Olivia (22 page)

Matt worked hard not just to learn to execute dance steps expertly but also to add a touch of flamboyant style to his dancing, a bit of showmanship. It was an astute, calculated approach. ‘I always thought I sold my dancing rather better than I actually danced,’ he once explained. ‘That was the only way to survive.’

Armed with this belief that he had an eye-catching edge over other dancers, Matt headed for Los Angeles in the hope of breaking into television or movies. ‘I arrived in Los Angeles on July the second 1979,’ he recalled, ‘and all I had was my suitcase full of dance costumes, a fishing rod and £3,000, which I had saved up from working as a welder during my holidays. I had nothing planned and I knew no one. I just knew what I wanted to do.’

Matt quickly found a small room to rent then set about trying to find work. ‘After going through all the trade papers, I found some film extra work. I wanted to see what films were all about. I wanted to soak up everything - the atmosphere, the jargon directors used, the way the actors moved, everything.’ For Matt, it would prove to be time well spent.

Just four weeks after he had first set foot in Los Angeles came the fairytale break that was to change his life. He auditioned for a part in a new movie, a musical fantasy called
Xanadu
, and initially his heart sank when he turned up at the casting call to find that he was facing the most intense competition - he was just one of six hundred dancers all chasing peripheral parts in the movie’s chorus line. Some had already appeared in movies and television and Matt reckoned his chances of selection were slim at best.

Six hours later, however, that number had been whittled down to seven girls and seven boys, fourteen couples - and Matt was one of them. To his joy, he was then told he had been hired. He could barely contain his excitement when he was informed that he would be dancing in a movie that would feature one of Hollywood’s all-time great dance stars, the legendary Gene Kelly. The other big name in
Xanadu
, he learned, would be none other than Olivia Newton-John, who had been such a smash hit in
Grease
.

Matt could hardly believe it, and allowed himself a quiet smile at the thought that Olivia’s picture had once adorned his bedroom wall. He had, of course, long since taken it down, but he was nevertheless thrilled at the prospect of appearing as a background dancer in her movie and he couldn’t wait to meet her.

Rehearsals for
Xanadu
were scheduled to begin almost immediately Matt and the other dancers were cast and, on 6 August 1979, as Matt vividly registered in his memory, he was introduced to Olivia for the first time - and in the most unlikely circumstances.

Olivia’s leading man in the movie was still to be cast and, in his absence, she needed a man to interact with in rehearsals. Her eyes fell upon Matt, who was busy conscientiously practising his roller-skating, and she liked what she saw. ‘He was very striking, you couldn’t miss him, that’s for sure,’ she said after singling Matt out to be her stand-in.

Matt was astonished. ‘We had just begun rehearsing when the choreographer called out: “Hey, Matt, I want you to try out a step with Olivia.” I couldn’t believe my ears. Here was I, Mr Nobody, and they were asking me to dance with Olivia Newton-John.

‘Suddenly, there I was with this beautiful star in my arms. I felt so important dancing with her, it was absolutely magical. I never wanted it to end. But at the end of the day we simply said “Cheerio” and Olivia went back to her hotel suite and I went back to the tiny room where I was living.’

As far as Matt was concerned, the day he had spent dancing with his one-time pin-up, and now the star of
Xanadu
, was likely to be a one-off encounter, the sum total of his association with Olivia Newton-John. At least he could tell himself that he had actually danced with the girl he had once worshipped as a teenager.

But the following morning, instead of being ordered back into the ranks of the chorus line, Matt found himself summoned to work on yet more routines with Olivia as her stand-in dance partner while the search continued for her co-star. This state of affairs continued right up until a good-looking young American actor called Michael Beck was finally cast as the male lead.

Olivia had originally suggested a then little known Australian actor by the name of Mel Gibson as her leading man, and also under consideration had been Andy Gibb, youngest of the Gibb brothers Robin, Maurice and Barry who as a trio comprised the phenomenally prolific hit-makers The Bee Gees. But Beck, who curiously bore a startling resemblance to young Andy Gibb, won the role of Sonny by virtue of an impressive performance in a movie called
The Warriors
about gang warfare in New York. Joel Silver had been associate producer on the movie and spoke highly of him. It was also felt that Beck’s solid training as an actor at London’s highly regarded Central School of Speech and Drama would hold him in good stead as a counterbalance to Olivia’s inexperience as an actress.

Beck’s late casting meant that he did not join the
Xanadu
production until three days before filming was due to commence in the middle of September. By then, Matt and Olivia had developed a warm personal rapport over six weeks’ of rehearsal as Matt eagerly continued to be the absent male lead’s stand-in. It did not go unnoticed among the rest of the cast and crew how good Matt and Olivia looked together - Matt with his dark, Italianate, fresh-faced handsome looks and Olivia exuding a contrasting golden muse-like glow.

Prior to Beck’s eventual call-up, the obvious bond between Matt and Olivia prompted the producers to wonder whether Matt should be cast in the leading male role. He and Olivia seemed such a natural pairing, but Matt’s lack of experience as a professional actor and his youth were against him.

As rehearsals continued, however, the couple spent more and more time in each other’s company. ‘We sweated together, worked together, cried together, laughed together, built up this tremendous confidence together and gradually began to trust one another,’ Matt recalled. ‘So the next step was that we started confiding in each other and almost without realising, we built up a very close relationship.’

