Didi Conn, who played Frenchy in the 1978 hit movie musical Grease, shared that the cast has remained very close nearly 50 years after the release. And now they are coming together to support her for a very personal cause.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Conn shared that her Grease castmates will participate in a fundraiser benefiting a New York-based organization that supports people with disabilities, which includes her son.
The event will benefit the Center for Discovery in Hurleyville, N.Y., with Conn explaining that it is “the most remarkable home for children with disabilities, adults with disabilities, mostly very, very fragile health.” She added that the organization has been dealing with financial challenges due to Medicaid cuts, which is why the cast is coming together to help.
“So the cast of Grease has agreed that we’re going to do a big fundraiser at the Hollywood Bowl and somewhere in New York,” Conn says. “I’m thinking we should be at Yankee Stadium or Shea Stadium because I know that Grease is the word, baby.”
Conn’s son, Daniel, was diagnosed with Autism at age 3. She serves as a spokesperson for Autism Speaks.
“It’s been 100 percent of my heart and soul and brain into it,” Didi said on a 2020 episode of the Purple Roads podcast. “My son is 28 years now. He’s living on a farm and working there and doing things that I never would’ve thought he could do.”
Didi Conn Teases Plans for 50th Anniversary of ‘Grease‘
Conn wasn’t willing to give anything away about the movie’s 50th anniversary. But, she did tease that they definitely have something up their sleeve.
“We are in touch constantly and now, we’re doing something really exciting for our 50th,” she told PEOPLE. “I can’t quite talk about it yet.”
Conn also shared that she stays in touch with most of her cast mates, but there’s one who she hasn’t seen recently.
“The only person I haven’t seen in several years now is Stockard,” Conn says, referring to Stockard Channing, who played Rizzo. “I used to see every play she was in and try to stay in touch with her, but everyone else, we’re always in touch with each other.”
Didi Conn Talks About The Cast’s ‘Unique Approach to Filming’
When speaking with PEOPLE, Conn also talked about what it was like filming Grease, detailing that the cast basically became their characters even before the cameras started rolling.
“We did something that for me was unique at the time and now I try to do this on other sets,” Conn explained. “What happened was most of us were a tad older than the teenagers we were playing. And so, we did a very interesting thing. As soon as we got our makeup on, our hair, whatever, we became the characters we were playing.”
And with that, they weren’t known by their actual names. Instead, everyone called them by their characters.
“So nobody called me Didi. I was Frenchy,” she continues. “There was Stockard but that was Rizzo.”
And that’s what helped make the movie so special.
“What happened, our relationship to each other began to form and it was great,” Conn said. “And it gave us the license to be these crazy high school kids and having fun… We just had a wonderful time.”
