Michelle Pfeiffer, Maxwell Caulfield, and more look back on the campy 1982 sequel.
It’s time to go back, back, back to school again.
It doesn’t hurt that Pfeiffer also went on to become a massive star.
Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield) and Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer).Everett Collection
The series tells the story of how the iconic coral clique came to be.
An account of deleted musical numbers, secret whispers, and hair dye jobs gone horribly wrong.
A tale of going up against E.T., Captain Kirk, and Rocky Balboa and losing.
Michelle Pfeiffer is a girl for all seasons as Stephanie Zinone in ‘Grease 2’.Everett Collection
This is the oral history ofGrease 2, as told by those who lived through it.
But it took some time to lock in a concept, a script, and a cast.
it’s going to be calledSummer School, and we want you to do it."
The Pink Ladies — Sharon (Maureen Teefy), Paulette (Lorna Luft), Rhonda (Alison Price), and Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) — strut their stuff.Everett Collection
I was over the moon, and then four years later, we got to makeGrease 2.
Well, that was what the sequel was gonna be:Summer School.But Paramount passed.
[Laughs] They thoughtGreasewasn’t going to be much of a movie.
It’s time to go back, back, back to school.Everett Collection
Then when it was such a success, the next year they decided to make the sequel.
Of course, by then, John and Olivia weren’t available.
But when they asked me if I would do it, I was so happy to revisit it.
The students sing ‘Back to School’ in Grease 2.Everett Collection
MAXWELL CAULFIELD (MICHAEL CARRINGTON):They used to hold weekly tryouts forGreaseon Broadway.
So my kinship with the show began early.
CAULFIELD:Ultimately, I was blessed to get that role.
The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies sing ‘Score Tonight’ in the bowling alley.Everett Collection
I had my people send me out.
ADRIAN ZMED (JOHNNY NOGERELLI):Greaseis my life.
Out of school, I got cast in one of the national tours of the originalGreasein the ’70s.
We’re gonna score tonight…Paramount
And then in the ’90s, I played Danny in the Broadway Tommy Tune revival.
PAMELA ADLON (DOLORES):Of course, I was obsessed withGrease.I was a musical theater kid.
We shared a script, which is really kind of f—ed up when you think about it.
The T-Birds: Johnny (Adrian Zmed), DiMucci (Peter Frechette), Goose (Christopher McDonald), and Davey (Leif Green).Everett Collection
[Laughs]
MICHELLE PFEIFFER (STEPHANIE ZINONE):I had zero expectations of landing this part.
My agent sent me on it, honestly, I think, just for the experience.
All the other actors waiting to go in could hear your reading, could hear your singing.
Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) wants a cool rider.Everett Collection
I was not a singer.
I was taking voice classes to really improve my stage voice at the recommendation of my acting coach.
And I certainly was not a dancer.
The class gets frisky singing ‘Reproduction’ in ‘Grease 2’.Everett Collection
I wanted to bring a lot of vulnerability to Johnny.
She was my champion.
The producers wanted a rock star in that role because Maxwell and Michelle were not big stars.
Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield) becomes the Cool Rider.Everett Collection
But Pat kept on fighting for me.
PFEIFFER:The last phase of the audition was the dancing part.
I left with my tail between my legs, feeling so humiliated.
The Pink Ladies admire the mysterious Cool Rider in ‘Grease 2’.Everett Collection
LUFT:At first they had written Paulette as the Marilyn Monroe character of the movie.
She makes up this character of Paulette in school for Johnny.
Because all she’s done is watch movies and thought, “I can be like that.”
Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) finds comfort in the arms of her Cool Rider (Maxwell Caulfield)in ‘Grease 2’.Everett Collection
PFEIFFER:Stephanie was not a huge stretch.
ADLON:I was an Anybodys [like theWest Side Storycharacter] before I ever became aware of Anybodys.
I was born to do that.
Maxwell Caulfield in ‘Grease 2.'.Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock
The only thing I wasn’t used to was wearing skirts and my hair in pigtails.
That was very new for me.
And that was definitely an out-of-my-comfort-zone thing.
Michael (Maxwell Caulfield) and Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) reunite and his secret identity is revealed.Everett Collection
I’m a late bloomer, so I was a little bit embarrassed to be girly in that way.
