When Maxwell Caulfield landed the lead role in Grease 2, he believed he was about to become Hollywood’s next big thing. Instead, the 1982 sequel became a cautionary tale that would haunt his career for decades.
In a candid interview withFox News on Sunday, August 24, the 65-year-old actor opened up about the crushing disappointment of the film’s failure and how it derailed his path to stardom while launching Michelle Pfeiffer’s career.
The British-born actor, who portrayed exchange student Michael Carrington in the follow-up to 1978’s cultural phenomenon Grease, revealed that he and his co-star were both nervous about the instant fame they expected to follow.
The original Grease had transformed Olivia Newton-John and John Travoltainto global superstars, setting sky-high expectations for the sequel.
“We would sometimes talk about how one would handle it, because it’s a very real thing to suddenly become world famous,” Caulfield recalled. “It suddenly means, like everything in life, there’s a price to pay.”
Both Caulfield and Pfeiffer were relatively unknown performers when they were cast in the musical sequel.
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Between them, they had only accumulated a modest collection of acting credits before stepping into the spotlight. The film featured Pfeiffer as the Pink Lady Stephanie Zinone, who develops romantic feelings for Caulfield’s bookish yet endearing character.
The production boasted an ensemble cast that also included Adrian Zmed, Christopher McDonald, Lorna Luft, Tab Hunter and Didi Conn, who returned from the original film to reprise her beloved role as Frenchy.
However, Grease 2 proved to be a massive commercial disappointment, struggling to find its audience amid fierce competition from blockbuster hits like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Rocky III.
“When the film… didn’t take off, I went down with the ship,” Caulfield admitted.
The failure had dramatically different consequences for the two leads. While Caulfield’s career trajectory was severely impacted, Pfeiffer managed to transform the setback into a launching pad for success, landing a starring role alongside Al Pacino in Scarface just one year later.
“But she rose like a fabulous phoenix,” he said.
Reflecting on his original aspirations, The Merry Gentleman star acknowledged the ambitious dreams he had harbored for his breakthrough performance.
“I did hope to be embraced by a movie-going audience,” he continued. “I did aspire to represent a certain mantle of cool that movie stardom bestows upon you.”
The experience taught him valuable lessons about the unpredictable nature of Hollywood success.
Now, he’s warning up-and-coming actors to “be very careful about the first role you do, because that’s the role you’re going to be asked to play very often, a variation of that for many years of your career.”
