Actor John Travolta

DATE April 10, 2003 ACCOUNT NUMBER N/A
TIME 12:00 Noon-1:00 PM AUDIENCE N/A
NETWORK NPR
PROGRAM Fresh Air

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Interview: John Travolta discusses his new movie "Basic" and his
movie career
DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli sitting in for Terry Gross.

John Travolta's movie career has covered a lot of years and a lot of genres.
He starred in disco dramas like "Saturday Night Fever," straight-ahead action
films like "Face/Off," lightweight comedies like "Look Who's Talking" and
audacious character studies like "Get Shorty" and "Pulp Fiction." His new
movie, "Basic," is a military thriller. The title "Basic" refers to basic
training. And once again, Travolta is teamed with "Pulp Fiction" so-star
Samuel L. Jackson. Travolta plays a drug enforcement agent who's a former
Army Ranger. He's called back to the Army to investigate a routine military
exercise in the Special Forces, an exercise that went terribly wrong. A tough
and feared sergeant played by Samuel Jackson has mysteriously disappeared and
may have been killed in the incident. In this scene, Travolta is talking to
the Army's investigator, played by Connie Nielsen, about how they should
handle a suspect.

(Soundbite from "Basic")

Mr. JOHN TRAVOLTA (Actor): Is he in the interrogation room?

Ms. CONNIE NIELSEN (Actress): Yes, sir.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Move him.

Ms. NIELSEN: Why?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Because interrogation rooms tend to look suspiciously like
interrogation rooms, which makes people uncomfortable. Is he cute?

Ms. NIELSEN: Excuse me.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Dunbar, is he cute?

Ms. NIELSEN: Sir, if you're not going to take this seriously...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Is he handsome? Is he self-assured? Does he carry himself
well? Does he look you in the eyes when you talk to him or down at the floor?
Does he have good bones which suggests good breeding? Does he slouch or sit
up? These are important questions that reveal a great deal about a man's
character. Now, look, get over yourself for two and a half seconds and tell
me: Is he cute?

Ms. NIELSEN: Yes, sir.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Thank you.

BIANCULLI: Terry spoke to John Travolta last month before the war began when
he was in Philadelphia on a press tour.

TERRY GROSS, host:

In your new movie "Basic" you're very buff...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: ...very pumped up. And I'm wondering if you felt you had to work out
more for the movie?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I did, only because I actually saw these ex-Rangers. I went
to school with them for a week to do their exercises and a lot of the senior
guys, the guys that were teaching the trainees, were my age and they were
amazing. They were buff and in great shape. And I said, oh, my goodness, I
better get to work. And I chose to be in a T-shirt and tight jeans and, as
written, there was a scene with a towel coming out of the shower and I decided
that, well, why not live up to the script, what it says I should do. And I
worked a little harder on an already progressive program I was on, you know.
And I just felt like it would add to the confidence of the character because
this character, like the men I met, were very confident because they knew they
were the best; they knew that they were top of their form, if you will.

GROSS: Well, that's it. And also, your character knows how to use his body
and his voice to intimidate when that's necessary.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Right, or distract.

GROSS: Or distract.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I think he uses his sexuality to distract and I think he uses
his physicality to intimidate and he uses his voice to interrogate...

GROSS: Good.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...you know.

GROSS: Yeah, well, when--just as like John Travolta, particularly the young
John Travolta before you became well known as an actor, did you have that kind
of confidence in your body, that you could use your body to intimidate or to,
you know, to convey a strong message to somebody, to give yourself a sense of
authority and power?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I would never say that I use my body to do that, although I
have a lot of confidence in my body that I would only use to use that in a
character as far as the intimidation or, you know, overwhelming aspects of a
physical presence. That would have to have to do with a character. But in
real life, in my personal life, I think I only ever use my physicality to
express my emotions or my feelings about something.

GROSS: Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I read that you wrote an
autobiographical essay years ago in which you said that your empathy for
people is so strong that you sometimes become them.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes.

GROSS: And I'm wondering if you think you work more out of empathy when
you're assuming a role than out of, you know, like, quote, like "the method,"
or some--you know, like acting technique?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Probably, because I believe that one should be able to assume
the beingness of a character in a fraction of a second. So in order to do
that, you'd have to have great understanding of a character. That was
actually said by L. Ron Hubbard actually when he made an advisory to actors,
you know, have the ability to assume the beingness within a fraction of a
second. And I thought, the characters I've known the best in my life are the
ones that I could assume the beingness quickly. And it just coincided and
paralleled with my thinking on acting to begin with. So I think the only way
you can get there is to become them through looking through their eyes, which
is an empathetic concept, you know.

