Welcome back, Travolta: At Cannes, it was all work and lots of berets for the Hollywood icon

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At the Cannes Film Festival last week, there were undoubtedly bigger stars walking the red carpet than John Travolta. Actors whose recent CVs don’t read like a Mad Libs-y list of action movies you never have, and likely never will, hear about (MobLand, Cash Out, High Rollers). But no one at Cannes captured the international headlines quite like the 72-year-old once-and-forever Danny Zuko/Tony Manero/Vincent Vega.

Sporting immaculately trimmed facial hair, razor-thin wire-frame glasses, and, crucially, a small army of jaunty berets – black, brown, cream – Travolta looked like Ingmar Bergman after a shopping spree on Rodeo Drive. It was a little bit wacky, a little bit inspired and completely, unabashedly, sincerely fun – the kind of genuine, meet-the-real-me joy that you don’t see often on the super-serious Croisette. Which made sense, given that Travolta was at Cannes for the world premiere of his directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, a semi-autobiographical drama that feels as deeply personal as his own je ne sais quoi sense of style.

Based on his 1997 novella of the same name, Travolta’s movie follows a young, wide-eyed boy named Jeff (Clark Shotwell) as he embarks on his very first flight alongside his mother (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett), a wannabe Hollywood actress. Travolta, easily Hollywood’s most dedicated aviation enthusiast, holds licences for commercial and military jets, and his infectious passion for air travel buoys the entirety of the film – which, at just 61 minutes, is barely a feature. But when sandwiched in Cannes between the works of austere auteurs and outré provocateurs, the sometimes strange but utterly sincere project stands apart like the brightest-coloured beret.

“At first, I only had the novella, where it was my memories on paper. But when I finished it, I said, this is so visceral, this is so visual, that this would make a great little movie one day. So I put it out there, and I got little bites from actors, directors, people who wanted to finance it. But it was so personal, if I didn’t do it myself, it wasn’t going to resonate,” Travolta says in an interview the afternoon following the premiere, having decided today was a burgundy-beret kind of day.

“So I waited and waited, and I decided to finance it. It’s about my first love – my first machine with big propellers and engines and the nose and the wings and the totality of it all.”

The Apple TV film – which, aside from a quick cameo from Travolta toward the end, lacks any name-brand actor – might not seem like the most Cannes-coded project. But Travolta has a storied history with the festival, from the legendary premiere of Pulp Fiction in 1994 to She’s So Lovely in 1997 and Primary Colors the year after.

The actor’s career, particularly the resurgence that he received after storming the French Riviera alongside Quentin Tarantino more than three decades ago, is so tied to the legacy of Cannes itself that Travolta’s hotel suite for this interview happens to be festooned with a giant photograph of Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction’s premiere.

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Still, Travolta was caught off-guard when, just before the premiere of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux presented him with a surprise honourary Palme d’Or, a prize that could rightfully be considered a step above an Academy Award.

“Oh my gosh, Thierry kept it secret. We were the first selection to be at Cannes, five months ago. It was historical. He loved the movie so much he said, ‘You’re in. I want the world to see this movie.’ But he said, ‘I’m going to protect you, and I’m going to set you up in a way where the world views it with no distractions, and I’ll make it special for you,’ because he loved it that much,” Travolta recalls with a smile. “I didn’t know that making it special for me was honouring me with a Palme d’Or! Man, did it take off. It gave a seal of approval I’ve never seen before.”

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The actor, who also narrates his film, is well aware that Propeller is not exactly the kind of heavy, serious-minded movie that might otherwise be crowding the Cannes lineup. (It premiered out of competition, much like a good deal of Hollywood fare headed to the festival over the past decade.)

“There’s so much darkness in film nowadays, and suddenly this little respite comes along, this soothing Valentine to another era where we all had hope, and we all saw the glass half-full, and it was just the right moment,” he says, occasionally breaking up the interview to hum snippets from the soundtrack, which compresses the entirety of the 1960s into 32 classic tracks.

“It was quite expensive, but I had to have them. ‘Quiet nights of quiet stars, quiet mood from my guitar...’ It’s divine. Expensive, but divine.”

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The film was also something of a family affair. Travolta’s siblings Ellen, Margaret, Ann, Sam and Joey all appear in small roles, while his daughter Ella Bleu plays a flight attendant named Doris.

Ella, who has witnessed her fair share of family tragedy, including the deaths of her older brother Jett in 2009 and mother Kelly Preston in 2020, has been accompanying her father on the Cannes press tour, and was overjoyed when he received his honourary Palme d’Or.

“The whole family was there, and we were all feeling the same emotion, crying and cheering and screaming – it was one of the most incredible moments in my life,” Ella says, sitting next to her father.

“It was a full-circle moment, and very fulfilling to have your whole family and your friends with you, they all fit perfectly into this little film,” Travolta adds.

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“I’ve seen the film 25 times, but every single time, I could watch it over and over again and not just because it’s my family,” Ella says. “If you need a pick-you-up, you just watch it and it makes you instantly happy.”

While Travolta was beaming from one end of his Cannes journey to the other, the actor still seems happiest in the sky. Certainly, he eagerly and energetically answered every question lobbed to him about the making of the movie, but it was only when he was asked which plane he flew to Cannes that his eyes truly lit up, the inner child of Propeller still alive and well.

The answer, by the way?

“Oh, I came on my Global,” Travolta says, as in his Bombardier Global Express, a long-range luxury business jet. And while the actor doesn’t literally tip his beret in my direction, he does quickly add, “Made in Canada, by the way.”

John Travolta, as ever, knows his audience.

Propeller One-Way Night Coach streams on Apple TV starting May 29.

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