In honor of the 40th anniversary of Grease, the Vanity Fair series Notes on a Scene (previously) invited director Randal Kleiser to break down the iconic scene featuring the song “You’re the One That I Want“. Kleiser graciously explained every detail of the scene including the costuming, location, the choreography and the important role that the extras played in the film.
These people here and they were with us the whole shoot. Pat Burch came up with the idea of giving each of these dancers a name and a backstory so that they could work all the way through the picture and always be in character, so that if you watch the movie it really looks like instead of just background extras just crossing, these people are all doing things all through it. …so little subtleties like that that just make you feel this is a real high school.