GROSS: So does it help you if there's a real counterpart for a character, if
you could go to like real Army Ranger for your role as an Army Ranger or, you
know, a real guy from Brooklyn who loves disco dancing if you're playing that
kind of a role? Do you need a real counterpart?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes.

GROSS: So what do you do with a character like "Pulp Fiction," you know, like
you...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I met with three heroin addicts.

GROSS: Any hit men?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: And, yes, I read biographies of a couple of hit men and I did
know of one person that would allude to this conduct and never admit it. And
I spoke to him. I just heard through the grapevine that this person might.
And I interviewed these people, because I wasn't going to take heroin and I
certainly wasn't going to kill anybody to study these characters. So I said
to one of the heroin addicts that actually was a white collar heroin addict...

GROSS: A high-functioning heroin addict.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes, I--now, of course, both of these guys that I talked to
in depth were ex-heroin addicts, so...

GROSS: Oh, right. OK.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...I should make that clear. But I said to the one that had a
better ability to communicate, detail with me--I said, `I can't do this. I
won't do it. As much as I love acting, I'm not going to go the distance. You
must help me understand the feelings here.' And he said, `I can't. There's
nothing like it in my life.' And I said, `Now, Plunk(ph), you have to. You
have to tell me. Tell me from the onslaught.' He said, `OK. This is what
you're going to do. Go home, lay in a hot pool or a bath, get plastered on
tequila, and maybe at the peak of that feeling you'll begin to feel the bottom
level of what heroin is like.' I said, `OK, I'm going to do that.' So I went
home and did that. And I said, `OK, I've got that. Now tell me where it goes
from there. What happens from that point on?' So then he began to describe
the ebbs and flows, the valleys and peaks in dramatic detail to me, the
scratching, the feeling of warmth that came over the body, and I think crafted
the moment that this was happening from the time that the character took the
heroin up through his death. So he's what they called a chippy, which was
kind of like a weekend heroin addict.

And at any rate, he was really wonderful as far as explaining in detail what
this experience was like. And then I went with the street fellow, who was
much more kind of dramatic and kind of communicating in a way that I felt was
just maybe a hair not really how it was. So I took aspects of how the street
fellow talked about it and aspects of how the white collar guy talked about it
and then I put these things together and designed how this would overtake the
character.

GROSS: But there was this kind of hipster character thing you had going
there, too.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Now the hipster aspect is just baggage from earlier, you know,
roles even. Do you know what I mean?

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: So that was the beauty of a "Pulp Fiction" was that you had an
actor who takes very seriously his craft and he automatically has illusions
that are baggage that worked. It was kind of like putting Elvis Presley in an
art film, but all of what he was about helped the imagery. And so the fact
that I was willing to play this desperate character with the willingness to
reveal my earlier illusions helped make that balloon float and turn what would
have been a "Reservoir Dogs" into a "Pulp Fiction" which was much more
commercial and viable.

GROSS: Well, let me maybe give an example of what you're talking about there
which is twist scene when you're at the '50s diner.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Exactly.

GROSS: And there's a twist contest which is, of course, an echo of "Saturday
Night Fever" and you're there...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Or "Grease."

GROSS: Yeah, or "Grease," exactly.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Right.

GROSS: And you were there doing the twist. And it's an echo to your dancing
roles...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Right.

GROSS: ...but you're still doing it as your own character.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: But he's high on heroin...

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...and he's a hit man.

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: And yet, because of the way Quentin staged this...

GROSS: Mm-hmm.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...it was a mix of reality and fantasy that was a stroke of
genius.

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: But it was all this stuff. Even with Bruce Willis in his
part, he's an action icon and suddenly he's in a very serious art film doing
the things that he does in more commercialesque-type vehicles. So you really
had a very rare and unusual--and it's probably why the movie made history.

GROSS: I want to ask you about the very beginning of that scene in the '50s
diner. When you walk in, you're looking for the table--or the car to sit in,
because the tables are actually cars. But anyways, you're looking for the
table and you're just kind of strutting around the whole diner looking at the
posters on the wall. And it's such an interesting strut watching you do that.
Can you talk a little bit about that walk?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, that walk originated from what I observed people to be
high for--I mean, the shuffle. There was a dragging of one's feet along the
ground...

GROSS: Uh-huh.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...that the effort was measured and the feeling was like going
through water, you see. And I modified his walk and I pulled the hair down
from the side, because he had been in the car. So I knew that the modified
shuffle, which happened actually at the house even earlier when I pick her up,
started from when the cameras in back--because I knew the camera would be in
back of me watching. And it was all those little touches that Quentin didn't
even notice until he was putting the film together, that shuffle, the heroin
shuffle I call it, you know...

