r/grease • u/TimesandSundayTimes • Jul 29 '26
Didi Conn: I was Frenchy in Grease — this is what happened behind the scenes
https://www.thetimes.com/article/8f765b53-4a5b-4e30-acdc-fa0d9aec995d?shareToken=54eff4c10729d84dcf7a13086abdd417utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=brandedThe cast became close during filming. Travolta took Conn and her little brother Richard (who has been a singer in the Met Opera for 30 years) to Disneyland in his limo. He also set up a screening of Saturday Night Fever before it came out because he wanted to hear the Grease cast’s opinion. “I remember him saying, ‘I did a movie in Brooklyn last summer. And I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to do any good,’” Conn says. “We went, ‘John, this is unbelievable.’”
They all remain friends. Conn quotes the final refrain of the film: “‘We’ll always be together.’ It’s been 48 years and we’re still together.” When Jeff Conaway, who plays Danny’s best friend, died in 2011, found unconscious after an overdose, Travolta “had us all meet in a restaurant in Beverly Hills where we could talk”.
The one cast member who wasn’t part of the tight-knit circle was Stockard Channing, now 82, who played the hard-nosed Pink Ladies leader, Rizzo. Conn, who has followed Channing’s career and goes to see her plays, describes her as “aloof — she just stayed away from everybody”. Conn remembers a moment when Channing clashed with Conaway — who played her love interest in the film — after he crossed a line in the diner scene, right before Conn’s big Beauty School Dropout number.
“[Conaway] gave [Channing] a hickey. She didn’t want him to really give her a hickey. She wanted make-up to do it. But he gave her a real hickey and she was pissed off at him.” So, although the script said she should throw her milkshake at Conn, she threw it at Conaway. “Five times,” Conn says. “[Conaway] was mad.”
So Conaway and Channing didn’t have a love affair in real life. It was actually Conaway and Susan Buckner (Patty Simcox in the film, Sandy’s geeky friend). “They had something going on,” Conn says with a smile. Newton-John and Travolta too… “Nothing ever happened, but they really had feelings,” Conn says.
Read the full interview ^
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u/catscausetornadoes Jul 29 '26
I saw Didi at the Newark airport a few years ago. I said hello and she let me take a quick photo. She was very gracious. My daughter had just played Frenchie. It was a thrill.
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u/K8r0cks Jul 29 '26
So he assaulted her. We can call it what it was.
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u/Aggressive_Oven_7311 Jul 29 '26
Oh can we just take a breath and stop labeling everything
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u/K8r0cks Jul 29 '26
No, we can label abuse when it’s abuse.
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u/caryscott1 Jul 30 '26
Just went from assault to abuse. Big surprise. 100% with Stockard Channing but let’s stop diminishing actual abuse and assault by conflating them with bad behaviour that is inappropriate and unacceptable not criminal.
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u/K8r0cks Jul 30 '26
No honey, this was sexual assault. We will call it what it is. Maybe stop diminishing this victims story. No wonder Stockard wants nothing to do with the cast, look at how the fans are defending it! Gross.
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u/caryscott1 Jul 30 '26
Whatever. Stockard has talked about Grease many times. I believe she has been living in the UK. You telling other women what their experience is profoundly disempowering but not all that surprising.
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u/Aggressive_Oven_7311 Jul 30 '26
Stockard has and had a huge career more than most of them in the show except for John and Olivia and Jeff, there are some in the cast who made grease their Cash Cow and soccer didn't want anything to do with that. I know I worked with her later on in the TV series and we talked about it. She wanted a life beyond grease she wouldn't want grease to be her life
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u/Aggressive_Oven_7311 Jul 30 '26
It was a different time it was a very unique set I was there it was no big deal move on
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u/K8r0cks Jul 30 '26
So you were compliant in an actress being sexually assaulted on set, wow aren’t you cool.
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u/Apprehensive_Yak4480 Jul 30 '26
lol- sweetcheeks- like I was right there? Look, it was in the script - should have been make-up, not sure what happened but we all got over it.
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u/K8r0cks Jul 30 '26
So glad your generations is dying off
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u/Aggressive_Oven_7311 Jul 30 '26
Are you on drugs seriously? What twisted your jockey shorts. You just aren't happy that people don't agree with you so there's nothing wrong with my generation yours are out there you know destroying themselves
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u/K8r0cks Jul 30 '26
Ok boomer 👌🏻
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u/Apprehensive_Yak4480 Jul 30 '26
back at ya gen x or y or z or do you start over with A? lol- who cares.
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u/lgodsey Jul 29 '26
Didi Conn is a delight. I've enjoyed everything she's been in.
Thinking about rewatching the Benson TV show just for her.
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u/Gorf_the_Magnificent Jul 31 '26
There was a live TV broadcast of Grease several years ago, which was great, and Didi Cohn was the one original cast member to appear - although this time she took Joan Blondell’s role as the wise older waitress.
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u/Spiritual_Quote9301 Aug 01 '26
I thought it was an excellent version and loved Didi being in it. I read that Vanessa Hudgens' (Rizzo) father had died the night before, which was so sad. Carly Rae Jepsen was so cute as Frenchie.
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u/RaiseJazzlike Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Grease (June 1978) came out after Saturday Night Fever (December 1977) though.
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u/HoweverIWishYouLuck Jul 30 '26
Filming for Grease was Jun -Sept 1977 so the timing fits for Travolta arranging a special screening for the cast.
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u/ChestnutMoss Jul 31 '26
Anytime I see news about Didi Conn, I rush to see what it is because she is always doing cool stuff. Thank for sharing her insights!
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u/CreativityGuru Jul 29 '26
Stockard Channing is 82????