JNEntertainment
101
At The Movies
A peek at "Primary Colors"; Hollywood gets ready for the Oscars.
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JOEY BERLIN
Travolta has a special
interest in President Clinton
doing "the right things." As a
prominent member of the
Church of Scientology, he is
concerned about discrimina-
tion against Scientologists in
Germany. In fact, it has been
suggested that Travolta may
have softened his portrayal of
his character in Prima?), Col-
ors in order - to get Clinton's
support of the issue.
"I never spoke to the pres-
ident ever about the movie,"
reports Travolta. "But I did
speak to him about Scientol-
ogy, because he brought it up
to me, saying that he under-
stood the dilemma and that
he'd like to help me with it.
He actually helped tremen-
dously. And that's all that was
ever discussed. The White
House is always asking me to
do functions for them. I've
always been on great terms
with them — and the movie's
Special to The Jewish News
IV
hen the idea of
filming Joe
( Anonymous")
Klein's best-selling
roman a clef about a presidential
campaign was born, Tom Hanks
was the front-runner for the
juicy role of Jack Stanton, the
philandering candidate obvious-
ly inspired by Bill Clinton.
But even with such top-of-
the-line collaborators as Mike
Nichols, Elaine May and Emma
Thompson involved, Hanks
backed away from the project.
So now it's John Travolta on all
the magazine covers as the star
of Prima?), Colors.
"I was envious when I heard
Tom was going to do it," Travol-
ta admits. "I thought it was a
part I could do well and Tom
should be doing something else.
Then his schedule wouldn't
allow him to do it, and I was
the first guy they came to."
Travolta had passed on the Robin
Williams role in Good Will Hunting
and the Jack Nicholson role in As
Good as It Gets around the same time.
Even after both those characters gar-
nered Oscar nominations, Travolta
still feels he made the right decision.
"I wasn't right for either of those
parts," he says.
The ongoing White House sex
scandal has not caused him to second-
guess himself either. Although Primary
Colors revolves around his character's
sexual dalliances, Travolta claims to be
unconcerned with how the film will
reflect on the president's problems.
"I hope it doesn't help and I hope it
doesn't hinder," he offers. "I'm not
interested in the scandals that are hap-
pening. I couldn't even tell you what
they're about. The movie represents
great messages about flawed human
beings that are still powerfiul and great
"
Joey Berlin, Norma Meyer, Eirik
Knutzen write for Copley News Service.
3/20
1998
92
Above: John
Travolta stars as
Jack Stanton, the
progressive governor
of a small Southern
state, in "Primary
Colors."
•
Right: Emma
Thompson stars as
Susan, Jack's wife
and partner in
his presidential
campaign.
and do the right things for us. Putting
people on pedestals is a mistake, unless
you are willing to handle the truths
that you hear about them personally.
"You can expect the right things,
like stopping a war in Iraq or helping
religious freedom in China. Those are
things you should expect. But what
they had for dinner last night or
whom they slept with is not anybody's
business."
more sophisticated than any kind of
dealing like that. We put way too
much significance on the power of a
movie. A movie can influence, it can
start trends, it can inspire, but when I
did Pulp Fiction, people didn't turn
into hit men."
Nonetheless, the president did in
fact help the Scientologists. Travolta o-4
says that the church had been frustrat-
ed in its attempts to open a dialogue
with the German government, until
Clinton personally intervened.
"He spoke to Helmut Kohl initial-
ly," Travolta notes, adding that the
president merely got the ball rolling
and that a bill to help the Scientolo-
gists is now working its way through
Congress.
"You have to do the bureaucracy in
Washington. I had to learn what that
was. You have to appeal to the House
of Reps and the senators and get votes
to pass a bill. We're halfway there.
We've gotten some steps accomplished
and others are yet to be accomplished.
It's all moving with great attention.
The bill is just aimed at stopping all
the adversity that is happening and to
sit down and discuss a way of solving
the disputes. That's all the bill is. It's a
human rights issue."
On a far lighter note, Travolta has
another movie opening next week. It's
the re-release of Grease, which was
part of his first Hollywood hot streak
back in the '70s. The picture still has a
warm place in his heart.
"Grease was something that gave me
hope and inspiration before I was ever
famous, after doing the play and see-
ing the play," notes Travolta. "Grease is
something I'll always cherish. Harvey
Keitel told me once that he was in a
funk years ago and that the only thing
that would bring him out of it was
watching Grease or 'Welcome Back,
Konen' I don't want anyone to deny
my connections to those things and I
want them to live forever.
"That's part of the fun of movies."
always been a separate issue."
As for the suggestion that Primary
Colors might jeopardize the president's
support for Scientology in Germany,
Travolta laughs.
I'm most embarrassed at the idea
that anyone would think that the pres-
ident would do something like that.
One is real politics. The other is-a
movie. He is so much smarter and
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