The shooting of
Xanadu
began on 19 September 1979, a year that marked a milestone in Universal’s history. Almost exactly fifty years earlier, the studio had released its first musical,
Show Boat
, following the coming of sound.
Xanadu
was primarily shot in and around the Los Angeles area and, during breaks in rehearsals while the film crew adjusted lights and microphones, Matt and Olivia both found conversation came so easily - and they talked and talked. ‘I didn’t think two people could talk so much and still have things to say,’ Matt remembered.

On-set conversations blossomed into daily luncheons and inwardly Matt could not deny to himself that he found Olivia warm, beautiful, and desirable. He explained: ‘After the first couple of weeks, I could feel myself thinking: yes, I like her. But forget it, Matt. She’s not going to want to know. She was eleven years older and a star. I was just an unknown kid.’

The romantic impulses, nevertheless, were becoming ever harder to resist. Soon it became a challenge for Matt not to show his true feelings when they were up close in their dance routines. It was all he could do to stop himself from hugging and kissing Olivia as he held her in his arms. He said:

 

Olivia, for her part, was secretly enjoying the time she was spending with Matt. Tall, dark, slim with a toned, athletic physique, Matt had an open and prettily handsome face with a dazzling smile and Olivia was most certainly drawn to him. ‘There was instant chemistry between us,’ she later admitted. ‘I thought he was such a sweet person.’ But, like Matt, she was careful not to show undue interest in the young dancer to anyone on the film set.

While recognising there was a definite physical attraction between them, realistically she felt that they were destined to remain nothing more than working friends. After all, she reminded herself, he was only twenty years old, and she was thirty-one. Matt had still been a little lad running around in short trousers when she was a budding singer making her first record. She had never been out with a man so much younger than herself. Besides, she reasoned, any on-set romance would complicate, jeopardise even, their working relationship, and so she dismissed the notion.

Even so, Olivia was intrigued and inwardly not a little pleased when she discreetly asked around about Matt and discovered that he appeared not to be a gigolo and there was no special girl sharing his bed of a night. Matt: ‘I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time even though there were lots of pretty girls around. I made sure I didn’t, because I suspected that Livvy was finding out what my sex life was like.

‘She wouldn’t have been interested in me if she’d thought I was sleeping around. Anyway, from the first day I met Livvy, I wasn’t interested in any other girl.’

As filming continued, Matt was increasingly in a quandary. With every passing day he was becoming more and more enamoured with Olivia, and wrestled endlessly in his mind with how he could possibly ask her out on a date. The more he thought about it, the more daunting it appeared: Olivia was a famous international star; he was totally unknown. She was worldly, hugely successful; he was a twenty-year-old beginner. She was a millionaire many times over; he was earning very little. Her home was a fabulous Malibu ranch house; he barely existed living from hand to mouth in a tiny room in the wrong part of Los Angeles.

They were poles apart, he told himself. And how would she react if he did coax her out on a date and he tried to kiss her, he asked himself. Would she push him away or would she pull him towards her? And if he made a move and was rejected, how could they continue to work harmoniously together for the remainder of the
Xanadu
shoot?

Matt pondered all the uncertainties over and over. One thing was for sure, he found he could not get Olivia out of his mind. He thought about her constantly until twelve weeks into filming he resolved he must at least ask her out, if only to preserve his sanity. Perhaps he had false hopes, he told himself, but he genuinely sensed there was a mutual physical attraction and he had to discover if there really was a spark between them. With his heart in his mouth, he decided to call up Olivia on the telephone and ask her for a date. He admitted:

 

For Matt, asking a girl to join him on a hike in a park was, in his eyes, about as authentic and natural an invitation for a date as you could get. Matt’s boyhood had largely been spent in outdoor pursuits in the City of Roses, as Portland was known. The city was just seventy miles from inviting Oregon beaches where Matt had regularly enjoyed sailing and windsurfing. He had also spent happy days hiking and exploring the seventy miles of trails in Portland’s Forest Park or simply walking along the banks of the Columbia and Willamette rivers.

The Will Rogers State Historic Park in Los Angeles, named after the most popular and highest-paid Hollywood actor in the 1930s, had long been a favourite with hikers like Matt. Its 186 acres in Santa Monica offered trails through lush clover and eucalyptus trees and had glorious views of both the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica mountains. Matt planned a romantic route for himself and Olivia through the park that would entail climbing a small mountain.

For Olivia, well used to men wanting to impress her on dates by lavishly wining and dining her at the most expensive must-be-seen-at restaurants, an invitation to join Matt on a Sunday hike was a most refreshing change.

‘Outdoorsy, strong and fun’ is how Olivia later described young Matt. ‘I was a career woman, constantly working, with less time for fun things. He was sweet, genuine and open, like a breath of fresh air after some of the men I’d met in LA.’

Matt’s impecunious state and his youthful naivety dictated that his hike with Olivia would be no gourmet picnic. ‘I bought a large tub of Kentucky fried chicken for us to eat cold,’ he revealed. ‘Not exactly your Hollywood smart scene. I was so excited I forgot to bring anything to drink so we had to hunt around for a water tap. We didn’t eat much in the end. We just talked and talked for six and a half hours.’ And finally they kissed.

‘It took all the courage I had,’ Matt later admitted. ‘We were standing at the top of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. It was the first time we had actually been on our own. I put my jacket down on the grass for her to sit on and sat down beside her. There was a long silence - the first one of the day. My heart was pumping so loudly, I was sure she could hear it.

‘I knew I had to make the first move so I edged slowly towards her to see what she would do. She moved a little closer. So I moved closer still. It was like being a teenager again. And suddenly we were kissing. It was just like a scene from a film.’