, But then we you know,
later on we came back and they got us into
groups of you know, there were several groups of pink
ladies and tea birds. And then when they got it
down to the final ones, we didn't know where the
final ones. We just kept improvising and playing with each
(09:54):
other and wow, we had to sing Happy Birthday, I think,
but you know it's fun about I screwed up when
we were shooting the dance sequence right and they lining
us up for the shot and the camera was on
the stage looking out at all of us, and Pat
(10:16):
comes up to me. He said, remember what you did
at the audition. Everybody was going this way and you
were going that way. Said, well, you saw that. She
said do that, Mary, and I did that. Everybody's going
this way and we're going She wanted it to look real,
we're real kids, and she was brilliant. She got the dancers.
(10:38):
All of them were phenomenal, and they looked like real people,
but they were phenomenal, and each pair had a whole
autobiography who they were, and their names are on with
their character names area on the film too. Yes, really
she's the best.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I mean you can feel all of that. I think
having gone through like a casting process like that, you're
sort of, for lack of a better phrase, like trauma
bonded because you're all going through this and saying thing
where people are getting cut in front of you, wow,
And it's horrifying, Yeah, because you just feel like bad
(11:21):
for yourself if you're the one getting cut. You feel
bad that the other people that are getting cut in
front of you. It's a very surreal experience. But to
make it out of that, Yeah, and then you know
them saying that they knew you were Frenchy as soon
as you walked in the room. It's such a skill
that I don't think people necessarily think about from the
other side of the table when you're casting about looking
(11:46):
for those individualistic qualities of people that aren't necessarily written
on the page, right, and being able to like put
people together that seemingly somehow like fill out this puzzle. Yeah,
and you all sort of get along. And you know,
speaking of pat you just mentioned the choreography in this.
(12:07):
When you're watching something and you can take for granted, yeah,
something like the choreography, because it feels so obviously everyone
is so skilled and you're seeing like incredibly that clean
choreography and blocking and staging. But it only happens with
someone who has the ability to do that to make
(12:28):
it fit on everybody's bodies.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah. Well she let everybody improvise and find their expression.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That's magical.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, she was really she's great, She's really Yeah, she's really,
really great.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
You said that Rizzo was the better part, something that
Jenna and I both felt when we watched this a
couple of weeks ago. Was obviously as a kid growing up,
everybody loves Frenchy, like Frenchie is the most universally liked character.
I feel like that. But watching it now as an adult, yeah,
(13:18):
I think french she's the lead of this movie.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Wow. I'm so I don't know. I mean, I feel
so blessed because, you know, we had the license to
bring things to it, you know, like I'm always I
was always. I always had a calm. I was always
fixing everybody all the time, things that weren't in the script.
(13:44):
I wanted everybody to be the best. And Olivia was
very nervous, you know, because she had made a movie
before and she didn't like the way it came. So
she did a screen test with John and there was
instant chemistry. So she was happy about that. But her
first scene was walking onto the campus of Rydell with me,
(14:06):
Oh my god, and she was like, you know, all
over and I looked at her and I said, oh, Sandy,
I can't believe it. I've got a friend from Australia,
Sidney Austra tell me about us, and she looked at
me like this is in the script on what's going on?
But she caught on and she started telling me that
(14:28):
in high school she had to wear gloves and the
girls when the boys were set and she got right
into it. Yeah, Randall said action, we were right in,
you know, just walking on and she always thanked me
for that, but it was just because that's what we do,
you know, we just play.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And that seems zero percent surprising watching this movie and
you saying that it's like that is frenchy. Oh, like
I think like the connection between like Frenchie has relationship
chips with all of the characters. Like Frenchie is liked
by everybody in the film except.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
From Saint Bernadette.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You'll like me, Yeah, nobody. That's different the people we
really care about, you know, but that makes so that's
so nice to hear because that makes so much sense
with your personality and the way, like Frenchie showed up
in every single scene.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
But you know what, everybody was older than the characters.
So we actually happened that once we were in makeup,
I was we didn't call each other there by our
real names. We were in character, and that gave us
the license to be you know, horny and goofy and silly.
Yeah whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I noticed you did that on the movie with Austin.
Is that something you have used like throughout your career.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I can't tell you how helpful that was on that film.
Actual nobody's because when we had so little time to
shoot and just coming onto a set where you're going
to be all day, all day and all night and
everybody calling me Joyce, it just kept me in Joyce. Yeah,
(16:22):
you know off oft times people that you know, I
love that movie or I love this set. I used
to watch Shining Timestation, or when guys come up to
me and say you were my first crush and that means,
you know, what will you do it to that? So
(16:42):
this way could just totally stay in a world that's
being created in that moment. Rehearsal, you know, really one
one rehearsal, one read through.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, so did that the you know calling you by
your character name? Was that the first time you had
done it on Greece?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yes, oh yes, I'm doing I'm doing a series now
with called Best Medicine. Yes, semi regular thing, and I
wish everybody just called. You know, but what can they do,
you know when it's as everybody has to do it
or work. But I was so happy that Alex told
(17:26):
everybody for I even came to call me Joyce and
it was it just helped me sync in to just
the name. Even it was right, you.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Know, especially when you don't have time. It's like an
expedited way of just living that as much as you can,
you know, going.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Back to Greece. Something people don't realize with that, unlike Glee,
which is so many of the cast members were in
the Broadway show or in one of the national companies
playing it eight hundreds of time, so they not only
knew them, but they were greasy, you know, they swear.
In fact, Jamie Donnelley, who played jan she had played
(18:09):
that and when we were doing the sleepover scene, they
had Loretta Young. We were watching TV and there was
a Loretta Young show and she's coming down the staircase
and it's like, what, we wouldn't be watching this, you know,
that's not our style, you know, yeah, Jamie, and Jamie said,
(18:30):
you know, I pretended to be Bucky Beaver at one point,
got a big laugh. During lunch that day, they found
that Bucky Beaver commercial and that went on there. So
that came from her doing that show and knowing where
the jokes were.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, that makes such a big difference. We've watched other
things too, like and I think that applies to everything,
like especially if you're lucky enough to have people who
have been in the show yeh, to know all of
that stuff, and then you have a musical is tried
and true that has been worked out on stage. You
know the music is good, like you know where it fits,
you know, the story is good.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You know where it is in your body.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yes, it's such a I think there's a really big
difference when you see musicals that have that coming into
it in musicals that don't have it, you can feel it.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And I think what, you know, it's what enhances the
you know, like Travalda never played Danny, but he played Duty.
