Olivia Newton-John is a Hollywood icon, and the biopic, Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You, will take fans on a journey of the 70-year-old’s incredible professional and personal life. Delta Goodrem, 34, is playing Olivia in the biopic, and the Australian singer and actress sat down EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife to talk about the film, including her initial reaction to getting cast as Olivia.
“Well, at first, I wanted to speak to my beautiful friend, Olivia, and just get a feel with her about how this would go, because playing your idol who you’ve loved your whole life, who is one of your biggest influences, is obviously a great responsibility,” Delta told HollywoodLife. “Once I took it, it’s just like getting a really special present that you want to take so much care of and just give it all the love that I possibly could and do her even a tiniest bit justice that I could.”
Delta and Olivia are close friends in real-life. They first collaborated in 2008 on the song “Right Here With You.” They even recorded two duets together for the film — “Love is a Gift” and “Let Me Be There.” Delta admitted that she had reservations about playing Olivia in a biopic and said she wouldn’t have done the movie without making sure Olivia was OK with it. “When it came to my relationship with her, we were very, very, very open and, again, my loyalty was to her, so I said I would never do it without her blessing,” Delta continued. “She was the one in the end that said, ‘I want you to do this,’ so I said, ‘All right. Let’s do it.'”
Delta also opened up about the challenges of making the film. “There are some intense moments. Obviously, her life has had so many challenges, and I think opening up those wounds in certain parts that we both had, some similar experiences was definitely a big challenge,” she said. “Both being cancer survivors and going through that moment, I think that was definitely some of the big challenges, but really worth it for people to feel that moment.”
Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You also stars Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Bruce Welch, and Todd Lasance. The movie airs Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.