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Stockard Channing was an inimitable force as Betty Rizzo in 1978’s Grease, though the movie was never meant to become a huge phenomenon.
“I gave [Grease] my all, and I’m proud of the performance and proud of the character. But at the time, it was not taken at all seriously,” Channing, 80, told The Times of London in a profile published on Thursday, January 23. “The money that it was making was resented. I was resented. It’s a kid’s movie — it was really pissed on.”
Channing, who was 33 at the time, portrayed Rizzo, the 17-year-old leader of the Pink Ladies clique, and performed the show-stopping “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” ballad. (The high school film also starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as star-crossed lovers Danny and Sandy.)
“The depth of the impact is bizarre,” Channing recalled of Grease. “I’ve gone through a lot of changes about that experience. I needed the gig enormously; things were not going well after a big, big lesson in show business.”
Despite the popularity of the movie-musical, Channing still struggled to book a steady stream of roles and, instead, focused her career on the stage.
“But then I realized with time, how it’s affected generations, especially of women and even some men,” she claimed. “I’m not going to name the actor, but we were in a movie together and we were doing a press tour. We passed each other from one press table to another, and he said, ‘You were my wet dream when I was 12.’ Oh, thank you so much. A little too much information.”
Channing has also since relocated from the United States to England, where she moved in 2019.
“I enjoyed living here, the friendships I had, I kept, I was spending months at a time here. And then I was here during COVID, and that sort of cemented everything,” she recalled. “I realized that I was happier here. Also at my age, people get sick, and people die and people move away. And that started to happen. Now I live here, and I’m really grateful that I was able to pull it off.”
Channing further gushed that “life is very good” for her, denying that she’d get into another long-term relationship in the future. (Channing, who has been married four times, was last in a relationship with Daniel Gillham until his death in 2014.)
“No, I think that would be such a pain in the ass,” Channing quipped. “I’m consolidating, thank you very much. I’m very happy with the friends I have. No. Life is good.”
