Which roles could Olivia Newton-John Have played?

She was supposed to star ina film based on DH Lawrence's Kangaroo

I can see her in a film version of The Thorn Birds. The role of Meggie wasn't too demanding of acting talent. She could have pulled it off and would have been beautiful.

Mama Corleone

She also wanted to star as Doris Day. She'd have sung the songs beautifully but I don' t think she could have mastered the American accent.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE ONJ, but she’s a crappy actress.

I wish she and Travolta had starred in a Grease sequel.

I can see Olivia in Urban Cowboy if they'd made the Sissy character an Aussie. That would have been a better reunion with JT than Two of a Kind.

So beautiful.

she had physical appeal, for sure.

I'm thinking about her in Romancing the Stone. I think she could have pulled it off if the director had yelled at her for playing cutesy. Kathleen Turner was terrible in the film. Nearly anyone would have been better.

Maybe the female lead in one of the Crocodile Dundee sequels.

Imagine Richard Gere and Olivia in The Thorn Birds in an epic movie. Deborah Kerr could have played the Stanwyck role. Oscars for everyone!

I think it would have been nice to see her stretch in The Thorn Birds. She had a lovely screen presence but admittedly wasn't a natural actress. She'd have needed a strong director.

They wanted her for "Sophie's Choice"!

She was up for the role of the daughter in The Piano, the title roles in Precious, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine...

I think she was the prettiest pop star in my entire life.

Not the most beautiful, but the prettiest.

Romancing the bone

She was no actress. There’s a reason she didn’t make more movies.

Matt Lattanzi was so damn hot

Why'd she leave him?

I think she married him pretty completely for the beauty and the sex. After a while, that fades, believe it or not, if you're any sort of person of substance.

I believe if she was well directed she could have been effective in a drama. In the wife role.

I don't think she could lose the Australian accent. Also, too wholesome-looking.

She was not a good actress. I wish she had been better, but Grease fooled a lot of people because her charisma and star quality was put to such good use that people thought she was a better actress than she was. No one blamed her for Xanadu (and again, her charm carried her a long way in that), but Two of a Kind really exposed her weakness as an actress.

We are in Xanadu.

ONJ was Allan Carr's first choice for "Can't Stop the Music," but she chose to do "Xanadu" instead. The part went to Valerie Perrine. I've never seen CStM, so I don't know whether Dame Olivia could've pulled that one off.

After the fiasco of "Xanadu," she coveted the Mabel role in "Pirates of Penzance," hoping she would regain her Hollywood clout, but the producers stayed firm with their Broadway cast and kept Linda Ronstadt. That's another one I haven't seen.

Dame Judith Dench couldn't have pulled that one off...

Sybil Dorset

From Olivia's autobiography:

[quote]I spent a day with Dustin Hoffman when I auditioned for Tootsie. He was really funny and suggested we just walk around one of the neighbourhoods in Malibu. We talked about movies and life, and finally found ourselves walking up a long driveway by mistake. Imagine the homeowner who looked up, saw us and actually did say, ‘Can I help you . . . two?’

[quote]I was also up for the Richard Gere World War II movie Yanks, but didn’t get that role either. Richard was lovely to me and it was nice to meet him.

OP The only correct answer is, she would have killed as Beth.

I wonder what Ken Russell would have done with her if he had still been in vogue in the years after ONJ scored such a success with Grease.

She was the first choice for A Cry In The Dark but Olivia wanted to turn it into a musical and refused to wear a short black wig. She felt Lindy Chamberlain would be more sympathetic if she had long blond hair and burst into song every now and then.

Meryl Street got the role.

R32, try harder, do better.

Apparently she wanted to play Evita, which is why she started singing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina. When the movie finally happened she was too old for the role, though.

[quote] Deborah Kerr could have played the Stanwyck role.

Miss Kerr REFUSED to play supporting roles!

She was a mild diva.

R21 Livvy married Matt completely for his beauty and the sex.

And then she divorced him when his hair started falling out in chunks.

Matt cheated on her with their daughter's nanny. The guy was always sleeping around.

[quote] I wonder what Ken Russell would have done with her.

Nothing!

Russell wanted sluts. And virginal Livvy had the sex-appeal of a vanilla milkshake.

She considered doing Blood Brothers on Broadway but then declined. Carole King and later Helen Reddy took the role.

[quote]R34 Apparently she wanted to play Evita, which is why she started singing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina.

She really thought she could act that role??

well R40, so did Madonna

there was talk of ONJ as Evita and Travolta as Che

but I think they settled on Two of a Kind instead

Sophie’s Choice.

I was going to say that Olivia's voice could not handle the Evita score but then Madonna's voice is probably lesser.

Two of a Kind is awful but Olivia is surprisingly good in the scene in the acting class where she has to express terror at a stalker.

Oh man, if ONJ would have gone into Blood Brothers, I would have been there every night.

Olivia wanted to bring Doris Day's story to the big screen, she even had lunch with Day at one point. But Day was adamant not to get the big screen treatment. She told Olivia that it wasn't personal, but she didn't want to have to relive the stuff she went through in a movie.

Olivia auditioned for the Jessica Lange part in Tootsie, even doing a screen test with Dustin Hoffman.

She was a contender for Sister Act after Bette Midler dropped out and before Whoopi Goldberg got it.

She was also offered what came to be Reba Mcentire's sitcom.

Before Can't Stop the Music, Allan Carr shopped around a remake of Singing In the Rain with Olivia, Baryshnikov and Nureyev.

[quote]r41 Well, so did Madonna [think she could play Evita], r40

Yeah… but Madonna was at least a lot like the character to begin with. Brash young sexpot bursts forth in the Big City to manipulate everyone to death and feast on their carcasses.

ONJ is a more natural fit for Dorothy Gale and that crowd.

I think she could have handled The Pirates of Penzance.

Linda Ronstadt had a better, very particular voice for the role in The Pirates of Penzance, plus she was surprisingly good with comedy. Olivia, lovely and talented as she was, would have been fine, but not quite as good as Linda.

Imagine her in Michelle Pfeiffer's role in Scarface. She'd never have played such a sordid character, but she'd have been exquisite.

And the movie would have fallen apart.

[quote} She was supposed to star in a film based on DH Lawrence's Kangaroo

I realise that IMDB mentions it but I just can't imagine who she could have played.

DH Lawrence's novel is a perceptive account of the political situation in post-war Australia when the newly-activated Communist Party attracted thousands of angry unemployed ex-soldiers and they fomented a counter party of patriotic middle-class ex-soldiers and they both came to blows.

The only female role in this dark story was Lawrence's domineering, angry passionate wife, Frieda von Richthofen

She could have perhaps played a nun in something. But really, that’s about it. And it would have to be a calm, contented nun. No conflict.

Maybe a remake of “The Singing Nun”? But who’d want to see that?