So that went hand in hand with Dolores’ toughness.
LUFT:That hair!
The cast of ‘Grease 2’ sings their final number ‘We’ll Be Together’.Everett Collection
[Laughs] Allan wanted me to imitate Marilyn and all that.
They said, “Oh, don’t worry, it always does.
We have to strip your hair.”
The Pink Ladies of ‘Grease 2’.Everett Collection
So, then they go, “Oh, we’ll just put her in a wig.”
Then we went through the looks of Marilyn, and we started to cut and shape it.
CONN:We did these movies before punk, so pink hair was like totally out there.
So no, we weren’t going to reprise it.
It was the low point of Frenchy’s life.
ZMED:That was all my hair.
I’m a master of building the pompadour.
[Laughs] They had the idea that Johnny would be sleeveless.
The whole phenomenon of Arnold Schwarzenegger started that year.
So I started traveling with weights on the national tour and I developed my arms.
PFEIFFER:It was very, very early on in the shoot.
It was a closed-down school we were shooting at.
I was very nervous.
It was for sure being thrown into the deep end.
We did the entire movie on that location.
Excelsior became like a little movie studio.
They watched the dailies in the auditorium.
When we broke for lunch, we ate in the cafeteria, and we all had lockers.
LUFT:That opening number is such a tribute to the Hollywood musical.
MCDONALD:It was pinch-me time.
Boy, we worked our tails off with the choreography.
The first school number took about a week just to rehearse.
It was one of the first numbers we did.
It was the opening of the movie.
It was big, it was splashy.
It was Louis St. Louis' music.
It was so many fantastic dancers that Pat had known over the years.
ADLON:That song was sung by the Four Tops and it’s just like an instant hit.
I remember being there with all of these dancers.
We had a lot of the dancers who were inGreasereturn.
They were the most fabulous people.
Each one of them a triple threat.
CONN: Pat Birch picked dancers that looked like regular kids, but they were phenomenal dancers.
And each one had written an autobiography of their character.
They all had names and they all had relationships with their partners.
It’s reflected in the choices that they made during the dances.
MCDONALD: The T-Birds are up on the flag pole.
Goose, he didn’t have all his marbles, so to play it comedically, I goofed up.
If you watch closely, everyone’s going one way.
And Goose has gone his own way.
His arms are going the opposite direction of the other guy’s arms until he catches up.
His steps are a little too slow.
When I see the movie to this day, I still laugh at that.
It was a huge number because it introduced every character.
She’s as sweet as she appears on screen.
But duringGrease 2,I was doing a series calledBenson, so I only rehearsed on my day off.
And that was Michelle Pfeiffer.
She’s something special."
She’s the one I talked to the most.
LUFT:We shot in that bowling alley for almost a full week.
So we never really went to our trailers.
We just stayed in the bowling alley.
I wish she had her own song.
LUFT:I did everything I could.
That was a decision that was made by the producers.
I wanted one desperately, and I guess they didn’t see the script changing.
It wasn’t like Paulette ever had a song and they took it out.
She never had one.
But it didn’t work out.
MCDONALD:Filming in a real bowling alley was cacophony.
The sound was reverberating.
I went to work on Monday and we put sunglasses on.
It healed pretty quickly though.
It didn’t really interrupt shooting.
LUFT: I had these very, very long nails.
When it got to the bowling alley scene, I thought, “I can’t do this.”
I ad-libbed that line [about not putting my nails in the bowling ball].
Pat Birch fell on the floor.
That whole scene where I roll the bowling ball down the lane, that was never scripted.
I did that myself.
But I really did [get a strike].
ZMED:Bowling alleys are not meant to be danced on.
We found that out very early.
When Pat was choreographing it, we probably had about four or five broken and sprained ankles.
A few people fell into the gutters doing turns and all that.
It was like dominoes during rehearsal.
ADLON:They had balls for us.
I had a pink ball and a black ball that they engraved with Dolores.
Later, somebody stole both of my balls, which really pissed me off.
I threw the ball and ran halfway down the alley and then slid for another third of the alley.
I did that knee slide about 50 times.
I couldn’t walk for a while.
CAULFIELD:Suddenly I burst through the doors, and she landed one right on the smacker.
It was gratefully received.
And he was dying laughing.