GROSS: Uh-huh.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...and the slowness in how he was observing things. And then,
you know, he'd put his hand up like this and kind of...

GROSS: Like with one finger in the air.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: The one finger in the air and just was hitting the music in his
own mind. So it was all like kind of in slow motion.

GROSS: Oh, yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: And that was my version of how he was taking in the elements of
this '50s kind of diner-slash-dance hall.

BIANCULLI: Here's a scene from "Pulp Fiction" featuring John Travolta and Uma
Thurman.

(Soundbite from "Pulp Fiction")

Mr. TRAVOLTA: What do you think about what happened to Antoin?

Ms. UMA THURMAN (Actress): Who's Antoin?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Tony Rehehara(ph). You know him.

Ms. THURMAN: He fell out of a window.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Mm-hmm. Hmm. Well, that is one way to say it. Another way
to say it would be that he was thrown out. Another way would be was he was
thrown out by Marsellus. And yet even another way is to say he was thrown out
of a window by Marsellus because of you.

Ms. THURMAN: Is that a fact?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No, no, it's not a fact. It's just what I heard. That's just
what I heard.

Ms. THURMAN: Who told you?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: They.

Ms. THURMAN: They talk a lot, don't they?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Mm-hmm. They certainly do. They certainly do.

BIANCULLI: A scene from "Pulp Fiction." We'll get back to Terry's interview
with John Travolta after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: Let's get back to Terry's interview with actor John Travolta.
He's starring in the new film "Basic."

GROSS: Before "Pulp Fiction" you went through a period when you were no
longer hot.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes.

GROSS: Does it affect your self-image or your self-esteem to be very hot or
to be not hot? Does it affect how you feel about yourself or do you have
enough of a, you know...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Sensibility of oneself--of work?

GROSS: ...have a sense of self without that so you could be, you know, up or
down in the ratings and that you know who you are?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, it's a convoluted picture to some degree because of the
following: I never viewed myself as hot or not hot because I had a very
protective, vacuumlike feeling about myself and a confidence about my
personality that I didn't really pay attention to negative aspects at that
time. I don't know if it was a protective cocoon or whether it was just my
being smart about survival.

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: But I also on occasion would have a hit like a "Look Who's
Talking," which at that point was the biggest hit in--biggest comedy in
history, that supplimated this feeling of so-called temperature, heat, not
hot, whatever, and it made you feel, well, you have the number one picture for
several weeks and it's making hundreds of millions of dollars. And I guess if
you just want to have that, you can have that. Do you know what I mean? It
was that kind of feeling. But what I wasn't realizing is that I wasn't
getting the quality of scripts that I needed to survive in another level.
Although, you have to understand--and I have the time to explain this. Most
of the time I don't--is even though there are these so-called cooler periods,
it was--there was still like a Robert Altman that was considering me
for--what's the brilliant movie about the movie industry?

GROSS: With Tim Robbins.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Right.

GROSS: "The Player."

Mr. TRAVOLTA: "The Player," yeah. So, `Oh, gee, you know, John. I want you
for this "Player" but I'm not sure if it's going to work or not. Let me get
back to you.' In other words, I still had very serious filmmakers...

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...you know, Michael Douglas which was--he was a very serious
filmmaker. He hired me for a little movie that he thought was going to be a
tremendous--he thought I would get an Academy Award for it. But the point is
that at a time where I was view from some retrospectively as cool, I didn't
always have the ingredients to feel that way.

GROSS: You grew up in Englewood, New Jersey.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Mm-hmm.

GROSS: Your father owned a tire distribution company. Your mother taught
acting. Do I have that right?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes. She was a director, went to Columbia University. She
taught drama, she directed, she was also a schoolteacher. She taught English
and speech and...

GROSS: Oh.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: She was quite a marvelous character, by the way. She was very
articulate and very elegant and stylish. And my father was a jock and quite
appealing. He looked like Cary Grant and she kind of looked like Barbara
Stanwyck. And they were quite the two in the town when we were growing up.
They were iconic in their own way in our hometown of Englewood, New Jersey.

GROSS: Did she teach you anything about acting?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes, she did. She taught me about stage presence. She taught
me stage manners.