He played you know, he knew the world and he
and he also Jeff Conaway was Danny and he saw
Jeff do it. I think he's so Richard Gear do it.
And of course you know he just took the original
(19:43):
guy who did it, very boss wick, you know, so
he just took the best of everybody, he'll see. Yeah,
and it just became his dan, which was so great
all of you.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I watched it with Austin, and Austin was like, it's
crazy how in every single frame of this movie, every
single actor is You can watch every like just one
actor in each scene and it's going to be so
good whether or not they have any lines or they're
the main focus, because everybody is so in it, in it.
(20:17):
The attention to detail, and then the sets themselves, every
single frame was so rich, Yeah, with material and with
the things of the time, the time period, and it's
like a visual feast to watch it where it's obviously
you know, like I know, for the songs and all
of your storylines and all of that, but when you
really step back and pick it apart, there's so much
(20:41):
depth to it.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah. Yeah, it's true. But that was also pat you know,
assigning these partners and each one came up with you,
I said, a whole relationship, and it's you see it
in their dancing, if they liked each other, they didn't like, yeah,
arguing with each other or they you know, it was
(21:03):
everything had you know, was waight to it. Yes, yeah, No,
it's true. It's true.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So after that first scene with Olivia, how was the
experience of the rest of filming, because how long did
it take to film the movie?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Six weeks?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
That feels very quick.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, two weeks rehearsal. You know, we did an interesting
thing right before principal photography began the day before in
a sound stage they did they set up bleachers and
picnic tables. For the opening number. They set up a
(21:45):
you know, a bedroom for my number set up I
mean beauty school and for Beauty School dropout they had steps. No,
actually we didn't do Beauty School drop because he didn't
come to that. But anyway, they up different big numbers,
especially Greece Lightning, and we performed it for for the
(22:08):
powers that be at Paramount and anybody else who was
around that day, performing it like you were on the stage,
and that really was great because we got that size
for us who had never done the show. We got
that in our you know, in our bodies. But you know,
Paramount they thought this is not going to do anything
(22:31):
because John was very it was a big star from Barberino,
but say Night Fever hadn't come out yet. He had
just made it. In fact, one day he said, you know, guys,
I did this movie and Brooklyn and would you like
to see it? You know, sure, So we went to
a screening room. He said, are you sure. You know,
(22:54):
I don't think it's gonna be much. He really had
no idea, and we saw that movie. Sho, this is
the most phenomenal theorem believing. And so when we got finished,
when we got to the scene of the carnival, everybody
wanted to do a sequel. You know. So when the
(23:14):
boys are throwing what are you pies and they miss,
he says, I'll see you in summer school. And that
was put in on the day to set equal and
we finished the film and their flowers would be a
param My said, no, this isn't going to do anything. No,
they pass. So of course, when My Fever came out
(23:35):
the film was such a success, then they wanted to
do it Grease too, but you know they were nobody
was available, and what I was available, I was I
was doing Benson then, so I was only available one week.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
But oh wow, yeah, I know. I'm was like, we
watched Greece too. I was like, I want a whole
movie about Frenchie. I need a whole Frenchy movie. And
I'm not just saying that because of talking to you.
It was watching it. It was like frenchyat is sort
of like the Eyes and Ears. I feel like of
the viewer through that movie so relatable and the like
(24:17):
your like kindness really comes through and all of that,
and it just it seemed like all of you were actually,
you know, sort of falling in love with each other.
It's like, it seemed like.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
It was a lot of real falling, a lot of
things going on, a lot of you know, those winnebagels
were rapping and rolling.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
A lot happens. You're young, you're filming a movie, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
These things things happened.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I can't believe Paramount didn't. I feel like that happens
all the time when they never know what they have,
what they have, and then it just ends up being
the biggest grossing musical of all time last.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Year, making all that money. They don't know what they have.
When the DVD came out, they did a big press
for this international press pick came to Paramount. We had
we were on for over like almost two hours just
doing press. You know, people coming into the thing, and
Sherry Lansing looked at me, and she said, what the
(25:21):
I don't have first time movies with this kind of attention.
They like, they didn't know. And I had at that
time an idea for a way to make some have
grease give back, that we would all do this film
twenty years later and take faith, you know, whatever the
budget was for salaries, we'd take favored nations and our
(25:45):
money to our favorite charities. Yeah, you know, and I
had made this whole pitch we had anyway, So I
went up to Paramount and it looked like what's going
to happen? They hired writers, and then the writers didn't
listen because you know, I wrote a book for a
tenth of twenty then called a Frenchy Squeeze scrap Book,
(26:09):
which was a fundraiser for my son's school. Yeah, and
everybody told me what I said, what do you think
your character would be doing twenty years later? And I
got the greatest stories and I gave them to the writers.
They didn't want to use that. I don't know why
they didn't, And they came up with you know what
they came up with, and they saw a million dollar writers.
(26:33):
So I didn't play the game and let them go
on it just went on and on and on. I
just told the truth and then John and Olivia were
too busy, and yeah, a part, but I thought, you know, anyway,
I just thought we could do something. And now in
three years it's our fiftieth and we're going to do
(26:53):
a big fundraiser. Olivia has a cancer and wellness center.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, Barry was telling us about that.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Millions four and my son is living in a community
that's amazing for mostly for people who have very fragile
illnesses and wheelchairs and you know, twenty four to seven care.
But there is an autistic community as part of Center
for Discovery. It's called and now they're building a for
(27:23):
the future. It's called a I get so emotional thinking
about it. It's TLC Transitional Living Community for the Yeah
it's thirty three, you know, so it's for the future.
For the fiftieth big fundraising. But I'm seeing like something
(27:47):
really great, like having sleepovers, you know, people sponsoring sleepover contests,
you know, all kinds of So I'm beginning to coordinate
with Olivia's with with the Livy Newton John Cancer Wellness
Center and send a Discovery. And I spoke to John
about it once his foundation, in his son's honor to
(28:11):
be a part of it. So his three years is
it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Very fast, and those things take a long time to coordinate.
