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John Travolta Interview
John Travolta is to the movies what Richard Nixon is to politics what Lazarus is to
religion. In other words, he is - if not the original - one of the great comeback stories
of all time. (Okay, of the 1990s. What would Hollywood be without hyperbole?) Back in the
late 1970s, Travolta had the one-two punch of "Saturday Night Fever" and
"Grease." He could do no wrong until he did. In "Moment by Moment,"
costarring Lilly Tomlin, the movies' golden boy turned to dross overnight as a Beverly
Hills hustler named Strip. Yes, Strip. "Urban Cowboy" (1980) was Travolta's
first comeback, which quickly led to a megaslump of movies so bad they were almost good:
"Perfect," "Two of a Kind," and "Staying Alive," in which
director Sylvester Stallone turned Travolta into a buff, lean version of himself. (The
"Rolling Stone" cover story on the movie said it all: "John Travolta/Sex
and the Single Star.") Travolta had to wait until 1989 for his second major return to
bankability: "Look Who's Talking?" (The "Premiere" cover story on the
movie said it all: "John Travolta/Look Who's Back?") But "Talking,"
despite its huge profits, was never a success d'estime. For that Travolta had to wait
until last year's "Pulp Fiction," in which director Quentin Tarantino reinvented
the essentially sweet- hearted star, transmogrifying him into a goofball hit man. Bingo.
The third time is definitely a charm what with Travolta starring in no less than three new
movies: "White Man's Burden," "Get Shorty," and "Broken
Arrow." Is this time forever? The star himself says definitely not.
Q: "Pulp Fiction" really
turned your career around. How did that opportunity come about?
JT: Quentin Tarantino introduced me to the script. He said,
"I won't tell you anything about it, but I'd like you to read it. You should do
it." He cornered me at this photo shoot for "Vanity Fair." He said,
"You won't get paid anything for this. But you shouldn't be denied good material just
because there isn't a budget."
Q: Was that a good
lesson to learn?
JT: It's a good
lesson for anybody. Good material will always lead you to other good material. It cost me
money to do "Pulp Fiction." I can't do that all the time.
Q: But c'mon. As a
result of "Pulp Fiction," you're being paid millions for "Broken
Arrow" and "Get Shorty."
JT: I'm making up
for going in the till over the past two years. [Laughs] Plus the New Year's bills. It's
retroactive. I'll catch up in a year or so. But it's good for your career.
Q: And good for
your state of mind?
JT: Yes. I can't
sleep well if I don't feel I'm exchanging an abundance with the public. I have to feel
like I'm doing a better than average job. Otherwise, it doesn't make me happy. You just
don't always have the opportunity to do a great job, because the material isn't as good as
it could be.
Q: Of all the
characters you've played on the screen, which is the one you identified with most?
JT: The character
I've played who's most like me is the guy in "Look Who's Talking" That's who I
am. Not all of me, but a lot of me. All the other guys are characters.
Q: But no one
would take that film seriously as an insight into you.
JT: No one would
look through your credits and think, Yeah, 'Look Who's Talking?' That's the real John
Travolta. That's true. I find it amusing because I'm a very affectionate, emotional, and
conscience person. I don't know if you get that from "Looking Who's Talking".
Q: I get that from
talking to you, but I don't see it in "Look Who's Talking"
JT: It reminds me
the most of my personality because I'm not doing any character work in that film. When I
was doing it, I thought, Is anyone going to find this interesting? I've never been myself
before." I'm not doing anything. Much to my surprise... And one hundred million
dollars later...
Q: Four hundred
and fifty million dollars later.
JT: Excuse me, I
wasn't thinking globally.
Q: Do you think
you've changed radically since your first days in Hollywood?
JT: Not that much
different, but I've enriched my life with experiences in the last twenty years. I think
I'm a bigger human being than I was. But I always had potential.
Q: How has that
changed you as an actor?
JT: I'm the same
actor except that I now have twenty years of living and rubbing elbows with many people
who've enriched my life. It's possibly made me a better actor.
Q: You survived
some real career slumps. Was there any benefit to having had those down times in your
career?
JT: Yeah, because
I chose them. I would do a movie...no one is more responsible for the down times than I
am, because whenever I got hot I'd check out. I'd go, "Oh, time to go to Paris or the
Caribbean or on a safari in Africa." And by the time I got back, the heat was over.
Q: I had this
image of you sitting in Burbank being glum.
JT: Well, that's
weird. That's not the way it was. It was very different for me. If it helps someone to
think of it that way, fine.
Q: Is the word
"comeback" a misnomer?
JT: It depends on
how you view a comeback. To me, a comeback only means that you were in a hit movie.
Recently, it's meant that you've come back as an actor. But before that it was only meant
that you had comeback in a hit movie. It's had a mixed meaning, that word. Also, when
people say comeback, you feel you have to respond. You find yourself explaining over and
over again what you were doing before the comeback, which was working and making movies.
You keep saying, "You must not have seen that one." The "Look Who's
Talking?" movies were somehow ignored, from a more serious perspective. But how can
you ignore something that gave a lot of people so much joy? How can you ignore [my
performance in] Harold Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" (1989) when it was Pinter's
favorite performance. All the sudden you have to invalidate this so-called down time as if
nothing happened when I was actually doing something which people were not only getting
joy from but a great artist was validated by. It's frustating and exhausting.
Q: Do you think
you'll ever have to endure another down time?
JT: Sure, it could
be next year. The only thing is, everyone will know that I've been working. That's the
only difference. But you may very well forget that I've done these three films:
"White Man's Burden," "Get Shorty," and "Broken Arrow." If
for some reason those movies don't do well, you may forget them. And you'll say, "You
know, after `Pulp Fiction' you had a long down time, didn't you?" And I've never been
more tired in my life!
Q: Speaking of
tired, you once said you wanted a big family. You have one son. Where are the other kids?
JT: We expected to
have another child by now. But my wife, Kelly [Preston], wants to do a few more movies.
She's done smaller parts in films. But she'd like to do some leads before we get a second
child. I understand that. It's her body. And regardless of the urge to have a family
quicker, she has to be the judge of that.
Q: How many kids
would you like to have?
JT: We'd like
three of four kids. A big family in my day was thirteen. I lived in a neighborhood--I was
the sixth of six - but on my block there were families of up to sixteen. That's
Catholicism there.
Q: A lot of
long-term Hollywood marriages have ended in divorce recently. Is that why you don't live
in the industry town?
JT: I don't know
if that would be exactly one of the reasons.
Q: Where's home
for you now?
JT: Florida and
Maine. I just enjoy my life more in a more regular setting, places that aren't caught up
with a mixture of urges and attentions that I can't quite figure out. I'm very perceptive
so I get caught up in the whirl of it all. So I like a more calm atmosphere.
Q: Today, people
make fun of the disco era. But with "Saturday Night Fever" you were the great
disco icon. Was that good or bad for your career?
JT: I have to
think it was good for my career, because I was a very impatient child, a very impatient
teenager, and I was a very impatient adult. I needed that kind of guarantee of a career
accomplishment early on. I wanted to know that it was a valid thing, my being in this
business. I was the kind of guy who said, "If I hit 25 and I'm not making a mark in
this business, tell me to do something else." That's how I felt. I don't like to
waste time. Am I gifted enough? Can I contribute? Is this is a valid thing? Because if it
isn't, I'll go play with airplanes or something else. I needed that level of success to
say, "John, stick around."