John Travolta declares himself deeply optimistic. “My nature is to see the positive. The worst can happen and I’ll do everything I can to get out of it,” says the actor when talking about his directorial debut, ‘Propeller One-Way Night Coach’, in which he has overturned that spirit and which premieres this Friday on Apple TV.
The film, which adapts a book written by him in 1997 in which he reflects his passion for aviation and for childhood, shows that “the hope and resilience of a child is unique and we have forgotten what that is like,” said Travolta in a meeting with a small group of media, including EFE, after presenting the film, out of competition, at the Cannes Film Festival.
He is relaxed and smiling, next to his daughter Ella Bleu, a perfect blend of his father and his mother, the late Kelly Preston, whom Travolta mentions on several occasions.
“My nature is not to absorb myself to the point where I can’t see anything. So I look at the darkness, but I don’t choose to die with it,” says the star of titles like ‘Grease’ or ‘Saturday Night Fever’.
That’s why he speaks naturally about Preston and his son Jett, who died at the age of 16. To them, his parents and siblings he dedicates a film that is “an example” of how the actor and director sees life.
John Travolta and his film directorial debut: The golden age of aviation.
In ‘Propeller One-Way Night Coach ‘ tells how Jeff (Clark Shotwell), a 10-year-old boy obsessed with airplanes, is going on his first airplane trip with his mother.
The story takes place in 1962, in just over 24 hours, the time it takes for the mother and son to fly from New York to Los Angeles via Pittsburgh, Chicago, Kansas City and Denver.
On their journey they are accompanied by two charming stewardesses, played by Ella Bleu Travolta and Olga Hoffmann, in a story that lasts barely an hour, very aesthetically pleasing and in which the music is of great importance.
“It was a specific time in the way of thinking. There were things going on in the world then, but the personal views were in a way more positive, we weren’t so exposed to looking at the dark side of life,” explains the filmmaker.
That is why it is a luminous and colorful film, in which every detail has been taken care of. They were even able to shoot in the mythical TWA terminal that architect Eero Saarinen designed for New York’s JFK airport and which was operational until 2001 to finally become a hotel that opened its doors in 2019.
“Everything in this movie reflects a masterpiece,” Travolta assures. “Every piece of music was a masterpiece of the era; that architecture, a masterpiece; the clothes, a masterpiece. Everything was definitive of that era,” said the actor, who is as passionate about aviation – he has more than 10,000 hours of flight time as a pilot – as he is about music.
In the film you can hear Frank Sinatra, George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ or a lot of bossa nova, a music that is in Travolta’s DNA.
“I don’t know what it has, but every time I listen to it, even Jobim’s modern mixes with Sergio Mendes… it’s magic. Ever since ‘Black Orpheus’ (Marcel Camus’ 1959 film) I’ve been obsessed with Brazilian music,” said Travolta.
The presentation of Elle Bleu Travolta
At his side is his daughter, with whom Travolta has a great relationship. “We see things in a very similar way. We are very compatible in how we look at things and the quality of what we look at,” he stressed.
They prepared the film by doing tests with the cell phone. She played all the characters so she could show the producers what they wanted to do.
Although she made her film debut when she was only 8 years old in ‘Old Dogs’, it is now at the age of 26 that the actress is really starting her career. After working with her father, she already has two other projects shot, ‘Black Tides’ and ‘Nice People’.
“She was stunning at seven or eight years old and then she grew up and is still just as stunning,” proudly states her father, who says he designed this film as if it were the presentation of Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor or Grace Kelly.
For Elle Bleu Travolta it was a very easy job because for her her father is her best friend. “It was a very collaborative experience because we were always together, constantly sharing ideas (…) Plus, I grew up listening to all these stories all my life. I knew these characters very well. So it was amazing to be part of how they came to life,” reported Agencia EFE.
Here you can see the physical change of John Travolta at 72 years old.
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