But I think also the strength of you know, everything
that you guys created is that people will show up.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Yeah and fun. People love to dress up. They love
to do it. I mean, I hosted a Greece single
long in June eighteen thousand people and everybody dresses see
all this pink hairs and know the guys of the
slip back and everybody gets a prop bag and it's
and even John show it up.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We have a visitor, my baby, Hi, Henny. I've been
talking to Alex. He's very happy, he's.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I've talked to him a couple of times. I'm so
excited to see you. What we made about you?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yes, yes, you are the best, sweetie pie.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
So good to.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
See you you okay, oh yeah yeah now, but I
want to turn the tables and hear about you guys.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
And.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
You're much more interesting than us.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
No, no, no, no, it's just been around longer. That's
but I just had a great, it's really very deep
experience on the film. I did. After our film, I
did a film called Little Man. And if there ever
was a gift to me to do this film, because
it's about Mark. Wohlberg plays a dad truck driver who
(30:00):
has a brilliant autistic son eleven years old, who has
lots of tics, lots of you, I can't do this,
can't do that, he can't hear this. And the father
just loves him, but he can't relate to him, and
so he takes more and more truck driving jobs and whatnot.
(30:21):
And his wife is Vera Farmiga's gorgeous. But anyway, the
movie is about how this father and son bond and
it's so beautiful. And the grandma, Mark's mother, he called mommy,
helped me mommy. Oh my god, he's called me mommy. Anyway,
(30:44):
it was, it was it was such a you know,
being a mother of an autistic child, a young man,
now you know, you you want it's hard, very hard
to communicate what you feel. It's very hard to be
(31:05):
with that person because if they're all over the place,
you have to have a certain huge amount of patience.
And you know, and I know my husband loves Danny
and it's just so hard for him. He's an intellectual.
He's you know, things that he reads he can't share
with Danny.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Know.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Well, in this movie they find a way to bond
through sports, through basketball actually, and I have one good
scene with the grandson where I tell him that that
my father must have been autistic but we didn't know
(31:45):
what it was, but how much I loved him, and
it's just was so like, wow, I guess so lucky
to get that part. So that to me was was
great A lot of gifts. Yeah, yeah, I was so
wonderful too. So we'll see. I don't know if it's
going to be on Apple or it's just produced by Apple.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
That yeah, we're lucky to have you, because I feel
like I'm hoping people who listen to this interview too
can just like get your then they will like your
joy and your spirit and how like wonderful you are
to be around, and like how lucky that movie is
and that your guys movie is to be able to
have you.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
And well we'll see, Austin, you.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Have this superpower where you bring out the best in people.
I think that's your greatest gift.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Oh oh, thank you, Well that was that's say that
that comes from old French old French.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
No, that is that's like when we were watching it,
we're like, how did we not realize this as kids?
That like, Frenchie is the star of the best one.
She's the best one, She's the best of all.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Guys, I love you.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
On Smoke And I think that's like after hearing what
what makes even more true? I think is hearing your
stories of how you got that part and then how
you were in that part. Yeah, yeah, himself to that
and seeing that on screen and you all do that
in your own way, but now knowing you for a
(33:23):
little bit a fraction of how Austin knows you, this
makes even more sense.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
I was going to ask you if they if Hollywood
decided to do a remake of Greece, who would you
want to see reprise the role of Frendsheet.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Oh? Well, what's the name? Car Carly Ray? She did
she played?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Actually did She did a great job.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, she did a great job. She's so sweet. We
both cried when we saw each other. I was like,
that's my daughter, that's my little thought I never had.
I love her so much.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I know if you've ever seen it, but gleeded a
lot of Greece. Yea, one of my favorite humans in
the world. Did the whole beauty school dropout number, and
she was and her name is Vanessa Lenngi's and you
two looks so similar.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Oh my god, I was.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Freaking all of us out. And then again watching Greece again,
I was like, that's been.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Oh how can I see that?
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, it was the freakiest. It was like their faces
are the same, and her personality is so similar to yours.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Whow like both just like the warmest daughter out there.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Oh you absolutely, Like I think I would combust seeing
you two in the same room. There has to be
some like have you guys meet at some point?
Speaker 1 (34:49):
All right, Well that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
And I wish like, for our sake we got to
do even more Greece on the show because she was
Frenchy through like her character on the show was like
a mean version of Frenchie but eventually became Frenchie. But
I just have to I have to show it to you.
I'll send it to you after this so you can
see it.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But oh, I'd love to see it.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
One of the things that at one point I was thinking,
you know, when when all these these shows were coming out,
you know, like you know, what do you call them?
The reality shows?
Speaker 4 (35:28):
You know?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Oh? Yes, I thought to myself, well, the very first
makeover the show is Greece because she says, Frenchie, can
you help me? And we go and then she's transformed, right,
So I thought, well, how about that? How about how
Frenchie can you help me? And then the characters come
(35:52):
like like duty. I had this idea that duty comes
and out of the newspaper I found this is true
instant An Island. If you are a man and you
want to see what it's like to be a woman
for a night, you can go to this guy's house.
It was a whole article. I have the article. You
can go this guy's house in Staten Island and he
(36:13):
has up to size fifteen high heels, and he'll dress
you and you go to this bar and you have
a night as a woman. And I what off duty
comes to me? You know, he's like at my house,
I have wigs and I see him trying on a wig. Oh,
and I tell him about this place. So it would
(36:34):
be like fantasy of us characters, but the reality of
a guy who really does this kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
I love this idea it'lliant.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
And so I brought up to one of the producers
and he says, you don't want to do reality, but
I like this. It's fun, right, went down the toilet.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
How do you think seeing all that? There's been so
many things with Greece, either you know, whether it's like
the musical, like stage show, or it's like when it
was done live with Carly ray Ye the Pink Lady's
TV show, Like how does it feel seeing all those
different iterations of Greece?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Well, oh, you know, I mean it's at the point
now in my life that it's really a blessing, you know,
It's really I really feel like, wow, this was a
blessing to do. To do that, to have it means
so much to so many beings. I mean, if I
was in like Psycho or something where I played like
(37:39):
killing people, see to like talk to you, but people
that makes them happy, grease. You know, everybody has a
story they were dressed up as this, but they did
this in school. So it's definitely a blessing. And it's
I've had experiences because of it, like doing an ice
(38:02):
skating show England and meeting these friends that I made.
