Why is everyone so old in ‘Grease’?
With the sad passing of Olivia Newton-John this past week, one recurring piece of media continued to appear as her most notable work. Despite landing five number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, winning four Grammy Awards, and appearing in multiple films, Newton-John is now forever immortalised as the star of the 1978 musical Grease.
For good reason too: Grease was the highest-grossing movie musical of all time and retained that title for 13 years until Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991. In 2020, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, confirming its cultural canonisation in the annals of film history. Grease was a phenomenon unlikely anything that came before it and still has yet to have a clear successor.
The most interesting element of Grease is how well it has held up in the nearly 45 years since its original release. Despite its now-archaic setting and a few notable sexual offences that probably wouldn’t fly in today’s film landscape, Grease remains a light, goofy, and enjoyable viewing experience that can still captivate and entertain in equal measure. There’s just one element that can’t quite hold up to the test of time: why the hell is everyone so old?
In the story of Grease, nearly every character is supposed to be a senior in high school, roughly between the ages of 16 and 18. Despite this, not a single character passes for a high schooler. Is it a complete oversight from the casting department? Is it part of an overall satirical approach toward the 1950s setting that the film is set in? Did the film’s producers ever even consider that some characters look like they could be the parents of high schoolers instead of being high schoolers themselves?
In truth, the age-appropriate casting started from the very start when John Travolta was cast. Hot off the heels of his appearances in Welcome Back, Kotter and Saturday Night Fever, Travolta was the first actor attached to the project. His role in Kotter proved essential since audiences had already seen Travolta portray a high school student, and at 23 years old, Travolta was only a half-decade removed from his time in biology class. He would end up as the youngest main cast member of the film.
Travolta had a specific request for his co-star: he wanted Olivia Newton-John. The Australian singer had little acting experience, but her chemistry with Travolta was strong enough to land her the role despite being nearly 30 when the film premiered. Newton-John’s casting would set a precedent that allowed the film’s producers and casting directors to extend the age range to almost comical levels.
The biggest offender of the main cast was Stockard Channing, who portrayed the iconic role of Rizzo in the film. At 33, Channing was one of many actors who had to pass a special screen test that supposedly helped prove that she could pass for a high schooler. From there, the door was opened for actors that had previously appeared in the stage musical. This included Jeff Conway and Jamie Donnelly, to appear even though they had otherwise aged out of their respective roles.
Had the producers of Grease gone after some of the more age-appropriate teen idols of the day, then perhaps the film would have more accurately reflected the high school setting it was putting on screen. But because Travolta was the lynchpin for nearly every other casting decision, the ages of the actors in Grease didn’t have to look accurate to real life – they just had to look accurate relative to John Travolta.
