Ola Ray Speaks To Sunday Mirror (UK)

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I was star of Michael Jackson's £700m Thriller video... and got paid £600

Exclusive: 25 years on for best-selling album ever


By Deborah Sherwood And Annette Witheridge 03/02/2008

Thriller was the video that changed pop music forever... and turned Michael Jackson into the biggest star in the world.

Made by a top Hollywood director and lasting 14 minutes, it was the most expensive pop promo of its era with a then unprecedented budget of £400,000.

It helped Jackson's Thriller album to become the biggest seller of all time with profits of £700million.

Now, as a 25th anniversary edition of Thriller is released this week, featuring remixes by stars such as Kanye West, we can reveal how the unknown actress chosen to star alongside Jackson was paid just £600.

Ola Ray was a 22-year-old glamour model trying to break into acting in 1982 when she beat hundreds of other hopefuls to the part of Jackson's girlfriend in the mini-horror movie.

The former Playboy centrefold was a huge fan of the singer and says she was always confident of landing the role. "The minute I walked into the audition I knew it was mine," she says. "I read a few lines, danced to some music and the rest is history."

Ola still had to wait two weeks until she got the good news. But she'll never forget her first meeting with Jackson.

"I was getting changed, so I was crouched down half-naked on the dressing room floor and he came in and giggled," she recalls.

"I was used to taking my clothes off in front of strangers.

Michael seemed very relaxed about it." Ola, 47 and a full-time mum living in California, knew Thriller was going to be no ordinary video. "It helped that I was crazy about Michael and he seemed taken by the fact I was a Playboy model," she says.

Ola and Michael became good friends during the two-week shoot. She says she loved to flirt with the star, who was then dating actress Brooke Shields. "I teased him, saying I wanted to be his girl," she says.

"After we shared a limo, I sprayed my perfume around so he'd remember me. He was cute but childlike. Michael then was nothing like the Michael of today. He loved chasing me or jumping out from behind a wall."

The Thriller video, directed by John Landis of Blues Brothers fame, was a record-breaking success, helping start the MTV phenomenon.

The album is still the biggest seller of all time, with 104 million sold.

But Ola didn't have a share of the honeypot and ended in financial trouble. She says Michael used to help out with cheques of around £2,500. "I did lots of TV commercials but I wasn't exactly flooded with work," she says.

"Everyone thinks I made millions but I don't care... I wouldn't change anything." She saw Jackson a few years later but lost touch.

In 1992 Ola was charged with cocaine possession and after a stint in rehab she left Los Angeles to start a new life in Sacramento, where she lives with her daughter Iam, 12.

Ola says: "I'm just so proud to have been part of something that's still so special."

104m sold.. no one can Beat It

104MILLION copies of the Thriller album were sold - 50million in the US alone.

It topped the US chart for 37 weeks, was No1 here too, and spent 190 weeks in the charts.

Its sales record is unlikely to be broken thanks to a long-term decline in record sales.

Thriller spawned five Top 10 UK hits, including Beat It, P.Y.T. and No1 Billie Jean.

It cost £400,000 at a time when most video budgets were around £25,000.

Source: Sunday Mirror
 
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"After we shared a limo, I sprayed my perfume around so he'd remember me. He was cute but childlike. Michael then was nothing like the Michael of today. He loved chasing me or jumping out from behind a wall."

:wtf2: maybe shes mad she didnt get to be his girl ? ... :rolleyes:
 
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104MILLION copies of the Thriller album were sold - 50million in the US alone.

It topped the US chart for 37 weeks, was No1 here too, and spent 190 weeks in the charts.

Its sales record is unlikely to be broken thanks to a long-term decline in record sales.

Thriller spawned five Top 10 UK hits, including Beat It, P.Y.T. and No1 Billie Jean.

It cost £400,000 at a time when most video budgets were around £25,000.

Source: Sunday Mirror


I wonder when will the RIAA update the true (U.S.)sales of Thriller?! The Eagles have never had the no.1 album it seems.

Ola Ray Still looks great even 25 years later; where did the time go......
 
Well, worldwide sales were never 104 Million.....according to Craig (from the Guiness World Records), those figures came from Sony Music, not the RIAA :)

But I suppose it's good for the Press to keep that in their reports :cool:
 
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Thanks for the article.
I often wondered whatever happened to Ola Ray.
She looks great but different.
It helped that I was crazy about Michael and he seemed taken by the fact I was a Playboy model," she says.

:shifty:
 
I like this pic of Ola, her smile etc really reminds me of the Thriller Ola, the other pic they had of her a while back was odd but this one is great.

Anyway its good to see that they are writing the facts of the album sales.
 
Well, worldwide sales were never 104 Million.....according Craig (from the Guiness World Records), those figures came from Sony Music, not the RIAA :)

But I suppose it's good for the Press to keep that in their reports :cool:
keep thinking that if it makes you feel better...

if an official at Guiness book had said that..WHY would they give Michael a certification saying Thriller sold 104mil...
 
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Well, worldwide sales were never 104 Million.....according to Craig (from the Guiness World Records), those figures came from Sony Music, not the RIAA :)

But I suppose it's good for the Press to keep that in their reports :cool:
keep thinking that if it makes you feel better...

if an official at Guiness book had said that..WHY would they give Michael a certification saying Thriller sold 104mil...
....think I've answered that :D
 
Uhm it lookss like her nipple is showing... I mean... she could at least have kept her clothes on *sighs*

She seemed really cute back then but I guess life didn't treat her so good....
 
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lol, reminds me of, "She came and stood right by me, and I smelt her sweet perfume". Uh oh, look at Michael, potential Billie-Jean-type.

Bob oh Bob!:lol: You just wanna be startin' something now, don't you! :toofunny:
 
Well at least she changed her tune. Before she was blaming Michael for her not getting paid, lol. Now she says he was helping her out with money. At least she was able to admit she was wrong, most people don't. But how would she know Michael isn't anything like he was back then? It's not like she's been around him in the last 15 years, lol.
 
Well at least she changed her tune. Before she was blaming Michael for her not getting paid, lol. Now she says he was helping her out with money. At least she was able to admit she was wrong, most people don't. But how would she know Michael isn't anything like he was back then? It's not like she's been around him in the last 15 years, lol.

i'd say in the last 23 years
 
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Thanks for posting.

I am glad that she said what she had to say. I am glad that she would not changed anything and seems to have taken her experience with MJ as a blessing. At least is not blaming MJ with anything. Also, when she was, she was under the influence of drugs and drugs can do that to you.

Michael then was nothing like the Michael of today.

I wondered what she meant by the comment. Hmmmm... It could mean that MJ was not the same person that he was when she knew him. Like wannabe said, she has not been around MJ in recent years, heck ten years ago, to really said that.

Also, what is up with what she is wearing? She is 47 years old and not a Playboy model so she could have wore something respectable. She is a mother and she does not need to show off her body like that. And I think that part of her n*****s are showing. Anyway, she looks good for her age. After 25 years, Ola and Mike looks really good for their ages.
 
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