Kelly Preston was on Watch What Happens Live yesterday and Andy Cohen wanted to know if it is true that she almost got the part that went to Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon. She told him it is and then shared the story with him how it almost happened.
Three years before Preston started acting, Randal Kleiser spotted her at her high school and wanted her to screen test for his follow up movie to Grease. Therefore, the director flew her and her mom from Hawaii to LA to audition for the role. They even wanted her to get an all-over tan, but the then teen did not do it.
Eventually, the role went to Diane Lane and Willie Aames. But wait they were not in it? That is because they dropped out just days before filming was to start. That is when he got Shields and an unknown Christopher Atkins to star in his movie.
What is interesting is Kleiser worked with Travolta in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble and Grease in the late ’70s and almost worked with Preston in this 1980 film. He could have introduced the couple to each other earlier instead of the two meeting at the end of the decade while filming the movie The Experts. At least I find that interesting.
