Michelle Pfeiffer Was ‘Terrified’ ‘Grease 2’ Wouldn’t Live Up to the Original

When Michelle Pfeiffer was cast in Grease 2, she was “terrified.” 

Pfeiffer, 67, opened up about the cult favorite musical comedy on the Sept. 29 episode of the SmartLess podcast. Co-host Sean Hayes revealed that Grease 2, released in 1982, is one of his “favorite movies” of all time. “Me and my sister watched it a thousand times. I know every word and every song,” he said, to the laughter of co-hosts Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. He called it “a huge part” of his “childhood.”

Later in the episode, Bateman and Arnett let Hayes get all of his Grease 2 questions out. “What was it like knowing how big the first one was?” he asked. The first Grease, released in 1978, starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as greaser Danny Zuko and good girl Sandy Olsson and became a phenomenon. The musical grossed over $300 million and cemented Travolta and Newton-John as bona fide movie stars. 

“It’s a really good question. And of course I was terrified,” Pfeiffer confessed. “You know, look, it’s John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John and the first one was amazing and such a cult following and so successful.” Then they cast her and “this kid” Maxwell Caulfield for the new movie, which was set two years after the first but at the same Rydell High School. Pfeiffer, in her first leading role, played Pink Ladies leader Stephanie Zinone while Caulfield, now 65, played transfer student Michael Carrington.

“[The audience doesn’t] know who we are and they’re taking out ads that say ‘too hot,’ ” she remembered. “And I’m like, ‘Don’t say that. What if they don’t think I’m hot? Don’t tell them I’m hot anyway.’ ” 

Hayes asked if, despite the nerves, she had fun, and she said she loved “dancing and singing.” Hayes started singing songs from the film, including the bowling-themed number “Score Tonight,” and Pfeiffer revealed, “I still have my bowling ball. I do. And the bowling ball case.”

She also told the hosts her favorite part of the musical. “ I think one of my favorite parts of the film is ‘A Girl for All Seasons‘ because isn’t it ridiculous? I’m dressed as a Christmas tree,” she said.

Grease 2 did not receive the same critical acclaim that the first film did, though in 1982, PEOPLE’s critic said it wasn’t Pfeiffer and Caulfield’s fault, calling them “sexy poster material” and “talented.” 

The movie, which included Adrian Zmed, Christopher McDonald, Lorna Luft, Tab Hunter and Didi Conn reprising her role from the first film as Frenchy, flopped at the box office. But over the years it developed into a much-loved cult classic with its own passionate fans.

Still, Caulfield reflected in an interview earlier this year that because Pfeiffer had already booked Scarface (released in 1983), she wasn’t as affected by the Grease 2 reception. “When the film… didn’t take off, I went down with the ship,” he told Fox News. “But she rose like a fabulous phoenix.” Scarface, which also starred Al Pacino, did become a success, and Pfeiffer noted that fans still quote it to her regularly.

Grease, meanwhile, got one more spin-off story: 2023’s Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, which aired for one season on Paramount+.