“With our long friendship and her mentoring, my loyalty is to Olivia,” she continued. “There was a lot of thought and a lot of back and forth in the sense of it was whatever Olivia wanted in the end. It was only when she called and said, ‘I want you to do it’ that I agreed. I did feel the responsibility to protect her and took great pride in that. At the end of the day, the project was coming from a celebration of love, telling her incredible story and the way she overcame so many different challenges and did it all with grace and humility.”
For Goodrem, getting to play her idol was a full circle moment. “When I was first signed they asked, ‘Who would you like to be?’ and I replied, ‘Olivia Newton-John,’” she said. “That was when I was 15, so it was special. Honestly, in my heart, the whole thing was very special. The moment I got that experience of walking onto the set of Grease and singing “Hopelessly Devoted To You” meant a lot. Oh, and being transformed into Xanadu… that was the best time of my life.”
Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You follows the remarkable six-decade career of the beloved entertainer. From a talent-show-winning schoolgirl and her early career in London, to conquering the U.S. charts and eventually the box-office, every high and low the singer experienced is highlighted in the movie, including Newton-John’s own, very public recurring battles with breast cancer.
Given her own cancer experience, filming those scenes opened long-since healed scars for Goodrem. “That was emotionally quite heavy,” she recalled. “But I saw it as very healing -- sharing an experience with people on camera now of what that really felt like. It’s usually a private battle, and one a lot of people are going through now, so I was always cognizant of that; if somebody was in that fight or just had that news that day.
“In my own journey, I wanted people to understand how being a pillar of strength encourages someone to fight and make it through to the other side, as I know Olivia does,” she added. “Having it be a part of this piece of work, it was raw and heavy in the moment. I kind of had to just stitch it back up."
Despite the film’s heavier moments, Goodrem admits she had a blast learning about and recreating some of the iconic moments of Newtown-John’s early career. “I learned a lot about her and watched a lot of early videos on YouTube I hadn’t seen,” she revealed. “I love the 1970s leading up to the Xanadu period as I've always loved the era as a style. The clothes were great but walking onto the set in my leotard to re-create the “(Let’s Get) Physical” video, that’s when I thought, ‘Now I'm committed!’
“It really was a spin out to watch that,” she added. “I was so overjoyed doing it, and I was transformed into that five-year-old, and all the different chapters in my own life, going back to the 15-year-old girl who was signed. Playing Olivia took me back to the innocence of stepping into the industry and I thought that was beautiful.”
Goodrem stayed true to her word during production, protecting her friend and assuring her that her life-story was in good hands. “I did send her photos of the important people throughout her life and the people portraying them and her response was usually, ‘Oh my God.’ She loved getting the pictures from the ‘Physical’ video, so I really was excited to share things with her. I have the utmost respect for her and whether she wanted to be a part of it or not, it was her call.”
One unexpected bonus for Goodrem was the film’s soundtrack, which Newton-John did agree to participate in. “Going into the studio with her was a great show of friendship,” she said. “Her singing on the soundtrack with me was so special.
“I know she hasn't seen it and I understand that because as she said to me, ‘I will watch [it] in my own time,’">