GROSS: What did she teach you about stage presence? Is that something you
can really teach?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, no. She thought that you could never teach anyone to act
and she never thought you could really teach stage presence. What she did was
that--don't be afraid to take stage, which to me was a stage presence concept,
meaning like if you had stage presence or not is an inborn natural thing.
But when one takes stage, that's skill, you know. You don't deny that you're
on stage. You don't deny your presence, you see. Stage manners--you know,
there's basics that we were all taught and, you know, pretending and acting is
believing and all sorts of things like that I think she liked. It was hard
for her because there would be parents that would want her to teach their
child to act and she'd say, `I can't do that. They either have that gift or
they don't. But what I can do is help hone it and I can give them tricks and,
you know, ideas that will benefit them. But I can't make them an actor if
they're not.'

GROSS: She must have been pretty happy when she realized you had it.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Oh, my God. She just knew it. She said, `Oh, my God, all my
life I wanted my students to be like my son' and--you know, I think she was--I
was her pride and joy in that way. She had a lot of depth. I mean, you know,
she had me late and she did have...

GROSS: She was around 42 when you were born, right?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yeah, almost 43.

GROSS: Which is a lot older then than it is now for women having a baby.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Now it's nothing. Exactly.

GROSS: A lot of people do that now.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yeah, in that day it was--she--I was her sixth and it was
unusual to have a child--although my aunt had a baby at 46 and so it was
happening.

GROSS: So did you act at home? You know, were there little shows that you
did at home with your brothers and sisters and your mom?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes. We had a theater in our basement and there was wardrobe
and there was music and there was curtains that gave us the framework to
perform in. And we used it like mad. Every day we were in that theater and
we were either lip-syncing to records or we were creating plays or--and, of
course, Mom and Dad were the ultimate audiences. They would sit with their
glass of wine and their cigarette, or cigar in my dad's case, and just kvell
over us. They would just--we were the most genius things that ever hit. And
I just remember hearing the comments and my--`Oh, Helen, can you believe him?'
The cigarette's going. `Oh, jeez, that's the best I've seen yet.' You know,
and who knows how good we were or not good. I just knew that they thought we
were the tops.

BIANCULLI: John Travolta talking with Terry Gross. We'll hear more of their
interview in the second half of the show. I'm David Bianculli and this is
FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite from "Pulp Fiction")

Unidentified Man: Now the moment you've all been waiting for, the world
famous Jack Brother Slims(ph) twist contest.

(Soundbite of cheers, applause)

Unidentified Man: One lucky couple will win this handsome trophy that Marilyn
here is holding. Now who will be our first contestants?

Unidentified Woman: Right here!

Want to dance? No, no, no. No, no, no, no. I do believe Marsellus, my
husband, your boss, told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. Now I
want to dance. I want to win. I want that trophy, so dance good.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: All right. All right.

Unidentified Man: ...(Unintelligible).

(Soundbite of song)

Unidentified Singer: (Singing) It was a teen-age wedding and the old folks
wished them well. You could see that Pierre did truly love the mademoiselle.
And now the young monsieur and madame they run the chapel...

(Credits)

BIANCULLI: Coming up, dropping out of school to be an actor. We continue our
conversation with John Travolta. He's starring in the new film "Basic."

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli in for Terry Gross.

Our guest, John Travolta, is starring in "Basic," a new military thriller that
opened recently. In the first half of the interview, Travolta was telling
Terry about growing up in a family where his mother was an actress and his
theatricality was encouraged.

GROSS: Did your mother ever draw the line for you and say, `John, you're not
on stage now so just cut it out'?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No.

GROSS: Like if she thought that you were either getting too full of yourself
or using your acting skills to get one over on her...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Oh, no, she was...

GROSS: ...or to act sick and stay home from school.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No, you couldn't bull my mother, do you know what I mean? She
had an innate sense of reality, so she knew that, so you didn't even bother
putting something over on her, you know. So I can't say that. I mean, I was
precocious and demanding and that, but that was real. That wasn't my putting
it on. That was just unfortunately the kind of child I was. I was a very
dramatic child, you know, but...

GROSS: Meaning what?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, I was just a very theatrical child. I would make
demands. You know, if I didn't have certain things done by certain times, my
threats were to run away and to do all sorts of, you know, elaborate, dramatic
things to--and they were so smart. My dad would always say, `Oh, he's
expressing himself.' I mean, any other kid would get a smack in the butt or
the face, and I was always just, `He's expressing himself,' so I don't know if
it was being the sixth and they just had tolerance in their hearts and they
didn't mind it so much, but whatever it was, at an early age, I knew it was
quite beautiful and that I was getting a big break on this not so ideal
behavior.