I mean so scared to ice skate. But I had
the greatest partner in Lukash, like he was it just that.
So I've had so many really wonderful experiences because of it.
(38:22):
We're talking because of it.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
It's so surreal, like it was such a Greece has
always been a part of my life, Like that was
my way into musicals really, Oh yeah, absolutely, because it
didn't feel like a standard musical, Like I wasn't someone
who had really access to like go to the theater
or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
I grow up where, oh.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
My mom was obsessed with Greece, and so I became
obsessed with Greece and I had that that soundtrack memorized
front to back. I watched the movie all the time.
Texas outside of Dallas.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Because we go to We've gone to San Antonio a
few times for autograph signing. We'll got big turnout.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I've never been to San Antonio.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Oh yes, I've never.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, I still need to. But yeah, I don't think
there would have been Glee without Grease. That's one of
those maybe.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Fully, I think it was a way to make it
accessible to like a new generation of you know, there
were sort of like pre Grease musicals. I think we're
a bit more Rogers and Hammer Sign are unapproachable.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Because all the all your characters were so real and
fun and not perfect. They were all imperfect in their
own way. And also these songs individually, on top of
a great story were hits. Hits. Yeah, you listen to
that soundtracks like, oh, this sounds like the greatest hits album.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, well that's because of Olivia is a guy who
wrote John Farah, who wrote You're the one that I
Want and hopelessly devoted.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
And oh I was so we did we did You're
the One that I Want on Glee. I was in
it and I got sent photos they filmed at the
school you guys filmed at really, yes, and they were
sending me pictures of everybody on the bleachers. I was
just like, I was so mad, like the one day,
like you know, we were working at fifteen sixteen hours
(40:26):
a day for years. The one day I had off,
oh doing the Grease number, like the one number I'm
not in. Oh, that so mad. But I did get
we shot at that school for something else too, so
I did get to see it eventually.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
But what what was your favorite song to do on Glee.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Oh oh god, I mean for sentimental reasons, probably the
Queen song Somebody to Love.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Oh oh, send that to me too? Will you send
that to me too? You will? Good? Good? Oh? I
love you guys. I hope you got a good podcast.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Thank you so much for spending this much time with
us and talking, sorry to grill you about Greece.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Oh no, I'm happy, you know. And Lennyway, you know
when something's really wonderful, like the two of you and you,
Kevin and everybody you know. We say in the movie Grease,
we say, Kevin, oh.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Bo, you're the sweetest love you both love you. Ah.
She's the best. Thank you d D for doing this,
for coming on. I could talk to her for hours.
Thanks for You're welcome. To you for the connection to
(42:01):
When Austin told me he was working with d D,
I got very very excited because you know, this gay
boy has always been obsessed with Greece. Thank you, de D,
Thank you so so much. Thanks Austin for hopping on
here and that's what you really missed. Thanks for listening
and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you
really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review
(42:23):
and leave us five stars. See you next time.
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin an iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to and that's what
you really missed today we have I've been so excited
about this. We have an icon, a living legend, someone
who has shaped the very core of who we are.
D d Con frenschie from Greece and Greece too, among
(00:29):
a plethora of other stage and TV and film project
She has just had the most incredible career and she
is the kindest. I had a chance to meet her
in person in her life a couple months ago, and
so I was very much.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Looking forward to this conversation to actually get into the
grease of it all, because I was too scared to
ask her when I first met her. So, without further ado,
this is the icon de Dcon. Okay, did he thank
you so much for doing this?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Of course? Of course, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Oh my goodness. So obviously I met you a couple
a few weeks ago, two months ago. Whenever it was
because you and my boyfriend Austin did a movie together,
that's right, that I am very excited about. And every
day he would come back and just tell me how
obsessed he was with you.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, Austin is not only gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
He's not so bad.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, but he's he's such a sensitive, I mean, beautiful
inside and out person. And I mean he's a revelation,
that guy. This is like, all of a sudden you think, wow,
what a wonderful actor, so handsome, and then he sings
and then he composes, and he's just he's fabulous, beautiful man.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That is very sweet of you to say. I I
you know, I'm biased, so I agree. So on this
podcast today it's just me. But Jenna and I have
been watching musical some of our favorite musicals because we
watched all of Glee. We finished that and we're like, well,
let's keep watching musicals. And we wanted to go start
with things that we were obsessed with growing up that
(02:22):
you know, informed us, that made us who we are,
and obviously Greece is one of those things. We had
very Pearl on a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Good, yeah, good, and.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Like, what a sweet sweet man. And his memory is crazy.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh I know, well he goes back to what bye
by no not by b Yes, yes, yes, Oliver, he
was in Oliver.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It was Yes. His career is absolutely insane, and you know,
having not to compare Glee to Greece, I'm not trying
to do that, but having a small taste of being
a part of something that changed our lives, that meant
(03:09):
so much to us as well as other people. And
I know how fun it was for us inside of
just making it. Even if nobody watched it, we had
the best time making it. And when we met briefly
a couple weeks ago, you like very quickly alluded to that,
and it has stuck with me, and so I wanted
to just talk to you about, like, how did this
(03:31):
journey happen for you? Where did How did Grease find you?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
How did Grease? Well? I was in la I had
already I had made the film You Light Up My Life,
and then I was also on a series with Danny Thomas,
and then I did a movie called Almost Summer, and
my agent said, they want to see you for a
(03:59):
Greece do you know a show? And I had seen it,
but I don't really remember it, you know, And then
they said, but you have to come looking like the part. Oh,
And I said, well, what's the part? She said, Well,
she wants to be she wants to go to beauty school.
She wants to drop out. Oh okay, So ever since
(04:20):
I can remember, I wanted to be in show busy.
You know, I was a dancer when I was younger.
Then I remember going to dancing school every Saturday with
my friend Paula. And then when we were about fifteen,
she stopped going. So we had to go from Brooklyn
(04:41):
to Manhattan and we had to get off of Bloomingdale's
and she just shopping getting boyfriends. And I said, hmm,
maybe if I stop dancing, I'll get boyfriends too. Well.
