John Travolta has explained his striking new look at the Cannes Film Festival, where he sported round glasses and a series of colorful berets while promoting his directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach.
The 72-year-old actor, best known for roles in Grease and Pulp Fiction, turned heads on the red carpet. In a CNN interview shared Monday, Travolta revealed that the ensemble was a deliberate choice to embody the role of a filmmaker.
"I said, 'I'm a director this time,'" Travolta explained. "'You're an actor, play the part of a director, look like an old-school director.' So I looked up pictures from the twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and the old-school directors wore berets, and the glasses. I thought, 'That's what I'm doing. I'm doing an homage to being a director, so I'm going to play the part of being a director.'"
Iconic directors like Ingmar Bergman and Francis Ford Coppola have famously sported the stereotypical French-styled look. Travolta's berets ranged in color from black, white, navy, to brown.
The actor also noted that the distinctive wardrobe would help him remember the event in the 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 said. "Now, I'll know—'Oh, that was Propeller One-Way Night Coach, that was Cannes, that's when I won the Palme d'Or,' and I'll have a vividness of it."
Travolta was awarded the Honorary Palme d'Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, a surprise presented by artistic director Thierry Frémaux ahead of the film's world premiere on Friday. Wearing a white beret, an emotional Travolta clutched his chest and said, "This is beyond the Oscar. I can't believe this. This is the last thing I expected."
Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which Travolta wrote, directed, and co-produced, is based on his own 1997 children's novel. The film follows a young aspiring pilot named Jeff and his mother on a cross-country journey to Hollywood. Travolta's 26-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, plays a flight attendant. The movie will begin streaming globally on Apple TV later this month.
A flying enthusiast who has held a pilot's license since age 22, Travolta flew his own plane to the premiere while wearing a navy beret, as shown in an Instagram video.