GROSS: Did you follow through on any of those dramatic threats?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No, but you know, I was pretty bad. You know, I remember once
running up the stairs and throwing up the window and screaming as though I had
jumped out because something wasn't happening quick enough or something. And
you could hear my mother, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, and I was hiding
in the closet and waiting to see how it affected her, and it affected her so
deeply that I knocked it off from then on; no more dramatic behavior. It was
the same thing with my father. You know, he was playing the piano one night
in the store that he and his brother owned and this honky-tonk piano, and I
decided I guess I needed some attention from him, so I'm up in the rosters in
the attic of the store and I scream as though something terrible has happened
to me, boom, boom, boom, he comes running up, just like my mother had, and he
holds his heart, just like my mother held her heart, and these are moments
where you realize how much you mean to them.

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Do you know what I mean? But it was not kind. You know, I was
eight, but nevertheless, I was dramatic and...

GROSS: Do you still think of yourself as dramatic in that sense?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No, no, no. I have way too much drama to ever add drama
to--that's like a comment on a comment. No need.

GROSS: You grew up in New Jersey, where you watched New York television...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Oh, yes.

GROSS: ...and one one of the New York stations was "Million Dollar Movie,"
which showed the same movie every day over and over for a week. So of all
those movies--I'm sure you watched it--which were the couple that you
watched...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Oh.

GROSS: ...the most that really meant the most to you?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: "Yankee Doodle Dandy" meant by far the most to me, period.
And I watched it over and over again, and I'd cry and I'd laugh and I'd sing
and I'd dance, and...

GROSS: That's James Cagney as George M. Cohan writing...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Jimmy Cagney is...

GROSS: ...songs at the turn of the century...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes.

GROSS: ...and being in Vaudeville.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: And it was an extraordinary movie. A matter of fact, I did an
expose in The New York Times, five pages, it was the biggest spread they'd
ever done in the Arts and Entertainment section, and...

GROSS: It was part of the `Watching Movies With' series.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes.

GROSS: Yeah, yeah. Did you used to watch "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: That was the other one I loved.

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Of course, that was almost too sad for me, but you couldn't
help but watch it. But it was almost too sad, you know, `Finphony, what
hath'--and the beautiful girl bringing over the water and dripping it into his
mouth, and, of course, we would immediately take that scene and recreate it
and I'd be the Hunchback, and I'd put a pillow on my back and my sister would
could along with a--and drip the water into my mouth.

GROSS: This is after the Hunchback has been pilloried and whipped and
humiliated, and he's just like left there to be made a public mockery of, and
the Gypsy dancer gives him water after he's crying out for water.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes. And they spin him around...

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...on that like lazy Susan, like turntable thing, and he's so
grotesque, but he's so sympathetic, and the beautiful girl comes over and
drips the water in his mouth, and that was real filmmaking, truly.

GROSS: Now you went to Catholic school and then public school. How old were
you when you switched to public school?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I was in Catholic school for five years, from kindergarten till
fourth grade, and then I didn't do so well in fourth grade, and they said,
`The only way that we could promote your son is to switch him over to public
school.' And the irony of it is the education system in the public school was
far better at that time than it was in the private school, and it saved my
parents probably $300 a year as well. So it's not that that--I think they
were saddened that I had to be taken out of the Catholic school, but on the
other hand, I came alive at public school.

GROSS: Oh, what was different?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, there was every type of person. There was every type of
religion. You know, on my left was a beautiful Jewish girl. On my right was
an amazing black athlete. On the front was a Chinese girl. In the back of me
was an Indian boy, an Australian, you know--I mean, it was everyone. And we
were together in the same school learning, and it was an adventure; not that I
didn't learn something in that school hitherto then, but I was out in life.
It was like I was at the United Nations. I was living life, you know. So I
worked hard for a half year and then I finally got promoted and never got left
back, so I was very proud of that movement. I had a tutor and...

GROSS: Did it make you feel stupid to be threatened with getting left back?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No. Stupid I never worried about. It was what the illusion
would be for people, what would they think of that, not actually thinking or
worrying that I was stupid because I was way too valid--I mean, I would take
out the garbage and I was called a borderline genius at home, so, I mean, you
know, you're talking about your...

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...honest-to-goodness indulged, you know--so I never worried
about the word stupid.

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I did worry...

GROSS: Lazy?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No. I didn't worry about lazy because we were all hard-working
people in our family. None of that. It was just what would others
misinterpret about it?

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: They wouldn't know the details. They wouldn't know that we had
a very, you know, unusually nutty third-grade teacher that didn't care about
teaching anyone, and all of us were suffering, and very mean-spirited, you
know, and that's where I started to back off of comprehending, when I realized
that the meanness was more important than--because education is very
important. And if one is being taught in a low-tone manner, in an angry
manner or antagonistic manner, you won't--if you learn anything, it will be
very painful memories, so you don't really learn anything. You're learning by
whipping, you know.

