W Magazine recently sat down and interviewed John Travolta about Hairspray, but what they got was so much more.
On Edna Turnblad's shape:
"I said, 'If you give me a big waist, then I become Grandma,'" recalls Travolta. "'You can make her ass as big as you want, her tits as big as you want, but if you don't bring her in'"—here he mashes in his own solid middle with the heels of his hands—"'I can't play what I want to play.'"
On Scientology and blaming psychiatric drugs for school shootings:
Travolta doesn't get much more specific when asked what Scientology has provided him through the years: "It has given me stability," he notes. "It has given me the tools to handle life's issues, stresses and problems." He does credit Hubbard, the movement's founder, with having "solved the human mind" in 1958.
Hollywood insiders are said to appreciate the fact that—Battlefield Earth notwithstanding—Travolta keeps his spiritual views mostly to himself. Still, though he has refrained from the kind of public championing of church ideology that caused a media spectacle for Tom Cruise in 2005, he's quick to defend his fellow believers.
"I don't disagree with anything Tom says," Travolta offers on the subject of Cruise's tirade against psychiatric medications. "How would I have presented it? Maybe differently than how he did, but it doesn't matter. I still think that if you analyze most of the school shootings, it is not gun control. It is [psychotropic] drugs at the bottom of it. I don't want to create controversy; I just have an opinion on things, and there is nothing wrong with stating your opinion if you are asked. Everyone wants that right, and because you are famous doesn't mean you have less of a right."
On did the rumor of his sexuality ruin his career?:
Indeed, at the end of the interview, after the tape recorder has been turned off, he is posed one last question: Is he bothered by the rampant rumors about his sexuality, and does he think they've affected his career? "No and no," says Travolta casually. "What affects your career is the quality of the product." Besides, he adds with his typical confidence, "I don't think anyone can hurt me."
I hate that all these Scientologists blame anti-depressants for everything bad, maybe if they were on them they wouldn't be Scientologists. Maybe if the school shooters were on their meds or taking meds the shootings would not have happened. The one thing that is for certain if the kids did not have guns the shootings would not have happened. The one thing I will give Travolta he did handle the issue better than Tom Cruise, but he should have just not answered the question.
