Wednesday June 13, 2007
John Travolta at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles, CA. June 3, 2007.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com
John Travolta has a bizarre way of keeping the paparazzi at bay.
The actor keeps off-hours by staying up all night and sleeping half the day. He has even had his wife, actress Kelly Preston, 44, their son Jett, 15, and their daughter, Ella Bleu, 7, adopt the same lifestyle so that the family can maintain their privacy.
“My kids probably stay up too late,” Travolta, 53, reveals in the new issue of Parade. “My wife goes to bed around 3, and I follow around 7. We’re like the Addams family or the Munsters, living sort of an odd nocturnal life. But it works.”
In fact, the interview with the magazine, which comes out this weekend, was conducted at 2 a.m.
“It’s quiet,” Travolta tells the journalist. “Right now, there's just you and me, and no one interfering in our space.”
However, Travolta doesn’t let his backward schedule keep him from doing what he loves. Five nights a week, the actor, who has been practicing Scientology for 32 years, flies one of his private jets from his home in Ocala, Florida, to the Scientology Center in Clearwater for “auditing.” “It’s a one-on-one program that’s designed to help you handle your life," he says. "I’m proud of my religion.”
See interview highlights below for Travolta’s thoughts on donning drag for his new role in Hairspray, why he wants his daughter to become an actress, and why nothing ever gets him down.
On how flying helps him escape:
“When I’m acting, I’m thinking of how I’m going to play a character, so it’s all inward thinking. But when I’m flying, there are dials and throttles and all these things I have to pay attention to. I’m out of my head. I’m extroverted. If I’m working on my next pilot’s rating, I’m too busy to think, ‘Am I hot? Am I over?’ I’m living life.”
On his family:
“I’m pretty tough, but I’m a better fighter for others than for myself. The one way to hurt me would be through my wife Kelly or my children. My kids are my heartbeat. My protective feathers come up.”
On being a celebrity:
“I’ve always said that people in our position are the most sensitive and the toughest people you’ll ever meet. You can’t let go of your sensitivity, but at the same time, you have to be ready to battle the worst insults, the worst innuendos. People say things that hurt. I think, ‘Wow, so because I have money or fame, I don’t have problems? I don’t have feelings?’”
On being in drag as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray:
“Guys from the crew were hitting on me. I have to make a living. I have to work, but it has to be fun.”
On wanting his daughter, Ella, to become an actress:
“My daughter is breathtakingly beautiful and very talented. I’d like to introduce her to the world. I will give her as much guidance as I can. Not bad to think I’m like Henry Fonda and she’s Jane Fonda. Let it be the heritage, the family business.”
On his son Jett:
“As for my son Jett, acting is not his thing. He’s an outdoors kind of boy who loves to swim and drive go-karts. But he’s so good-looking, maybe we’ll put him in a scene just to make it a real family event.”
On the glass being half-full:
“I’ve seen the glass as half-full ever since I was a kid. I remember that we were at a beach, and there was a gal that wasn’t particularly attractive, but she had a great pair of legs. And one of my friends said to me, ‘That girl should not be in a bathing suit.’ I said, ‘But look at her legs. They are awesome.’ That’s how I view my life.”
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Posted by Noelle Hancock at 11:50 am ET