I was always acting. I was always making up acting,
making up stories, know, doing all the plays in high
(05:02):
school and all that stuff. Anyway, I could relate to
Frenchie's career drive that she wanted to go to beauty school.
And as as luck would have it, I went to
Western Costumes, got a fifties outfit, you know Western Costumes.
Every floor they have a different period of clothing, a
(05:25):
you know, a little outfit. And now this is really
I don't know, maybe the stars were aligned. I'm driving
home and I'm thinking, you know, I better get my
hair done. It's like this is not French. Have a
big do. Some reason, I ever thought about getting a wig.
But on the way home, I had been in La
(05:47):
that point four or five years, went a different way,
and what do I see Frenchie's beauty parlor?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, So I went there and there was little friends,
she with a big hair. I didn't tell her because
I wanted to just talk to her about beauty school
and getting into the It was amazing, because.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Now that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
And she told me all these stories about how she
always wanted to be a beautician and all her dolls. Look,
the hair is a cut, all all this guy and
and what school was much more about not only color
and cuts, but psychology and etiquette. I mean, who know
(06:36):
these things? Then the next thing was to pick up
my script, and I went to Paramount to get it.
And you drive up to Paramount and hard and he
hands you, you say your name, hands you an envelope. Well,
this envelope was so skinny, and I said, wait a minute.
(06:57):
I looked and there was one page and it said
men are rats worse than that, So what does this
have to do with anything? And then I saw that
he had fatter envelopes on his desk, and I said,
excuse me, And any chance that that there's a whole
script in one of those. He said, pull over, pull over,
So I went pulled over, came up, and sure enough
(07:19):
he had one whole script. I had to go under
his desk and read up to that because I want
to know what happened before, you know, Yeah, well I
found out. I found out Rizzo was a better part.
But that was just you're looking looking with Fred. But
(07:41):
but then I saw what happened, that she had befriended
Sandy and you know, and that that he had, you know,
disappointed her. And so then I went to the audition
and I walked in and they just, I don't know,
they say that they I opened my mouth and I
got the part. I remember them sitting there. There was
(08:05):
a little office and Alan Carr and the casting agent
Joel Thurm, and the choreographer Pat and Randall Claisa director,
and they said, well, what do you think of the script? Script?
And I just told them the story I just told
you was the better part. They said no, no, And
(08:25):
actually at that point they hadn't found a Rizzle. They
wanted Lucy Arnez, but her mom wanted her to not
to do a screen test. They wanted her to do
a screen test and really, yeah, so that was But
then it was a regular audition, babe. We had to
come in there with like two hundred people, you know,
(08:49):
and learn the stroll a dance, which I also was
screwing up like crazy. And Kelly Ward, who ended up
playing Putsy, he said I would take a break because
they would have. We were in a sound stage and
hours of b were on a bleachers and I don't know,
(09:11):
I just every time everybody's going this way, I'm going
this way. And I asked him. I kept getting it wrong,
and I thought, well, that's the end of that. And
then they did something I didn't like. Honestly, kept down
and said, oh, you can go, you can go, you
can go.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I don't like that.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, I hate when that happens, but.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
In front of each other. You come next day or
you know, I didn't like. Yeah, But then we you know,
later on we came back and they got us into
groups of you know, there were several groups of pink
ladies and tea birds. And then when they got it
down to the final ones, we didn't know where the
final ones. We just kept improvising and playing with each
(09:54):
other and wow, we had to sing Happy Birthday, I think,
but you know it's fun about I screwed up when
we were shooting the dance sequence right and they lining
us up for the shot and the camera was on
the stage looking out at all of us, and Pat
(10:16):
comes up to me. He said, remember what you did
at the audition. Everybody was going this way and you
were going that way. Said, well, you saw that. She
said do that, Mary, and I did that. Everybody's going
this way and we're going She wanted it to look real,
we're real kids, and she was brilliant. She got the dancers.
(10:38):
All of them were phenomenal, and they looked like real people,
but they were phenomenal, and each pair had a whole
autobiography who they were, and their names are on with
their character names area on the film too. Yes, really
she's the best.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I mean you can feel all of that. I think
having gone through like a casting process like that, you're
sort of, for lack of a better phrase, like trauma
bonded because you're all going through this and saying thing
where people are getting cut in front of you, wow,
And it's horrifying, Yeah, because you just feel like bad
(11:21):
for yourself if you're the one getting cut. You feel
bad that the other people that are getting cut in
front of you. It's a very surreal experience. But to
make it out of that, Yeah, and then you know
them saying that they knew you were Frenchy as soon
as you walked in the room. It's such a skill
that I don't think people necessarily think about from the
other side of the table when you're casting about looking
(11:46):
for those individualistic qualities of people that aren't necessarily written
on the page, right, and being able to like put
people together that seemingly somehow like fill out this puzzle. Yeah,
and you all sort of get along. And you know,
speaking of pat you just mentioned the choreography in this.
(12:07):
When you're watching something and you can take for granted, yeah,
something like the choreography, because it feels so obviously everyone
is so skilled and you're seeing like incredibly that clean
choreography and blocking and staging. But it only happens with
someone who has the ability to do that to make
(12:28):
it fit on everybody's bodies.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah. Well she let everybody improvise and find their expression.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That's magical.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, she was really she's great, She's really Yeah, she's really,
really great.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
You said that Rizzo was the better part, something that
Jenna and I both felt when we watched this a
couple of weeks ago. Was obviously as a kid growing up,
everybody loves Frenchy, like Frenchie is the most universally liked character.
I feel like that. But watching it now as an adult, yeah,
(13:18):
I think french she's the lead of this movie.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Wow. I'm so I don't know. I mean, I feel
so blessed because, you know, we had the license to
bring things to it, you know, like I'm always I
was always. I always had a calm. I was always
fixing everybody all the time, things that weren't in the script.
(13:44):
I wanted everybody to be the best. And Olivia was
very nervous, you know, because she had made a movie
before and she didn't like the way it came. So
she did a screen test with John and there was
instant chemistry. So she was happy about that. But her
first scene was walking onto the campus of Rydell with me,
(14:06):
Oh my god, and she was like, you know, all
over and I looked at her and I said, oh, Sandy,
I can't believe it. I've got a friend from Australia,
Sidney Austra tell me about us, and she looked at
me like this is in the script on what's going on?
