'Vain' John Travolta 'So Obsessed With Fame He Couldn’t Learn Lines' — and 'Needed Giant Cue Cards on Set'
John Travolta seemed to be quite the diva on the set of the 1995 movie 'Get Shorty.'
Oct. 15 2024, Published 4:51 p.m. ET
John Travolta seemed to be quite the problem on the set of Get Shorty.
RadarOnline.com can reveal that director Barry Sonnenfeld thought the Grease actor, 70, was so preoccupied with fame he didn't bother to learn his lines for the 1995 film — which seemed to really make his fellow cast members angry.
"I have never worked with anyone who loved being a movie star as much as John Travolta," the filmmaker, 71, penned in his juicy tell-all, Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld revealed how difficult John Travolta was to work with on 'Get Shorty.'
"I'm not saying he didn't also love acting, but he truly loved the fame and glamour and all the things that Gene Hackman hated. John is charming and not self-aware. He arrived on set with no sense that he had kept everyone waiting," Sonnenfeld stated.
"When they started filming, his lack of preparations were immediately obvious. Gene was off-book knowing every line of dialogue. John, on the other hand, probably hadn't read the script since his agent made his very lucrative deal," he added. "Fumbling his lines, or forgetting them entirely, I could tell John had no idea how angry Gene was getting. I knew we were in for a very, very long day."
John Travolta failed to learn his lines before showing up to set.
The head of the movie recalled a moment when Travolta asked the disgruntled Unforgiven actor, 94, how his weekend went. However, Hackman's reply may not have been what he was expecting.
"'Well, with eight f------ pages of dialogue, I pretty much spent the whole weekend memorizing today's work,'" the older actor told the Saturday Night Fever star.
"'That's a waste of a weekend,'" Sonnenfeld claimed Travolta said to Hackman.
Gene Hackman was not amused by John Travolta's lack of dedication.
"Playing a scene... requires both actors to know their lines," Sonnenfeld penned. "Unfortunately, while Gene spent his weekend learning his, who knows what John was doing."
In order for Travolta to hit his mark, production resorted to putting his dialogue on cue cards for him to follow. "At one point, John asked me where we were starting from, and before I could answer, Gene, pointing to the cue cards, said, 'Right here, John. Right at the top of your cue card,'" Sonnenfeld said. "John didn't realize Gene was making fun of him."
The Hairspray star wasn't the only star who was slammed by the director. "Kevin [Spacey] was not fun to work with. He was mean, unhelpful, critical of other actors, and he had the kind of personality I tried to keep off set as much as possible," he wrote.
Barry Sonnenfeld also slammed Kevin Spacey and Tim Allen.
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Sonnenfeld also hated collaborating with Tim Allen while working on the movie Big Trouble in 2002. "Tim was a handful on set. He was loud and his jokes were repetitive and sometimes mean," he alleged.
The Hollywood big wig even claimed the Home Improvement actor, 71, didn't think his leading lady Rene Russo was "attractive" enough for him. "We were filming the scene where Rene and Tim meet for the first time. It’s important that we sense instant chemistry between the two," Sonnenfeld added.