BIANCULLI: Actor John Travolta talking with Terry Gross. We'll get back to
their interview after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: Let's hear more of Terry's interview with John Travolta. He's
starring in the new film "Basic."

GROSS: You dropped out of high school to act. Your mother was an acting
teacher. Was she for you dropping out or did she urge you to go back to
school?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: She was for my dropping out only because she knew...

GROSS: She knew you had it.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I had it and I wasn't happy with what was going on. My father
was not as happy about that, but I did make a deal with him that I would go
back or do some equivalent, and I became so busy and so successful that I
did not--he didn't challenge it after that, you know, at all.

GROSS: How old were you when you got "Welcome Back Kotter"?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Twenty-one. But hitherto that, I did Broadway and I did
off-Broadway and I did summer theater and I did commercials and television
and...

GROSS: What commercials did you do?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Oh, I did, oh, tons of them. I did--you name it--Pepsi, Arco,
Safeguard...

GROSS: Did you have to sing and dance in the commercial?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: On two, on the Safeguard--no, on Band-Aids, I sang. (Singing)
`I am stuck on Band-Aids because Band-Aid's stuck on me.' And I sang on
Wyler's--no, I danced on Wyler's Lemonade. And all the rest were
straightforward advertising, you know.

GROSS: Oh, I have to ask you about "Saturday Night Fever," which was a
defining film...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Sure.

GROSS: ...both for you and for the '70s and for American movies. The opening
of "Saturday Night Fever" is a close-up of your feet as "Stayin' Alive" is
playing on the soundtrack, and you see your feet and then you see your feet in
a paper pair of shoes and then you see your whole body and then back to your
feet again. When you're doing that now classic scene, which has been paid
homage to I don't know how many times in other movies, did you have the music
playing behind you? Did you...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes.

GROSS: So you knew the beat that you were supposed to be walking to.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Absolutely. And there was a debate about it. The producer,
Robert Stigwood, wanted me to not walk down the street to "Stayin' Alive" but
to do my solo, my big dance to "Stayin' Alive" and to walk down the street to
"You Should Be Dancing." And I said, `I can't do that, and I'll tell you
why.' I said, `"Stayin' Alive" has a slower rhythm.' I said, `I could walk
down the street to "Stayin' Alive" but I can't dance to "Stayin' Alive." But
now I could do the solo to "You Should Be Dancing," because the rhythms are
closer, you know.' So "Stayin' Alive," if you remember the beat, you know,
you could do a bop to that, you know, walk and bop, soulful strut, but "You
Should Be Dancing," it was like triple-time almost, you know. And he said,
`OK, deal. If you walk down the street to "Stayin' Alive," I'll let you dance
solo to "You Should Be Dancing."' I said, `I'm happy.'

GROSS: So were they playing it on the set as you were walking?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Mm-hmm, on a little tiny--well, did you ever see those
recording instruments on the set that are kind of small and they're just what
the soundman uses, but they're almost portable looking, and that was the
little apparatus connected to that that looked like a little radio from a car
or something and a reel-to-reel recorder was being used on that, as I remember
it, and it was attached to the dolly that the camera was on.

GROSS: Oh.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: And right underneath the camera was this recording apparatus.

GROSS: So it kind of moved with you.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: It moved with me, yeah.

GROSS: Is it a walk that you practiced or did you just know what to do?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: It was a walk that I got from school, because it was really a
walk that a lot of the African-American guys that were very stylish used, and
us white guys liked walking like that, so we would walk, too, like that to be
kind of hip and, you know, with it. And I thought, `I think this character
would do that walk that I remember that we all did in school.' Again, being in
a public school where I wouldn't...

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...have necessarily gotten that from...

GROSS: From a Catholic school.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...a Catholic school.

GROSS: Probably not.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: So all my experiences that I remembered, I did bring into play
there.

GROSS: Your clothes on "Saturday Night Fever," you know, that white suit is
so famous now. Did you dress yourself?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, I had a wonderful wardrobe designer on it, but I did
dress myself because I got to choose all the wardrobe, with her blessing, of
course, but I did choose all the clothing, you know.

GROSS: Is that any of that clothing you would have worn as John Travolta? I
mean...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, it was already outdated by the time that we did the
movie. See, what people don't understand about that movie sometimes is that
that disco era was over kind of by the time we filmed the movie. We were
doing a slice of life art film, in my opinion. These people--their clothes
were outdated by a few years. They were, you know, still dancing in clubs in
a ritual-like manner, and it had past the mainstream a few years ago. It was
like in 1970 or '71, that's when it started, and then it was over by about '74
or '5, and then by the time we did the movie, there were still pockets full of
people still doing it, but that was what was fascinating, is they were holding
on to this thing that was fading out.

