Cameraman Michael Jackson’s fond memories of filming wildlife series with Olivia Newton-John

Cameraman Mike “Jacko” Jackson has revealed how he filmed a wildlife series with Olivia Newton-John that saw her pick off leeches, dodge snakes and dive with sharks nearby.

Cameraman Mike “Jacko” Jackson sometimes forgot Olivia Newton-John was a global superstar, as he watched her pick off leeches and dodge snakes in the rainforest or fed giant potato cod on the Great Barrier Reef as sharks circled metres away.

The filmmaker and the entertainer turned conservationist forged an enduring friendship after they travelled the world in 1994 filming Wild Life series.

It was in the incongruous moments when they emerged from forests and oceans and crossed paths with the rich and famous, with the fiercely protective Jackson by her side, that he was reminded just how much “Livvy” was adored.

Michael “Jacko” Jackson and Olivia. Picture: Michael Jackson.

As the world continues to mourn Newton-John, Jackson recalled the Hollywood star asking him and a series producer to accompany her to a glittering Van Cleef & Arpels gala in Monte Carlo after a day shooting a red coral regeneration initiative backed by Prince Rainier of Monaco.

“We were having a couple of drinks when someone taps me on the shoulder and asks if it was Olivia Newton-John with us and says ‘I am such a huge fan, can you introduce me?’” Jackson said.

“So I say to Olivia ‘You’ve got a big fan here’ and she asks “What’s your name?’ I quickly tell her it’s Buzz Aldrin, I think she kind of knew, and they had a great yak and he invited us to go diving with him the next day.”

Newton-John meets one of the resident Dolphins at Sea World on the Gold Coast. Picture: Paul Riley

The tap on the shoulder came again when they were staying in a trout-fishing lodge during a Kodiak bear shoot in Alaska.

“She just had this star power in any room, famous people came out of the woodwork to meet her. In Alaska at the trout fishing lodge, General Norman Schwarzkopf was staying there and asked to be introduced to her. I think he even had an album with him or something that he asked her to sign,” he said.

Newton-John (centre) with the film crew. Picture: Michael Jackson

Their travels took them furthest afield to Moscow to report on a breeding program for rare peregrine falcons and then onto Siberia to interview a biologist saving baby bears.

The long road trip was punctuated by their van blowing a tyre or breaking down at regular intervals.

Newton-John and the crew took the interruptions with good humour – and shots of vodka – as they played increasingly erratic word games.

With musk ox in Alaska during filming.

Holding a tiger cub. Picture: Supplied

They didn’t have any glasses or cups in the van so the resourceful crew bought a packet of biscuits and cut the plastic tray into squares which would hold a tiny nip.

When they arrived at their destination, there was no accommodation and they found themselves staying overnight in the wing of a decommissioned hospital they suspected was a former mental asylum with only metal spring beds and no mattresses.

“She was such a trooper, she was just one of us, always laughing her head off. She always insisted on having meals with the crew and having photos with us all, she made it a family. She became best friends with the make-up artist Madonna and we would all get together for a lunch to catch up when Olivia was in town,” Jackson said.

“We adored her. I remember in Siberia, in this completely barren, desolate, cold room, and the producer said she hadn’t asked but would we all put our big jackets on the bed for her so she didn’t have to sleep on metal springs.

“No one batted an eye because it was for Livvy.”

With Billy Thorpe in his studio recording a track for her duets album. Picture: Michael Jackson

Jackson continued to work with Newton-John as a cinematographer, shooting a music video for No Matter What You Do from her Gaia album, and behind-the-scenes footage of the making of her 2002 record titled (2), featuring duets with the late Billy Thorpe, David Campbell and Darren Hayes.

He was there when she recorded the Sydney Olympics theme song Heroes Live Forever with Vanessa Amorosi and Tina Arena.

For decades he thought he had shielded her from the frightening knowledge that sharks had been lurking in the background of a shoot they did on the Great Barrier Reef off Lizard Island.

Lunch break while filming in Russia on saving cubs from bears captured to perform in cruel circus conditions. Picture: Michael Jackson

On the road in Russia with crew enjoying ‘a sneaky vodka on the side of the road every time our van got a flat tyre’. Picture: Michael Jackson

They had been invited to check out the famous potato cod population which live in a “cod hole” on the reef where divers would swim to the bottom and feed the giant fish.

“She didn’t know how to dive, she had lessons on the spot and she says ‘I hope there’s no sharks out there’ and the diver says ‘No, just cod,’” Jackson recalled.

“Olivia is sitting on the bottom of this cod hole, feeding the fish and I see these sharks looming over her shoulder but I didn’t want to say anything.

“When we met up backstage at the Fire Fight concert in Sydney a couple of years ago, she grabs me and introduces me to her husband John as ‘This is the guy I was telling you about when we were diving with the sharks!’ She knew all along, maybe she saw one behind me and didn’t say anything either.

“She could keep her cool because she was a complete professional.”

Newton-John in front of the camera in the Topanga Canyon, California. Picture: Michael Jackson

With Jacko and Madonna after the bushfire gig backstage. Picture: Michael Jackson

He loves to dine out on the story of arriving at an airport in Thessaloniki, Greece to find a scrum of paparazzi waiting for them to come off the plane.

“This rumour had gone through Europe that Olivia Newton-John, Michael Jackson and Madonna were on the plane and were coming for some secret concert. They saw Olivia get off the plane and were all going ‘It’s true!’ and then we walked out,” he said, laughing.

Perhaps his fondest memory was years later when they were catching up at her favourite local Greek restaurant in California with a jar of Vegemite on the table and he asked her what she missed most about Australia.

“She says ‘The one thing I really, really miss is the birdsong, hearing the kookaburras and the currawongs. I really miss those sounds.”