But she caught on and she started telling me that
(14:28):
in high school she had to wear gloves and the
girls when the boys were set and she got right
into it. Yeah, Randall said action, we were right in,
you know, just walking on and she always thanked me
for that, but it was just because that's what we do,
you know, we just play.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And that seems zero percent surprising watching this movie and
you saying that it's like that is frenchy. Oh, like
I think like the connection between like Frenchie has relationship
chips with all of the characters. Like Frenchie is liked
by everybody in the film except.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
From Saint Bernadette.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
You'll like me, Yeah, nobody. That's different the people we
really care about, you know, but that makes so that's
so nice to hear because that makes so much sense
with your personality and the way, like Frenchie showed up
in every single scene.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
But you know what, everybody was older than the characters.
So we actually happened that once we were in makeup,
I was we didn't call each other there by our
real names. We were in character, and that gave us
the license to be you know, horny and goofy and silly.
Yeah whatever.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I noticed you did that on the movie with Austin.
Is that something you have used like throughout your career.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I can't tell you how helpful that was on that film.
Actual nobody's because when we had so little time to
shoot and just coming onto a set where you're going
to be all day, all day and all night and
everybody calling me Joyce, it just kept me in Joyce. Yeah,
(16:22):
you know off oft times people that you know, I
love that movie or I love this set. I used
to watch Shining Timestation, or when guys come up to
me and say you were my first crush and that means,
you know, what will you do it to that? So
(16:42):
this way could just totally stay in a world that's
being created in that moment. Rehearsal, you know, really one
one rehearsal, one read through.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, so did that the you know calling you by
your character name? Was that the first time you had
done it on Greece?
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yes, oh yes, I'm doing I'm doing a series now
with called Best Medicine. Yes, semi regular thing, and I
wish everybody just called. You know, but what can they do,
you know when it's as everybody has to do it
or work. But I was so happy that Alex told
(17:26):
everybody for I even came to call me Joyce and
it was it just helped me sync in to just
the name. Even it was right, you.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Know, especially when you don't have time. It's like an
expedited way of just living that as much as you can,
you know, going.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Back to Greece. Something people don't realize with that, unlike Glee,
which is so many of the cast members were in
the Broadway show or in one of the national companies
playing it eight hundreds of time, so they not only
knew them, but they were greasy, you know, they swear.
In fact, Jamie Donnelley, who played jan she had played
(18:09):
that and when we were doing the sleepover scene, they
had Loretta Young. We were watching TV and there was
a Loretta Young show and she's coming down the staircase
and it's like, what, we wouldn't be watching this, you know,
that's not our style, you know, yeah, Jamie, and Jamie said,
(18:30):
you know, I pretended to be Bucky Beaver at one point,
got a big laugh. During lunch that day, they found
that Bucky Beaver commercial and that went on there. So
that came from her doing that show and knowing where
the jokes were.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, that makes such a big difference. We've watched other
things too, like and I think that applies to everything,
like especially if you're lucky enough to have people who
have been in the show yeh, to know all of
that stuff, and then you have a musical is tried
and true that has been worked out on stage. You
know the music is good, like you know where it fits,
you know, the story is good.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
You know where it is in your body.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yes, it's such a I think there's a really big
difference when you see musicals that have that coming into
it in musicals that don't have it, you can feel it.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And I think what, you know, it's what enhances the
you know, like Travalda never played Danny, but he played Duty.
He played you know, he knew the world and he
and he also Jeff Conaway was Danny and he saw
Jeff do it. I think he's so Richard Gear do it.
And of course you know he just took the original
(19:43):
guy who did it, very boss wick, you know, so
he just took the best of everybody, he'll see. Yeah,
and it just became his dan, which was so great
all of you.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I watched it with Austin, and Austin was like, it's
crazy how in every single frame of this movie, every
single actor is You can watch every like just one
actor in each scene and it's going to be so
good whether or not they have any lines or they're
the main focus, because everybody is so in it, in it.
(20:17):
The attention to detail, and then the sets themselves, every
single frame was so rich, Yeah, with material and with
the things of the time, the time period, and it's
like a visual feast to watch it where it's obviously
you know, like I know, for the songs and all
of your storylines and all of that, but when you
really step back and pick it apart, there's so much
(20:41):
depth to it.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah. Yeah, it's true. But that was also pat you know,
assigning these partners and each one came up with you,
I said, a whole relationship, and it's you see it
in their dancing, if they liked each other, they didn't like, yeah,
arguing with each other or they you know, it was
(21:03):
everything had you know, was waight to it. Yes, yeah, No,
it's true. It's true.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So after that first scene with Olivia, how was the
experience of the rest of filming, because how long did
it take to film the movie?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Six weeks?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
That feels very quick.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, two weeks rehearsal. You know, we did an interesting
thing right before principal photography began the day before in
a sound stage they did they set up bleachers and
picnic tables. For the opening number. They set up a
(21:45):
you know, a bedroom for my number set up I
mean beauty school and for Beauty School dropout they had steps. No,
actually we didn't do Beauty School drop because he didn't
come to that. But anyway, they up different big numbers,
especially Greece Lightning, and we performed it for for the
(22:08):
powers that be at Paramount and anybody else who was
around that day, performing it like you were on the stage,
and that really was great because we got that size
for us who had never done the show. We got
that in our you know, in our bodies. But you know,
Paramount they thought this is not going to do anything
(22:31):
because John was very it was a big star from Barberino,
but say Night Fever hadn't come out yet. He had
just made it. In fact, one day he said, you know, guys,
I did this movie and Brooklyn and would you like
to see it? You know, sure, So we went to
a screening room. He said, are you sure. You know,
(22:54):
I don't think it's gonna be much. He really had
no idea, and we saw that movie. Sho, this is
the most phenomenal theorem believing. And so when we got finished,
when we got to the scene of the carnival, everybody
wanted to do a sequel. You know. So when the
(23:14):
boys are throwing what are you pies and they miss,
he says, I'll see you in summer school. And that
was put in on the day to set equal and
we finished the film and their flowers would be a
param My said, no, this isn't going to do anything. No,
they pass. So of course, when My Fever came out
(23:35):
the film was such a success, then they wanted to
do it Grease too, but you know they were nobody
was available, and what I was available, I was I
was doing Benson then, so I was only available one week.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
But oh wow, yeah, I know. I'm was like, we
watched Greece too. I was like, I want a whole
movie about Frenchie. I need a whole Frenchy movie. And
I'm not just saying that because of talking to you.
