American actor John Travolta has frozen in time, as a lot of people will forever remember him as a 1970s disco icon. Starring in Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978), he has helped create scenes and soundtracks that define the disco fever era.
Both movies are romantic stories with settings many people can relate to. For instance, Saturday Night Fever, directed by John Badham, centers on Travolta’s character Tony Manero, a young working-class man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking in a bar until he meets Stephanie Mangano (played by Karen Lynn Gorney).
Impressed with her dance moves, it is not long before Travolta choses Mangano as his dance partner, and later best friend. Soon, he also falls in love with Annette (played by Donna Pescow), a former dance partner. With disco dancing, the downtrodden, lonely worker has found a community and activity he loves. A lot of people, stressed out by their jobs and having a hard time finding new friends in their adulthood, might find something to love about the film.
Travolta was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Saturday Night Fever.
The musical Grease is also fondly remembered by many a movie buff.
Furthermore, Grease’s original soundtrack has become a bestseller across the globe, with various theater troupes, including in Indonesia, staging their own versions of the musical.
All that said, Travolta has also been able to reinvent himself as an actor through the years. For instance, he shifted from disco to country music in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy, which became a trendsetter for country music and country movies at the time.
He took a hiatus from the film world for almost a decade, owing to his idealism, which explained the selectiveness with which he was accepted new roles. Apparently, the 10-year-plus break brought him precious time for introspection and reflection, allowing him to return to the big screen again, this time after having reinvented himself once again.
His comeback was marked by Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 crime/drama neo-neoir flick Pulp Fiction, which earned him an Oscar nomination for his role as a conman.
Thanks to his constant self-reinvention, driven by a desire to always try new things, he has continued to play in various films until today, the latest being Kevin Connolly’s 2018 Gotti as well as Fred Durst’s 2019 movie The Fanatic.
Travolta’s fans in Indonesia will be thrilled to learn that he will appear in Mola TV’s Mola Living Live program on Feb. 5, at 10 p.m. As usual, the program will be moderated by former Indonesian ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal. The program will feature Indies Capital Managing Partner Investor Pandu Sjahrir, who will also talk to Travolta regarding his secrets on persistence, open-mindedness and self-reinvention.
The program rings true to the core mission of Mola Living Live, which seeks to present inspiring global public figures across various endeavors to help the Indonesian public gain insight into how to sustain passion in one’s career. Also essential in these discussions is how one can rebound from failure or a setback, which is bound to happen from time to time in life.
“Travolta has had a very interesting life story, full of trials and tribulations, including loss of loved ones, yet he has always been able to bounce back from these challenges,” Dino said.
Pandu, meanwhile, said he was curious to know how Travolta built his career from zero and wished to learn from his experience.
Dino added he was particularly thrilled to moderate the discussion with Travolta, since he himself was part of the generation born in the 1960s, whose coming-of-age experience was marked by Saturday Night Fever and Grease.
“The films taught me that dancing was cool, even for men. I remembered this even while I was serving as an ambassador. This is why I will greet him with the phrase ‘yo’ Tony Monero! Ay yo doin!!’ at the beginning of the show,” he said, referring to how Travolta’s Monero character was greeted in Saturday Night Fever.
Mola Living Live has already featured inspiring stories from boxer Mike Tyson, actors Sharon Stone and Robert deNiro as well as director Francis Ford Coppola. The program is an interactive one that allows the audience to interact with the guests.
After Travolta, the program will feature actor Sylvester Stallone on Feb. 25 and director Oliver Stone after that. Viewers can enjoy these programs through the Mola TV app, which is available in both the App Store and the Google Play store, or on the mola.tv website with subscription fees starting from Rp 12,500 per month (89 US cents).