John Travolta has clarified why he sported a series of coloured berets and round glasses at the Cannes Film Festival, explaining that he was channelling the look of an old-school auteur for his directorial debut. The 72-year-old actor raised eyebrows on the red carpet while promoting his film Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which stars his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta.
In a CNN interview shared on Monday, Travolta said: “I said, ‘I’m a director this time. You’re an actor, play the part of a director, look like an old-school director.’” He added that he studied pictures of directors from the 1920s through the 1960s, noting that “the old-school directors wore berets, and the glasses. I’m doing an homage to being a director.”
The Grease star wore black, white, navy and brown berets during the festival. He also said the distinctive look would help him remember the event in future. “I’ve been around for over 50 years doing movies, but I can’t tell, when I look back, the difference between the events,” he explained. “Now I’ll know — ‘Oh, that was Propeller One-Way Night Coach, that was Cannes, that’s when I won the Palme d’Or.’”
The festival’s artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, surprised Travolta with an honorary Palme d’Or ahead of the film’s world premiere. Wearing a white beret, a visibly moved Travolta clutched his chest and said: “This is beyond the Oscar. I can’t believe this. This is the last thing I expected.”
Travolta wrote, directed and co-produced Propeller One-Way Night Coach, based on his own 1997 children’s novel. The film follows a young aspiring pilot and his mother on a cross-country journey to Hollywood. Ella plays a flight attendant, and the film streams on Apple TV later this month. A flying enthusiast, Travolta flew his own plane to the premiere while wearing a navy beret.