It was watching it. It was like frenchyat is sort
of like the Eyes and Ears. I feel like of
the viewer through that movie so relatable and the like
(24:17):
your like kindness really comes through and all of that,
and it just it seemed like all of you were actually,
you know, sort of falling in love with each other.
It's like, it seemed like.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
It was a lot of real falling, a lot of
things going on, a lot of you know, those winnebagels
were rapping and rolling.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
A lot happens. You're young, you're filming a movie, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
These things things happened.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
I can't believe Paramount didn't. I feel like that happens
all the time when they never know what they have,
what they have, and then it just ends up being
the biggest grossing musical of all time last.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Year, making all that money. They don't know what they have.
When the DVD came out, they did a big press
for this international press pick came to Paramount. We had
we were on for over like almost two hours just
doing press. You know, people coming into the thing, and
Sherry Lansing looked at me, and she said, what the
(25:21):
I don't have first time movies with this kind of attention.
They like, they didn't know. And I had at that
time an idea for a way to make some have
grease give back, that we would all do this film
twenty years later and take faith, you know, whatever the
budget was for salaries, we'd take favored nations and our
(25:45):
money to our favorite charities. Yeah, you know, and I
had made this whole pitch we had anyway, So I
went up to Paramount and it looked like what's going
to happen? They hired writers, and then the writers didn't
listen because you know, I wrote a book for a
tenth of twenty then called a Frenchy Squeeze scrap Book,
(26:09):
which was a fundraiser for my son's school. Yeah, and
everybody told me what I said, what do you think
your character would be doing twenty years later? And I
got the greatest stories and I gave them to the writers.
They didn't want to use that. I don't know why
they didn't, And they came up with you know what
they came up with, and they saw a million dollar writers.
(26:33):
So I didn't play the game and let them go
on it just went on and on and on. I
just told the truth and then John and Olivia were
too busy, and yeah, a part, but I thought, you know, anyway,
I just thought we could do something. And now in
three years it's our fiftieth and we're going to do
(26:53):
a big fundraiser. Olivia has a cancer and wellness center.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, Barry was telling us about that.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Millions four and my son is living in a community
that's amazing for mostly for people who have very fragile
illnesses and wheelchairs and you know, twenty four to seven care.
But there is an autistic community as part of Center
for Discovery. It's called and now they're building a for
(27:23):
the future. It's called a I get so emotional thinking
about it. It's TLC Transitional Living Community for the Yeah
it's thirty three, you know, so it's for the future.
For the fiftieth big fundraising. But I'm seeing like something
(27:47):
really great, like having sleepovers, you know, people sponsoring sleepover contests,
you know, all kinds of So I'm beginning to coordinate
with Olivia's with with the Livy Newton John Cancer Wellness
Center and send a Discovery. And I spoke to John
about it once his foundation, in his son's honor to
(28:11):
be a part of it. So his three years is
it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Very fast, and those things take a long time to coordinate.
But I think also the strength of you know, everything
that you guys created is that people will show up.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Yeah and fun. People love to dress up. They love
to do it. I mean, I hosted a Greece single
long in June eighteen thousand people and everybody dresses see
all this pink hairs and know the guys of the
slip back and everybody gets a prop bag and it's
and even John show it up.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
We have a visitor, my baby, Hi, Henny. I've been
talking to Alex. He's very happy, he's.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
I've talked to him a couple of times. I'm so
excited to see you. What we made about you?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yes, yes, you are the best, sweetie pie.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
So good to.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
See you you okay, oh yeah yeah now, but I
want to turn the tables and hear about you guys.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
And.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
You're much more interesting than us.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
No, no, no, no, it's just been around longer. That's
but I just had a great, it's really very deep
experience on the film. I did. After our film, I
did a film called Little Man. And if there ever
was a gift to me to do this film, because
it's about Mark. Wohlberg plays a dad truck driver who
(30:00):
has a brilliant autistic son eleven years old, who has
lots of tics, lots of you, I can't do this,
can't do that, he can't hear this. And the father
just loves him, but he can't relate to him, and
so he takes more and more truck driving jobs and whatnot.
(30:21):
And his wife is Vera Farmiga's gorgeous. But anyway, the
movie is about how this father and son bond and
it's so beautiful. And the grandma, Mark's mother, he called mommy,
helped me mommy. Oh my god, he's called me mommy. Anyway,
(30:44):
it was, it was it was such a you know,
being a mother of an autistic child, a young man,
now you know, you you want it's hard, very hard
to communicate what you feel. It's very hard to be
(31:05):
with that person because if they're all over the place,
you have to have a certain huge amount of patience.
And you know, and I know my husband loves Danny
and it's just so hard for him. He's an intellectual.
He's you know, things that he reads he can't share
with Danny.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Know.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Well, in this movie they find a way to bond
through sports, through basketball actually, and I have one good
scene with the grandson where I tell him that that
my father must have been autistic but we didn't know
(31:45):
what it was, but how much I loved him, and
it's just was so like, wow, I guess so lucky
to get that part. So that to me was was
great A lot of gifts. Yeah, yeah, I was so
wonderful too. So we'll see. I don't know if it's
going to be on Apple or it's just produced by Apple.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
That yeah, we're lucky to have you, because I feel
like I'm hoping people who listen to this interview too
can just like get your then they will like your
joy and your spirit and how like wonderful you are
to be around, and like how lucky that movie is
and that your guys movie is to be able to
have you.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
And well we'll see, Austin, you.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Have this superpower where you bring out the best in people.
I think that's your greatest gift.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Oh oh, thank you, Well that was that's say that
that comes from old French old French.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
No, that is that's like when we were watching it,
we're like, how did we not realize this as kids?
That like, Frenchie is the star of the best one.
