With three episodes available so far, ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ is shaping up to be one of the biggest shows of 2023 so far.
Charlotte Kavanagh has proven to be one of the scene-stealers as Rosemary, a member of the Socs who’s quickly becoming known for her barbed comments and shocking behaviour. In just three episodes Rosemary has played a cruel prank on Pink Ladies leader Jane (Marisa Davila) and shown that maybe, just maybe, she’s not as mean as she makes out.
Following my interview with Dylan Sloane, who plays Neil in the show, I spoke to Charlotte about her role as Rosemary, her background as a dancer and the show’s expansion of the ‘Grease’ universe…
‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ is such a huge production. What is it like being a part of that world and how did you feel when you got the role?
It was crazy, honestly. As soon as I found out about the audition, I was like, ‘OK, this is big. I know it’s gonna be big because they’re doing ‘Grease’, I know they want to do it right and I know this is going to be a real proper production’. Anytime I got the chance to audition, callbacks or I was pinned for a role, that was in itself really, really exciting and I was just so grateful to be seen. Once I got the job, I fully freaked out. I think I screamed and jumped up and down like a little kid. I love going to work every single day. It was really just such an amazing time diving into the 1950s every single day.
I grew up on ‘Grease’ and ‘Grease 2’ and I’m such a fan of the movies. I couldn’t believe how well this show captures that world and the attention to detail is incredible. What was it like wearing those 50s costumes?
It just helps you so much (to) settle into your character. A lot of the girls costumes are actually dresses from the 1950s, they’re 70-year-old dresses. They’re not super forgiving because the fabric doesn’t stretch that much so they’re really help you with your posture and hold you and make you stand a certain way. The hair and the makeup… my hair, I’m sure you’ve seen it’s always in a giant puff on the top of my head and I’m already a pretty tall person so it just adds a couple inches to my character (laughs) but it helps you get into that quirky ‘Grease’ energy. That’s what we would call it on set all the time, ‘Grease energy’. We would do (a couple of) takes and then our ‘Grease energy’ take, which was that vibrating energy you see in the movies.
Given that you have a background in dance and singing, this must have been the perfect role for you?
Yeah, I’ve grown up being a dancer my entire life. I definitely thought that was the track I was going to do. I wanted to be dancer, I wanted to go on tour and I did that as well. I’ve been working as a professional dancer for 7 or 8 years and luckily in Vancouver there’s so much work here for dancers. When I started to incorporate acting into my profession, this job came up and I’m like, ‘well, this is just the most perfect thing ever to come’ (laughs). I got to work with Jamal Sims, he’s a legend, and amazing, and just the coolest person to work with ever. Jeff and Louise, who are also in the choreography team were really, really amazing. On top of that, all of the dancers are all Vancouver dancers and these are all people that I got to work with for the last seven years as well so it was just like this big family working on the set together.
You mentioned that you didn’t initially set out to be an actor. How did that come into the mix for you?
I was about four years into working and my agent was like, ‘you know, you should really take an acting class. We get some calls for you every now and then to go into these rooms. You don’t have any acting training and I think it’d be really helpful.’ I did a lot of commercial acting and I feel like there were a lot of moments in my life that pointed me towards acting, and I ignored it. As soon as I got into my very first class, it was a light bulb (moment). I was like, ‘OK, this is what I’m supposed to be doing’ and I absolutely loved it. When I first started, I was awful, just horrible. I had a willingness to that so I think that helped but it was really cool to learn a skill later in life and start from the beginning. I’ve been working on my acting training for five years now, I want to say, and I think I’ve done pretty well. I’ve come pretty far (laughs).
Your character Rosemary is such a scene stealer and you play her with so much relish. She does drop barbed comments and seems to be second in command of the girls in the Socs. What’s your take on the character?
She’s kind of the muscle of the group. If they were a gang, she’s the one to pull the trigger, the one to follow through with the pranks and really say that mean comment. She’s a Soc and she’s a popular girl, not so much because she is liked (laughs) but more because people fear her. Going into it I thought she’s a mean girl and you see a lot of them on TV. There’s a certain way to play it but (you) always (have to) remember that comes from another place. I think she’s fearful herself of not being relevant and not being seen so I think that’s why she pushes so much against the kids at school. Even her friends, she’s not very nice to her friends either. It’s funny, though, because she’s not nice to her friends but I think at the same time, she would do anything for her friends and to protect her friends at the same time.