We had a very special connection.
CAULFIELD: She was perfect casting, such a spunky little girl.
All I wanted was a skateboard, and I got one.
I got a hard plastic banana-yellow little kickboard, and it was the greatest.
But I wasn’t really showing off the skills.
Let’s be real.
In that scene where Maxwell and I are walking away, I’m barely moving the skateboard.
LUFT:Pamela was 14 years old, but she was really 35 years old.
We all knew how old she was, but she was a riot.
She was so funny and so sweet and so delightful.
I’m so humbled by her work now and who she has become.
I’m honored that I got to be in probably one of her first roles.
ADLON:Her mother is like Jesus to me.
[Laughs] I couldn’t believe that I was playing Lorna’s kid sister.
As Johnny and Goose walk down the hallway at Rydell High, Johnny smokes a cigarette.
Then, he accidentally swallows it.
So he basically had me working on it from day one.
And I actually didn’t do it for that long.
And then I turn around, and the camera’s on my back.
So that when she leaves us, the smoke was coming through my nose.
Then I act like I swallowed the cigarette when Goose hits me on the back.
I burned the roof of my mouth many times by doing it, and my tongue.
But I had it down.
While playing the piano for the auditions for the school talent show, Michael admires Stephanie from afar.
He decides to ask her out, and she turns him down.
Then, she sings “Cool Rider,” describing her dream guy.
CAULFIELD:That’s not me playing.
If you look carefully, I look like a pianist in an old Western saloon bar.
PFEIFFER:It was a little like one of those scenes that on the page is a little cringey.
Like, “Oh, really?
You want me to get up and gyrate on the top of this ginormous ladder?”
And I did, and it was a lot of fun.
It was a series of opportunities to let go of my inhibitions and exercise trust.
We basically were standing in the background just to watch her do her thing because she was luminous.
Absolutely radiantly beautiful, cool, and funny.
She played her so, so spot on.
LUFT:I loved Tab Hunter.
Pat supported improv and allowed us to go out there and do crazy stuff like that.
ZMED:A lot of people hooked up that week.
We all got so horny.
[Laughs] It was so much fun doing that number.
It was a blast.
Tab Hunter was an amazing guy.
And, like I said, we really got horny.
MCDONALD:Hmmm, frisky’s a good way to put it.
That’s a niceGrease 2safe way to put it.
There were a lot of hormones flying around.
That was one particularly fun moment because watch where the hands went on that number.
Oh my God, watch Peter Frechette.
He then sets about assembling it and learning to ride.
He practices in a local park where Frenchy finds him continually falling off the bike.
CAULFIELD:I had ridden bikes in London before I came over.
I was comfortable on two wheels.
I wasn’t going to try and do what Tom Cruise does and do my own stunts.
I’d be crazy to because it could have jeopardized the whole movie.
We filmed this wonderful number where I’m teaching Maxwell how to be a Cool Rider.
I was all over this picnic table and showing him all these cool moves.
I never saw it, never heard anything about it.
To this day, I don’t know if there was film in the camera.
In the aftermath, the Cool Rider approaches Stephanie and offers her a light for her cigarette.
Then, he disappears into the night after jumping over a cop car.
She didn’t want a boy.
So I tried to make him more macho, shall we say.
PFEIFFER:I remember that was a lot of fun to shoot.
Did it feel silly?
No, it felt romantic.
CAULFIELD:Black leather never fails to work.
I was walking around in a tank top and black leather jeans and motorcycle boots.
LUFT:It was so freaking cold that night.
I wasn’t really focused on Maxwell.
All I cared about was where the heated jackets were.
They kept shoving ice cubes in our mouths because they didn’t want our breath to show.
So, I didn’t pay attention.
Stephanie works at a gas station, pumping gas and doing mechanic work.
One afternoon, the Cool Rider surprises her there, wearing a full leather suit with no shirt underneath.
It’s the suggestion that next to the leather, there was nothing but skin.
Looking back on that, it’s shocking to me that they allowed me to do that.
That was not wise.
[Laughs] But I did a lot of things that were not wise.
Like when I put the bird in my mouth onBatman,I really put that bird in my mouth.
Like,ewwww.I don’t know why I was not afraid on the motorcycle.
I was pretty crazy when I was younger.
