She’s spent nearly five decades being recognized as the “Beauty School Dropout,” and there’s a sweet irony in that, because at 74, Didi Conn looks like she never left class. Recently, the star teamed up with Laura Geller to launch a new product, Laura Geller Full Root-Ine Hair & Brow Concealing Cream & Powder ($34), with a nostalgic commercial nodding to her Grease roots.
We caught up with the eternally radiant actress to talk beauty, hormones, aging gracefully and behind-the-scenes Grease moments that lit my fangirl heart on fire.
You look amazing. I’d love to hear a bit about your skin care and makeup routine. How has it shifted in your 70s?
“Well, you know, I was blessed with my mom’s skin, so makeup was never a big thing. Just mascara, a little liner, some blush, a little lip, that was really it. Laura Geller’s products are made for older people on purpose, because they don’t cake into your face. The Spackle Primer ($38) is amazing, and so is the foundation with SPF 50 ($38). Nobody has a 50 SPF in a foundation. As you know, climate warming has happened, so you’ve got to really be careful, especially when you get older. I’ve been using Laura Geller’s products and everyone I know uses her products.
Also, I have to say that about a year and a half ago, I had uterine cancer and had a hysterectomy, and you know, when you don’t have the female hormones happening, skin dries out and you need more TLC, and I call it LGC, Laura Geller Care. It’s true because you can put her blush on and it doesn’t cake at all. It’s great. So I have found, even in the last two years, how important it is to have something that moisturizes you.”
Tell me about the new launch you partnered with Laura Geller on?
“I love the Full Root-Ine Hair & Brow Concealing Cream & Powder! There are so many times as an actress when all of a sudden you have to go and meet somebody or go on camera and it’s in between when you’ve had your dye job and this is so easy. It’s like a little magic wand. It has this cream on one side and a little powder, if you want to set it, and the powder actually gives a little fullness to the hair. It has different colors. I love it.
It comes in handy when you didn’t expect to be going out to dinner and you haven’t seen your friends in a long time and there’s a big white or gray spot and then you apply it and you feel better. In between those salon appointments, it’s great to have a friend that you can go to to just enhance who you are.”
Your breakout role was Frenchy in Grease. Do you have any fun behind-the-scenes beauty stories?
“Well, two things just popped into my mind. One thing was with Olivia [Newton-John], God bless my dear friend. The drive-in scene was an all-night shoot. They had done earlier the part where she throws the ring at him and leaves the car, and so we were all hanging out, doing our part, and all of a sudden somebody comes on, walks in front of all the guys. The guys go, ‘Who the heck is that? Who’s that?’ It was Olivia. She had gotten all made up as the hot Sandy. Nobody recognized her. So that was a testament to her makeup and hair people and wardrobe, because they had to literally sew her into that.
As far as my hair and makeup, well, I have olive skin, and this is before punk. Nobody had pink hair. Nobody had pink hair, unless you were a clown, so they had to try different colors of pink with my skin, and then they had to change my makeup, and my makeup was great. Then they had to combine the makeup and the pink-colored wig with lighting. It was like a half a day test of all these different colors.
The day we were filming, I got all of the hair and that outfit, looked in the mirror and I almost died. I mean, I looked so goofy. We didn’t get any shots before lunch—and you’re supposed to take off your costume for lunch—but I snuck off Paramount lot and drove to Mr. Pardo’s [Conn’s acting coach] house, went upstairs to his office and he looked at me. He said, ‘Didi, anything we planned for you to do, don’t do. Don’t do anything. Just look at the guy, there’s enough with the way you look.’ It was great advice because when Frankie Avalon was coming down those steps, and he was so cute, I didn’t have to do anything. He was doing it all.
I hated that blond wig, if you want to know the truth. I didn’t like that blond dress. I didn’t even see it until that morning, but again, with makeup, we had to change to go with the yellow. In fact, they wanted me to have greenish-blue hair in the carnival scene. Next time you see the movie, there’s a vat of cotton candy, and it was supposed to be my hand, and I lift up the cotton candy, and the principal comes up asking ‘What happened?’ And they wanted my hair to match the cotton candy. I started crying, so I didn’t do it, but that was what they wanted. I thought the pink was enough of a pop.”
More recently, I loved seeing you on my screen in Overcompensating last year. What was that experience like?
“I love that show. Isn’t he sweet? Isn’t he gorgeous? [Benito Skinner] So what happened was I got this thing and said, ‘Oh, come on, they’re going to get a little old lady, and she’ll curse, and it’ll be funny.’ I never curse, I’ve never cursed in anything I’ve been in, and so I just went for it because the show’s called Overcompensating, and I wasn’t going to overcompensate and try to be the good girl. It was fun. I had the best time, and now it’s been picked up, so I hope I’ll be back again. I have two brothers who have little kids; they wouldn’t show it to them.”
What does beauty mean to you at this age versus when you were young and starting out in Hollywood?
“I’ve always been an actress first. I’ve been a character actress and never really thought too much about glamour or beauty in that way. I mean, I learned how to do basics like we talked about, but I think as I got older, you know, one can get very self-conscious about how you look and the wrinkles, I mean, I’m still not quite used to it, and as I said, having the hysterectomy changed my estrogen in a way that you know, wrinkled up. I go to my heart and gratitude, honestly, look at how fun this is to be talking to you about a product that is very useful.”
