Stockard Channing Says She Was ‘Resented’ for the Success of “Grease”: ‘It Was Not Taken Seriously at All’

Stockard Channing knows that starring in a hit movie isn’t always a total dream come true.

Channing, 80, opened up in a Jan. 23 interview with Britain’s The Times about the long legacy of Grease and her role as Betty Rizzo. And though the movie is beloved by generations of fans now, she says it wasn’t always that way.

“I gave [Grease] my all, and I’m proud of the performance and proud of the character,” the actress said of her role as the leader of the Pink Ladies who brings the house down with “There Are Worse Things I Could Do.” She explained, “But at the time, it was not taken at all seriously. The money that it was making was resented. I was resented. It’s a kid’s movie — it was really pissed on.”

When it was released in 1978, Grease, which was based on the 1972 musical of the same name, became the highest-grossing musical film ever and the second-highest-grossing movie for Paramount ever, behind The Godfather. The movie’s soundtrack also hit No. 1 in multiple countries around the world. Channing and her costars — including stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John  — were thrust into the spotlight.

Channing had been primarily a theater actress, and 1975’s The Fortune, directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, was meant to be her big break. It flopped, which ultimately led the actress to Grease. “I needed the gig enormously; things were not going well after a big, big lesson in show business,” she told The Times.

As for Grease’s longevity — a legacy that includes 1982’s Grease 2 and the 2023 prequel series Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies as well as millions of fans around the world — Channing said she has “absolutely no idea” why it’s lasted. “It’s extraordinary,” she said, adding, “The depth of the impact is bizarre.”

After Grease and the strong reactions it engendered in the industry, Channing had trouble booking another film. “That’s one of the reasons I went back to the stage,” she explained. “But then I realized with time, how it’s affected generations, especially of women and even some men.”

Channing remembered one unsavory moment with a costar she didn’t name. “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,” she told The Times.

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Channing has continued to be recognized for the movie — which she filmed when she was in her early 30s — throughout her life. In 1998, when Grease turned 20, Channing told PEOPLE, “I was at an audition recently and these little girls came rushing in — and they were like 5 — and yelled, ‘Where’s Rizzo?’ Not even their mothers were 5 when we did the movie!”

Channing went on to star in Six Degrees of Separation (which earned her an Oscar nomination), Practical Magic andThe West Wing, among many more. The two-time Emmy winner also won a Tony in 1985 and appeared widely in theater in both New York and London.

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