MCDONALD:They gave us time to ride motorcycles.
I’ve been riding motorcycles in upstate New York since I was probably about 11.
I was riding up and down the hallway of the abandoned school that we were working in.
ZMED:I’d never been on a motorcycle in my entire life before that.
They taught me to ride motorcycles during it, and I fell off of the damn thing seven times.
I did so many stupid things on the motorcycle.
They literally locked up the keys so that I wouldn’t get on the motorcycle at lunchtime.
I tried to pop wheelies, and I was not capable of popping a wheelie.
It’s like with an actor when they ask, “Can you ride a horse?
“And you just say, “Yes.”
And you’ve never ridden a horse.
“Can you ride a motorcycle?”
I used to drive through scenes on the motorcycle on the second floor.
LUFT:That bit with the air pump was my idea.
But, of course, with Paulette, it never goes right.
Pat said, “That’s really funny.
We’ll get an air hose.”
It gave the humor back to her, having the scene of her being angry and jealous.
So, we didn’t record the entire album before we started the movie.
We recorded the album while we were making the movie.
We recorded it maybe a week before we had to shoot it for the talent show.
They were never going to show it in its entirety in the talent show.
They were going to show the end of it and then use bits and pieces of it.
But when we recorded it, they realized that it was one of the best songs in the show.
So we literally shot that in an evening and a day.
We literally did not sleep for about a 24-hour period.
Pat gave us the basics of what she wanted, and me and the T-Birds put it all together.
Because she was busy trying to figure out all of the technicalities and the logistics of doing it.
ZMED:I think Johnny was still in love with Stephanie.
That’s the point in the movie where I said, it’s time for me to move on.
Of course, it came out more in anger rather than in me showing that I’m sad.
I punched the wall, and Chris McDonald tried to mimic Johnny all the time.
So he punched the wall, but his hand was killing him when he did it.
MCDONALD:Well, Goose is second in command.
So I thought, “Well, if Johnny does that, I’ll do that too.
Oh no, that really hurts!”
[Laughs] So I played that.
They thought it was cool.
Pat gave us the freedom to do that kind of stuff.
ZMED:From that moment on in the picture, I decided that Paulette was my girl.
It’s time for the school talent show at last.
She also sports a massive headdress.
Stephanie, dressed as a Christmas tree, represents winter.
LUFT:The corset was amazing.
I did feel a bit like Vivien Leigh inGone With the Windwhen she says, “Keep pulling!”
All I remember is that it was unbelievably uncomfortable.
I nibbled at things in the corset on the set.
PFEIFFER:I thought, “How am I going to wear this thing?”
It was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever seen, but hilarious.
I don’t think I appreciated it at the time, how genius it was.
It was very stiff and poke-y and I couldn’t sit down or really do much of anything.
Still, I wish I’d kept it.
LUFT:The headpiece was almost like Lucille Ball.
It was way over the top, and it was a balancing act.
It wasn’t that heavy, but it didn’t start out that big.
It became that big and the bigger it got, the funnier I thought it was.
But Paulette was my tribute to female comedians.
I modeled Paulette around Judy Holiday and Carole Lombard.
They sing “(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time.”
CAULFIELD:When it came to the biker heaven sequence, they wanted me to wear the helmet.
They wanted to retain the mystery.
“It’s like suddenly seeing Zorro without his mask.”
But a helmet is not very sexy.
It makes him look like a spaceman.
And the audience knows who the Cool Rider is.
I said, “Let me wear the goggles.
I’ll just wear the goggles.”
They said, “Nope, you gotta wear the helmet.”
Not really knowing exactly what to do here.
CAULFIELD:What felt silly was wearing the goddamn helmet.
Stephanie and Johnny are carried on a barge into the middle of the pool as the king and queen.
CONN:They wanted me to be in the finale, but I was doing this series.
I was at a rehearsal, but then I couldn’t do it.
McDONALD:It was probably about a week of night shooting.
LUFT:Oh my god.
We were so cold.
We were all dressed in practically nothing.
PFEIFFER:: It was freezing and we were all, of course, in luau clothes.
I remember just being really, really cold.
ZMED:You have no idea how cold it was.
It was like four o’clock in the morning.
It’s as if he’s literally walking into the Arctic.