She’s protecting that perceived social standing at high school isn’t she? Even I fell for it in the early episodes when she tricked Jane so she could humiliate her…
Yeah, she’s your classic frenemy you’ve got to really watch (her). Everything she does has a strategy to it. She’s very strategic and who she’s associating herself with. It’s really fun and it’s great keeping the audience on their toes.
We got a glimpse of the real Rosemary during the spin the bottle party. In that moment it seemed she’s not as confident as she likes to portray…
Yeah. Also in her relationship with Wally. She trusts him and they’ve been together for about a year at this point but when you’re a girl and you’re teen you want to think that you have something special and then you turn around and you see these guys just treating you like you’re an object or a competition. It’s really disheartening. Even if she seems like she’s the most confident girl and nothing can break her, that’ll break somebody I think.
One of the show’s most interesting aspects is the exploration of the reality of life for women in the 50s. That’s something the original films didn’t dig too deep into, likely because of when they were made. How was that exploration for you?
Yeah, it’s really cool and you make a really good point. In the movies, they don’t really touch on that. I think the closest that came was in the song ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’, I feel the message starts to seep through and that song, which is funny because they almost didn’t do it. I’m so glad they did. I think it’s really wonderful that in our show, because it’s a series of hour long episodes, we get to finally dig a little bit more into the stories of every single kid that went to that school or went to school in the 50s. What everyone’s experience was like, whether or not they were a woman or a guy or secretly gay, or a person of color… everyone. It’s opening up the world to what it was like for everyone because there’s not a lot of representation in stories from the 50s. At the same time, we’re still singing, still dancing and having a good time so it’s still fun, but still truthful.
The introduction of Frenchy and Rizzo as supporting characters plants the seeds that the show may tie closer to the original movie as it progresses. Is that something you’d like to see?
Yeah, and I think audiences want that for sure. Watching it, I’m sure you saw that we do a bunch of easter eggs and pull lijnes and moments that are from the original. We just want to keep gifting people with that. Just look out, just keep watching (laughs). I want to talk about it, but I feel like I’m gonna slip up!
I know that it’s hard for you to talk specifics but is there anything vague that you can give me about what’s to come in the rest of the season?
I think one thing that’s really wonderful, and I think you’ll see this, is that everyone really sinks into their characters as the season progresses. I remember on day one, we were all working together and we had an idea of our characters because we’ve obviously done the work but when you see the progression from episode one and two to even, let’s say, episode five, it’s really wonderful. You really feel like you’re living in the show a little bit more so I think it gets grander in that sense and I think you can really see into the characters a lot more.
What’s been the most challenging aspect of being part of the show?
I think the pressure (because) I know how much it means to people. People are very protective over ‘Grease’, which I understand. Like you, you grew up on it and it’s one of your favourites. Whenever there’s prequels or additional movies people get a little scared that it’s going to tarnish it for some reason. For all of us, we all went into it everyone – cast, crew and the whole team – we want to add to the story and show how much we love it and not try and take anything away from it. That was something everyone would think of everyday. Also, this is my first big job. I’ve done a lot of daytime roles but this is my first meaty role that I got to live in for seven months so that was definitely a new challenge, but fully accepted. Totally loved it.
The fan reaction for the show has been really good so that must feel validating for you?
Yeah, definitely. I love seeing people learning the dances and posting it on TikTok. The fan response has been really, really wonderful. It’s funny too, because when the first trailer was dropping the trolls just came out right away but then slowly as the music video dropped and then the episodes started dropping, the fans just took over. They’ve just been so wonderful and it’s really encouraging. I’m just happy that it’s making people happy.
What else do you have in the pipeline for this year?
There’s a lot of really cool productions coming to Vancouver so I’m keeping my eye out for that. I’ve been auditioning lots. ‘The Last of Us’ season two is going to be filming in Vancouver. I’m not on it….
We can manifest it…
I’m manifesting that. I’m really hoping for season two of ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’. If we get to season two, then we’d probably start going into production pretty quickly. That’s my plan for the year.
‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’ is streaming on Paramount+ with new episodes dropping Fridays in the UK. Watch the trailer for the show below:
