John Travolta Sings 'A Love Song for Bobby Long'

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“I’m always willing to take up music again,” Travolta said. “However, it’s hard to juggle two careers like that so what I’ve decided is it’s best to sing when a character needs to sing, as opposed to on my own. That’s not to say that in my older years I wouldn’t be interested in that because maybe there’d be less to do and it would be fun to sing on a separate idea. But for the time being, it’s hard enough to try and get the parts you want to do. So singing is kind of on the side burner.”

Travolta looks downright awful in the film, playing an alcoholic, unshaven and grey haired. But the cool, suave actor was happy to downplay his innate charm for the role. “I was frightened that if I didn’t look the way I did, you wouldn’t believe it. And that’s more frightening to an actor than looking good. And that’s the truth. Actors that are serious about what they do, want to get it right for you. They want you to be lured into the reality of that scenario and that character. So it’s quite the contrary, there’s almost a panic if you don’t look correct.”

Playing such a bum was a challenge for Travolta because it is so far away from his happy, successful family man life. “However, there’s so many things that one has experienced that are parallel. You know, I grew up and experienced so many drinkers in my life that lectured to me and were wicked to me and were nice to me. And unedited thoughts, that part of it felt quite easily in my opportunity to almost exercise those experiences out by putting them through a character. I spent a lot of time in the South. I live in Florida now and I have over the years but moreover in my travels, it wasn’t unusual for me to spend time in any number of Southern states. So getting familiar with them, I spent years in Texas on and off. I spent years in New Orleans and a lot of time in Savannah. So it wasn’t difficult to acclimate to the characteristics of a type of person. That’s an easy assimilation. It’s fun, too. That’s the journey of it all. You know, I was never a heroin addict or a hit man either, you know what I mean? Pulp Fiction, I have my obligations there to portray that correctly, so if you’re a mirror of humanity of some sort, that’s your job. That’s what you do. And it’s fun doing it.”

The location in New Orleans helped him get into character simply because the overwhelming heat was real. “We dealt with it by using it. And it’s the oldest trick in the book but if you can use something that’s in your environment, and I don’t care what it is, use it to your advantage. I feel that it was exciting to have something so ever-present to use. The only time it was difficult is when we were playing it cold. We were playing it winter and we had no heat, and we were boiling. That was acting.”

Travolta soaked through a number of his suits in the film, but wore them wet anyway. “It didn’t matter because the soaked through you could use many [times]. If you were sweating, there’s not a problem. You just sweat more. That’s accurate and you go on from there.”

One of Hollywood’s reigning $20 million dollar men, Travolta loves the chance to forsake his usual salary to help out an indie film like Bobby Long. “I actually prefer it. As an artist, I prefer it. Less pressure, you really get the idea that you’re free to act, and vanity doesn’t matter. You can be the character and you can take risks that maybe the studio won’t let you take or a director, under the influence of the studio, won’t allow you to take. So independent films, by nature, that’s why a lot of big stars are attracted to independent films is because they can do what they want. They can do their craft. In all fairness, if you don’t jockey it with the other, they won’t want you in the independent film because you’re the one that gets it made. So you have to have a certain value in the studio system in order to be valuable in the independent system, to a certain degree. Let’s say if no one wants to do a movie that’s very interesting in the big studios and they want it to be done in the smaller, then someone like myself will go on and get it greenlit. At the same time, you have opportunity to do some wonderful work.”

And being a decades long veteran in the craft does not make him afraid to work with first time directors either. “I’ve worked about five times with first-time directors. Twice it was awful and once it was okay. And twice it was great. So this was one of the great ones. Shainee [Gabel] rivals all others. When people have greatness in their abilities, you’ll find it in other people too, there’s a commonality, there’s a throughline. And she definitely has certain qualities of greatness that was a relief to me because she did a great scenario. You don’t know really if it’s going to move on to a great experience, and it did. The throughline I’ve seen is trust in the actors, vision, and an innate know-how, a knowledge of how a film should be put together, and sense of value. Knowing what they want out of each scene and knowing if they’ve gotten it. Not arbitrarily but very specifically. Like, ‘I got what I wanted. Now what would you like to do? I have what I need to make the movie in my mind, but now if you have something else to offer, I’d love to see that too.’ Those are some of the things. There’s many, many things. A confidence in your choices is a very big one. I often like writers that direct too because they have a throughline to their material that I like. They are the source so you don’t necessarily have to improvise or rewrite when they’re right there to help you do it.”

Travolta is also proud of costar Scarlett Johansson for her Golden Globe nomination for the film. “I’m thrilled that she got it because without that, we don’t live very long. And I mean that. We have a dollar to make it and a dollar to release it. And without the support of you guys and critics and nominations or awards of some sort, these little independent films tend to move off quickly. That doesn’t mean that they’re not worth making. It just means that they don’t have any kind of life to them. So it was a great relief to be nominated. It could have been any one of us. I was, you know, kind of lead to believe that it might happen. And the first piece of news is that it didn’t, and I was disappointed. Then the second piece of news is but Scarlett did. I was thrilled for her and relieved at once because the film had a shot now of getting some specific attention. And I’m sure you guys have been on the other end of many small movies. Imagine Monster or Monster’s Ball if it didn’t have what it had behind it. They’re, by nature, not supported. That’s why they’re independent. That’s why they need you guys.”