LUFT:His shoulders go almost up to his ear lobes.
Because that water was not heated.
And Olivia Newton John was seeing Matt at the time, so she was around the set.
It was so nice whenever she came to visit because it was like having your older sister there.
McDONALD:With the cold, the T-birds had it covered with the leather jackets.
But my heart went out to the poor girls that were not.
ADLON:I did miss out on being in some stuff because I was a minor.
Pat would be like, “Where’s Pamela?”
We joked around a lot.
That stuff in the boat, when I dropped a cigarette, that was an accident.
She comes back at me and I said, “I’m trying to be cool here.”
But I just dropped my cigarette and I burned myself.
That’s when I lose it and start screaming at her and she’s screaming at me.
We finally get to the edge, and she gets up and out of the thing.
There was a lot of ad-libbing there.
After jumping over the pool on his bike, he reveals his identity.
The T-Birds, impressed by his moves, offer him a jacket and a place in their gang.
Stephanie is reunited with her love, and they kiss.
Dolores tells Michael they can’t date anymore because she’s with Davey now.
ZMED:It was nice to get to that point where my character had an arc.
You suddenly see that Johnny’s a good guy.
That’s what I was trying to build with that vulnerability constantly.
CAULFIELD:It felt like being anointed, like suddenly you were being told you were cool.
LUFT:The part where the jacket hits me in the face was not scripted.
But Pat Birch thought that was so great and she kept that in.
I did everything but not burst out laughing.
ADLON:Maxwell was the best.
LUFT:It was an homage to “We Go Together.”
I talked to Didi Conn about that.
We wanted it to be a real set piece for years later.
ADLON:I couldn’t finish shooting the movie because I got into a head-on collision as a passenger.
I don’t jump because I was laid up in bed.
So, everybody signed the mannequin leg and sent it to me as a get-well present.
ZMED: You don’t ever get to put a character that you’ve done on Broadway on film.
Very, very few people ever have that chance.
I had an opportunity to put my Danny Zuko on film.
Grease 2was expected to be a hit when it was released on June 11, 1982.
CAULFIELD:Paramount was just greedy.
They might have realized it wasn’t a good idea to go up againstE.T.
PFEIFFER:I was very uncomfortable because there was a tremendous amount of hype around it.
And both Maxwell and I were both unknowns.
There was a lot of marketing that was centered around us.
I remember there was this one ad that was like, “Too hot.”
And I thought, “Oh my God, this is so awkward.
What if people don’t think I’m hot?
I’m being shoved down people’s throats.”
I do remember feeling a lot of pressure on our shoulders for this to succeed.
Because the first one was so beloved.
It was a really tough act to follow.
MCDONALD:At the time, it didn’t perform well.
But who could perform with the biggest movie musical?
Expectations were probably too high because the first one did a ridiculous amount of business.
But over the years, people have seen how it’s such a different take.
It wasn’t the boy’s point of view.
It was the girl’s point of view.
Girls really responded to this movie.
And then they scream.
I guarantee they’re doing a new series partly because of the cult standing ofGrease 2.
LUFT:The one thing that I wanted more than anything from the movie was my Pink Lady jacket.
We all got word from Paramount that we were not allowed to take any of the costumes.
And they said, “We didn’t give it to the first group.
We’re not giving it to you.”
Years later, they had an auction at Paramount and they auctioned off all of the Pink Lady jackets.
ZMED:The video generation, that’s whereGrease 2was really discovered and has actually become a cult classic.
PFEIFFER: The movie is a lot of fun and it targets a very specific kind of audience.
I am a little surprised that it has this cult following now.
But it’s really cool.
I guess maybe everything that goes around comes around.
With a little distance, people are a little more kind and forgiving.
And not keep comparing.
I always say that you’re free to’t compare them, they’re just too different.
I was invited to one and oh my God, it’s amazing.
Everybody was saying all the lines and singing all the words.
ZMED:I feel blessed and grateful.
It’s really quite a phenomenon.
I’m absolutely blown away.
But secretly, I love it.
LUFT:I will always be a Pink Lady.
There are so few people that have the identification of being Pink Ladies and T-Birds.
I’m grateful that it did find its legs and find its home.
And now they’re doing the TV show, so the circle goes on.
