Delta Goodrem has opened up on what it was like to portray her childhood music hero, Olivia Newton-John, for the upcoming biopic Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted To You.
Speaking with The Herald Sun, the 33-year-old revealed that the experience hit close to home in many ways — particularly the scenes which dealt with ONJ’s cancer battle.
Of course, Delta was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she was just a teenager.
“I had to reopen old wounds that I had already stitched up,” she told the publication on Tuesday.
She later explained that the hospital scenes were the hardest to shake from her mind.
“The week we did the hospital scenes it definitely took me time to wash it off again. There were a lot of heavy scenes,” she said.
Nonetheless, the singer-songwriter has previously dubbed the project “one of the highlights” of her life.
“Olivia influenced my earliest years as an evolving artist and became the backbone of influence to living my life and heart as a proud Australian artist,” the actress said via a press release. “I aspired to have her grace, humility and talent from the time I started singing.”
She added: “She is an icon. I am deeply humbled to play my idol and friend.”
Olivia herself, meanwhile, said she was initially “horrified” by the show. But she jumped on board after she “realised it was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not.”
“I love Delta. I think she’s a really good actress and a great singer so that made it okay, because we’re friends”, she told Australian Women’s Weekly. “In the beginning she called me and asked, ‘Shall I do it or not?’ First I said, ‘I’m not sure,’ and then I said, ‘Oh you do it’.”
“I haven’t read it and I don’t know how accurate it is because it’s a movie and people weren’t there at every moment of my life but the money will go to the hospital [the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne] so some good has come of it.”
Olivia: Hopelessly Devoted To You premieres Sunday 13th of May at 8:30pm on Channel Seven.