She's the best one, She's the best of all.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Guys, I love you.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
On Smoke And I think that's like after hearing what
what makes even more true? I think is hearing your
stories of how you got that part and then how
you were in that part. Yeah, yeah, himself to that
and seeing that on screen and you all do that
in your own way, but now knowing you for a
(33:23):
little bit a fraction of how Austin knows you, this
makes even more sense.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
I was going to ask you if they if Hollywood
decided to do a remake of Greece, who would you
want to see reprise the role of Frendsheet.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Oh? Well, what's the name? Car Carly Ray? She did
she played?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Actually did She did a great job.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, she did a great job. She's so sweet. We
both cried when we saw each other. I was like,
that's my daughter, that's my little thought I never had.
I love her so much.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I know if you've ever seen it, but gleeded a
lot of Greece. Yea, one of my favorite humans in
the world. Did the whole beauty school dropout number, and
she was and her name is Vanessa Lenngi's and you
two looks so similar.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Oh my god, I was.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Freaking all of us out. And then again watching Greece again,
I was like, that's been.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Oh how can I see that?
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, it was the freakiest. It was like their faces
are the same, and her personality is so similar to yours.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Whow like both just like the warmest daughter out there.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Oh you absolutely, Like I think I would combust seeing
you two in the same room. There has to be
some like have you guys meet at some point?
Speaker 1 (34:49):
All right, Well that's wonderful.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
And I wish like, for our sake we got to
do even more Greece on the show because she was
Frenchy through like her character on the show was like
a mean version of Frenchie but eventually became Frenchie. But
I just have to I have to show it to you.
I'll send it to you after this so you can
see it.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
But oh, I'd love to see it.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
You know.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
One of the things that at one point I was thinking,
you know, when when all these these shows were coming out,
you know, like you know, what do you call them?
The reality shows?
Speaker 4 (35:28):
You know?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Oh? Yes, I thought to myself, well, the very first
makeover the show is Greece because she says, Frenchie, can
you help me? And we go and then she's transformed, right,
So I thought, well, how about that? How about how
Frenchie can you help me? And then the characters come
(35:52):
like like duty. I had this idea that duty comes
and out of the newspaper I found this is true
instant An Island. If you are a man and you
want to see what it's like to be a woman
for a night, you can go to this guy's house.
It was a whole article. I have the article. You
can go this guy's house in Staten Island and he
(36:13):
has up to size fifteen high heels, and he'll dress
you and you go to this bar and you have
a night as a woman. And I what off duty
comes to me? You know, he's like at my house,
I have wigs and I see him trying on a wig. Oh,
and I tell him about this place. So it would
(36:34):
be like fantasy of us characters, but the reality of
a guy who really does this kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
I love this idea it'lliant.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
And so I brought up to one of the producers
and he says, you don't want to do reality, but
I like this. It's fun, right, went down the toilet.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
How do you think seeing all that? There's been so
many things with Greece, either you know, whether it's like
the musical, like stage show, or it's like when it
was done live with Carly ray Ye the Pink Lady's
TV show, Like how does it feel seeing all those
different iterations of Greece?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Well, oh, you know, I mean it's at the point
now in my life that it's really a blessing, you know,
It's really I really feel like, wow, this was a
blessing to do. To do that, to have it means
so much to so many beings. I mean, if I
was in like Psycho or something where I played like
(37:39):
killing people, see to like talk to you, but people
that makes them happy, grease. You know, everybody has a
story they were dressed up as this, but they did
this in school. So it's definitely a blessing. And it's
I've had experiences because of it, like doing an ice
(38:02):
skating show England and meeting these friends that I made.
I mean so scared to ice skate. But I had
the greatest partner in Lukash, like he was it just that.
So I've had so many really wonderful experiences because of it.
(38:22):
We're talking because of it.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
It's so surreal, like it was such a Greece has
always been a part of my life, Like that was
my way into musicals really, Oh yeah, absolutely, because it
didn't feel like a standard musical, Like I wasn't someone
who had really access to like go to the theater
or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
I grow up where, oh.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
My mom was obsessed with Greece, and so I became
obsessed with Greece and I had that that soundtrack memorized
front to back. I watched the movie all the time.
Texas outside of Dallas.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Because we go to We've gone to San Antonio a
few times for autograph signing. We'll got big turnout.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I've never been to San Antonio.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Oh yes, I've never.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, I still need to. But yeah, I don't think
there would have been Glee without Grease. That's one of
those maybe.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Fully, I think it was a way to make it
accessible to like a new generation of you know, there
were sort of like pre Grease musicals. I think we're
a bit more Rogers and Hammer Sign are unapproachable.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Because all the all your characters were so real and
fun and not perfect. They were all imperfect in their
own way. And also these songs individually, on top of
a great story were hits. Hits. Yeah, you listen to
that soundtracks like, oh, this sounds like the greatest hits album.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, well that's because of Olivia is a guy who
wrote John Farah, who wrote You're the one that I
Want and hopelessly devoted.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
And oh I was so we did we did You're
the One that I Want on Glee. I was in
it and I got sent photos they filmed at the
school you guys filmed at really, yes, and they were
sending me pictures of everybody on the bleachers. I was
just like, I was so mad, like the one day,
like you know, we were working at fifteen sixteen hours
(40:26):
a day for years. The one day I had off,
oh doing the Grease number, like the one number I'm
not in. Oh, that so mad. But I did get
we shot at that school for something else too, so
I did get to see it eventually.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
But what what was your favorite song to do on Glee.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Oh oh god, I mean for sentimental reasons, probably the
Queen song Somebody to Love.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Oh oh, send that to me too? Will you send
that to me too? You will? Good? Good? Oh? I
love you guys. I hope you got a good podcast.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Thank you so much for spending this much time with
us and talking, sorry to grill you about Greece.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Oh no, I'm happy, you know. And Lennyway, you know
when something's really wonderful, like the two of you and you,
Kevin and everybody you know. We say in the movie Grease,
we say, Kevin, oh.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Bo, you're the sweetest love you both love you. Ah.
She's the best. Thank you d D for doing this,
for coming on. I could talk to her for hours.
Thanks for You're welcome. To you for the connection to
(42:01):
When Austin told me he was working with d D,
I got very very excited because you know, this gay
boy has always been obsessed with Greece. Thank you, de D,
Thank you so so much. Thanks Austin for hopping on
here and that's what you really missed. Thanks for listening
and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you
really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review
(42:23):
and leave us five stars. See you next time.
Host
Jenna Ushkowitz
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