GROSS: Right.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: You see, so we were rekindling something that either didn't
exist in people's minds or they were discovering it for the first time, which
I found out to be true; is that it was so kind of buried that the mainstream
public was now--this new thing called disco vs.--the truth was it had been out
for about six years.

GROSS: So you wouldn't have worn the clothes because they were outdated
already?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yes, exactly. Except the white suit, it was kind of classic.
I mean, that would have worked kind of--a black or white version of that might
have worked anyway, but all the other clothes--the bright polyester pink and
red jackets and the green jacket and the black with the red slacks and the
black with the black slacks with the red top and, you know, all that stuff
was--we couldn't find it. We had to go to nooks and crannies in the Village
in New York to find that clothing, and they said, `Well, we don't have that
anymore.' I said, `You know the one,' I'd say, you know, and the guy would
say, `Well, maybe. Let me look back here.' And I remember climbing up a
ladder going in the back of his store in the Village, and in these boxes, he
pulled--`You mean this stuff?' I said, `That's it! That's it. I'm so
excited. That's it.' It was all there, and it was just there for the picking.

GROSS: My guest is John Travolta, and he's in a new movie which is called
"Basic." John Woo directed you in the film "Face/Off in which you play an FBI
agent, and Nicolas Cage played this crazy killer who's in prison, and through
complications much too complex for me to explain now, you trade faces through
cosmetic surgery and trade identities as well. And so you end up having to do
Nicolas Cage imitations, and he ends up having to do John Travolta imitations.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: That's right.

GROSS: When I talked to Nicolas Cage, I asked him what it was like to watch
you doing him.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: What did he say?

GROSS: And he said--I wrote down the quote. He said, "His impression of me
is pretty impeccable. He picked up the way I tend to elongate my words when I
talk. I didn't know I did that."

Mr. TRAVOLTA: You know, it is interesting that he didn't know he did that. I
always found that fascinating. And...

GROSS: Like how could he not know?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: In a way, you know, but I found it endeared him to me even
more because I thought, that's why Nick is so kind of wonderful, because he's
not paying attention to himself. He's just being, do you know what I mean?
He's not self-aware in that kind of egocentric way that one would be aware of
their style, you know, or something like that. So I was pleased, in an odd
way, that it was a revelation to him that he did that.

GROSS: What did you hear in him...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: In his...

GROSS: ...that you picked up on in his speech style or his movement?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, he has a very specific walk, which is kind of--the legs
bow out and they go in front of each other in kind of a--I don't even know
what the comparative would be, but it's a very specific like outward swing
that comes and the toes are slightly pointed in when he does it. So the walk
was very specific. And I said, `Nick, we should really just go with your walk
because you have a very distinctive walk,' and I said, `And we should go how
you enunciate and pronunciate words,' and he said, `Oh, OK.' And then I said,
`You know, you make things like this, you know. You will talk, you know, and
kind of,' you know--and he giggled in the idea that it was, but he understood
it and so he started to comment on his own style that was pointed up to him,
and then we could ride on that to some degree, you see, you know. So it was a
fun deal, that whole thing, trading valences in a way.

GROSS: Well, he seemed to learn a lot from watching you do him. Did you
learn anything from watching him try to do you?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Yeah. I learned that I'm a tough guy to imitate because I...

GROSS: That's what he said. He said you were tough to imitate.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Because he watched all my movies, but what I have is more of a
neutral personality. I don't have a lot of hooks to the way I say things or
do things. And I kind of tune in to characteristic traits of others in order
to perform, you know. There's that old English saying about actors, they have
no souls because--I mean, obviously, it's not true, but, I mean, they kind of
become whoever they are, so they have no identity of their own is what the
saying is about, kind of. And sometimes, I mean, I don't feel that but I
understand that because I do feel neutral often before I go into a part, you
know, and I maybe put a spirit of play that I have, you know, with friends or
family into some aspects of a role or something, but characteristic traits, I
don't have a lot of specific of, and Nick does beautifully.

BIANCULLI: Actor John Travolta talking with Terry Gross. We'll get back to
their interview after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BIANCULLI: Let's return to Terry's interview with John Travolta. He's
starring in the new film "Basic."

GROSS: Do you feel more alive when you're acting or...

