“There Are Worse Things I Could Do”

The Scene

Rizzo’s song almost didn’t make it into the movie—it’s not even in the shooting script. The thought was that in an upbeat musical, adding another ballad might slow down the pace. But Stockard was Allan Carr’s client and he wanted the song in—so we scheduled it into the production schedule. Once we filmed it, we knew it was a highlight of the movie.

Drawn to the song as soon as she heard it, Stockard played Rizzo as a tough girl with a hidden vulnerable side. She sang from the heart, adding dimension to the character of Rizzo.

The Shot

Stockard Channing acted the song beautifully, bringing out all the nuances of Rizzo’s vulnerable bad girl. We filmed this number straight through in one dolly shot. I placed several guys playing catch in the background as a comment on the lyrics “There are worse things I could do, than to go with a boy or two.” At the end of the song, she sings, “But I can feel and I can cry, a fact I’ll bet you never knew. But to cry in front of you, that’s the worst thing I could do.” She is singing this to Kenickie, and he can be seen behind her driving off to the upcoming race.

At the twenty-year rerelease of the film we went back to the location of the original premiere, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I was sitting across the aisle from Stockard and watched her reaction to seeing herself sing this song. At the end, she had tears in her eyes.

STOCKARD: If you remember, Randal, we shot the “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” number in like ten minutes. And people were coming back from lunch.

RANDAL: You were brilliant, hitting every moment and beat. Had you broken it all down, line by line? Because it certainly felt like it.

STOCKARD: That I did. I really loved the song and I thought I did a good job of it. And you’re right, every phrase is a thought. The song definitely was her little aria.

RANDAL: Absolutely.

STOCKARD: And it’s where you see her being a little insecure—with a bravado to hide her insecurity.

RANDAL: It’s one sequence in the movie when we really feel something for somebody—everything else is sort of jumping around and fun.

STOCKARD: Here’s something you may not remember. Jeff Conaway insisted on being there, working on his car in the background.

RANDAL: That was a great idea.

STOCKARD: Sweetest thing ever.