EXCLUSIVE
John Travolta fans could be forgiven for thinking he has got a bit of a thing for wholesome blonde actresses from the land Down Under.
The Hollywood legend famously inspired a generation of ‘summer loving’ romantics with his duet alongside Aussie screen icon Olivia Newton-John half a century ago in Grease.
And now Travolta is hoping to create an equally enduring moment alongside the country’s latest favourite daughter – Margot Robbie.
The 70-year-old didn’t have to think twice after being asked about his ‘dream co-star’ during a rare interview with young Australian real estate moguls Shane Spiteri and Kirsty Cunningham for their upcoming podcast, Beyond the Sale.
‘Margot Robbie…oh my god, one can only dream,’ Travolta revealed in the yet-to-be broadcast interview.
‘I just love her and she was in one of my favourite series called Pan Am.’
Robbie landed her breakthrough role in the American airline drama after relocating to Hollywood following a four-year run on Australian soap staple Neighbours.
John Travolta set the big screen ablaze as Danny Zuko in 1977’s hit musical Grease, opposite the late Australian acting icon Olivia Newton-John, who played Sandy Olsson
The 70-year-old actor is a renowned aviation enthusiast and amateur pilot
Although the series lasted just one season, her star turn as newly-trained flight attendant Laura Cameron saw her career take off in America.
Robbie has since gone on to scene-stealing roles in a series of movies including The Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short and Barbie.
Travolta said he mistakenly asked the 34-year-old star whether she tapped into her childhood desire to be a real-life flight attendant for the series.
‘I met her for the first time at the Oscars two years ago and I said, “I saw your series Pan Am, you know, it was so good, you were so good, I heard you always wanted to be a flight attendant?”
‘She said, “No! I always wanted to be a pilot!” and I said, “Really,” I said, “That’s really interesting.'”
Aviation geek Travolta, a fully-qualified pilot who flies his own Boeing 707 jet, said he couldn’t resist calling out a goof in one of Robbie’s movies.
‘I said, “You know in your movie [Once Upon A Time In Hollywood] there was a mistake in it”,’ the actor said in the upcoming podcast
‘The Pan Am 747 didn’t start service until January ’70, but (the movie is set in) the fall of ’69, and Leo DiCaprio is flying to Europe in a 747 – it wouldn’t have been possible.’
Margot Robbie landed her breakthrough Hollywood role in American aviation drama Pan Am
The series only lasted one season but launched Robbie’s silver screen career in the US
Travolta said he was impressed by Robbie’s concern over how the film’s director, Quentin Tarantino, would react if he learned about the aviation anachronism.
‘I said, “I don’t know but it’s fun to think of whether he would protect it – justify it, whatever – but I’m going to see Quentin in about a month and I’m going to tell him!”
‘I know where he got it from – (the 747) was test flown in 1969 – but getting back to (Margot), the point was that, instead of defending it, she was much more fascinated with how Quentin would respond to it.
‘And she wanted to be a pilot – both of those things made me like her even more – and, she’s gorgeous, just breathtaking.’
Travolta took part in the unexpected interview during an otherwise low-profile flying-visit to Sydney with his children last week.
The megastar piloted a private jet from Queenstown in New Zealand to Australia for the three-day stay with his 24-year-old daughter, actress Ella Bleu, and his son Benjamin, 13.
Travolta started learning how to fly when he was 15 years old, and he obtained his first jet licence in 1978 — the same year his iconic film musical Grease premiered in theaters and cemented his status as a popular leading man.
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