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Mm-hmm, I do. And, I mean, I feel alive when I'm doing the
things that I'm interested in, like flying airplanes and traveling. I feel
alive when I'm doing that, but as far as expressing myself, I feel far more
alive when I have a character to create an effect with. I do do that, you
know. It's fun. I mean, acting is also--there's also a joy in acting, you
know. There is a joy of it.

GROSS: I feel like I see that you're in a lot of your performances, that
there's just this kind of exhilaration that's expressed.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I think I felt that way in "Basic." I mean, you could tell I
was...

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...really enjoying that character because he had such a wide
spectrum to express himself with, because he could seduce on one level. He
could outsmart on another level. He could...

GROSS: Intimidate.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...intimidate and physicalize and he could be a puppeteer of
some sort, a mastermind, and have...

GROSS: Smoke a lot of cigarettes.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...smoke a lot of cigarettes and have fun...

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...with his personality in these things, you know. So I
remember this old fellow that hired me for a summer theater job when I was 17.
He was 85 years old and he owned a little theater in Allenberry--no, it was
near Allentown but it was called Allenberry Playhouse. And I auditioned for
him. I did a song and dance and I read a scene. And he said, `You know,
I'--now, of course, I was 17, but he said, `I've seen better people come in
here today, but nobody had the fun that you had performing for me. And
because of that, I'm giving you this job, because I think that will be
contagious to the theater audience.' And he was right. I, you know, always
had a lot of fun.

GROSS: What did you sing in the audition?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: It was for the musical "The Boyfriend," and I think I sang,
`Won't you Charleston with me? Won't you Charleston with me? And when the
band is playing that old vo-de-o-do, around we will go, together we'll show,'
then `how the Charleston is done.' And then I did a whole dance to it and I
got the part.

GROSS: That's great. OK. One last question, and if this is too weird or too
personal, just tell me. But you're considered very sexy, a kind of sex symbol
in a way. Does being the subject of a lot of people's fantasies and being
this kind of sexual presence on screen, does that make sex anymore enjoyable?
I mean, does that translate to real life? Does that make lovemaking like
anymore exciting?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: Well, I mean...

GROSS: Is that a weird question to ask?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: No, I know what you're saying. No. I don't have any
self-consciousness about the question. Let me try to explain something about
it...

GROSS: Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...so you could--I've always been a sexual person anyway, but
not all my characters have had to use their sexuality. I felt in certain key
parts, I've used it, and then in others, I have not. So all I can say is that
when a character has it, as in "Basic," and he uses it, then I feel it. But
I'm also honorable to my characters. And if he doesn't have it, I turn it
off.

GROSS: Absolutely, yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...do you know what I mean?

GROSS: Yes.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: And so all I can say is that in life, I feel that way, but in
acting, I only feel that way if the character feels that way. And if there's
a sexuality about the character, then I play it. And if there isn't, I don't,
do you know. And, I mean, you know, there's been a certain level of sexuality
in different parts I've played, and then there's some where there's just none,
do you know. And...

GROSS: But does it make you feel sexier in real life, knowing that a large
part of the public finds you so sexy? Do you know what I mean? Does it make
you feel sexier or does it make pleasure more pleasurable?

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I don't know, because I think I felt this way before...

GROSS: I see what you're saying.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...the fame. Do you see what I mean?

GROSS: I got it. Yeah.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: I never needed the movies to feel sexy...

GROSS: Got it.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: ...do you see. I think that I had the same effect on people
before I made movies. And if I appealed to them personally, I appealed to
them personally, and I never knew whether it was just because of who I was as
a person or it was a sexual feeling they were feeling or it was an emotional
feeling that they were feeling about me, and it's very confusing sometimes,
because you don't know what station a person's tuning in to you on. Is it
emotion? Is it spiritual? Is it, you know, sexual? It is just commonality?
Is it common realities, you know? It's a very interesting thing. But
whatever it was is what I had before I started portraying that on screen.

GROSS: John Travolta, thank you so much for talking with us.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: You're welcome.

GROSS: Thank you.

Mr. TRAVOLTA: My pleasure.

BIANCULLI: Actor John Travolta. He's starring in the new film "Basic."

(Soundbite of music)

SINGERS: Get down, get down, get down...

(Credits)

BIANCULLI: For Terry Gross, I'm David Bianculli.

(Soundbite of music)

SINGERS: Hey! Jungle boogie. Jungle boogie. Get it on. Jungle boogie.
Oh, yeah. Jungle boogie. Oh, get it on. Jungle boogie. Oh, jungle boogie.
Jungle boogie. Get up with the get down. Jungle boogie. Down, down. Jungle
boogie. You sure get around. Jungle boogie...
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