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Sunday, March 23, 2003

By Ron Weiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Editor

John Travolta's best roles take on a life of their own.

Tony Manero in "Saturday Night Fever" established himself in the opening shot of his boots strutting confidently into the camera lens as the Bee Gees sang "Staying Alive." Vincent Vega in "Pulp Fiction" was a junkie and a killer but effortless charm oozed from every pore in his body -- and no one could dance the Twist with such cool. Chili Palmer in "Get Shorty" was the high-rent version, a loan shark who became a movie producer, laid back in the way only the most self-assured people can manage.

Even his tubby, disheveled fallen angel in "Michael" had more of his act together than the three cynical reporters sent to get a story on him. And his Southern-born president in "Primary Colors" made for a richer Bill Clinton impersonation than Darrell Hammond's dead-on parodies from "Saturday Night Live."

In his latest movie, "Basic," which opens Friday, Travolta plays Tom Hardy, a DEA agent suspected of wrongdoing who gets called in by an old Army pal to investigate the death of a tyrannical training officer (Samuel L. Jackson) and two other soldiers.

Even Vincent Vega couldn't maneuver through the twists in this one. But Travolta loves Hardy's ambiguities, his blend of macho posturing and subtle manipulation.

"I like the multiple layers I was able to play in that. You never knew what card trick he was going to pull out next. He was smart enough to use his mind, to use his body, his verbiage. It was adventurous that way," Travolta said over the telephone from Philadelphia.

Manipulation is one of Hollywood's favorite sports, too. But Travolta is one actor who recognizes that he's only as good as the words someone else puts in his mouth.

"I could never imagine the roles that writers had in their minds for me," he said. "I could have never imagined myself in a 'Pulp Fiction' playing a heroin-addict hit man. I could have never imagined myself playing a president of the United States or a lawyer [in 'A Civil Action'] or a fallen angel. None of these are things that I could think up. I really depended on the kindness of the writer's imagination in all these things."

To take that character and transform it into a living, breathing person, Travolta likes to start with the dialogue.

Here's one of Tom Hardy's first lines, delivered to the female officer working the investigation, played by Connie Nielsen: "Look, I'm still a little drunk from this morning so if I skip the witty banter and just go straight into hitting on you, I hope you don't mind."

Now here's Travolta, breaking it down into facets of the character.

"Not afraid of sexual harassment, not afraid of being bold and will say anything. ... These are all things that are written into the script and these are telltale signs of how to play him.

"There are all kinds of clues throughout the script to what you should pursue and investigate to portray the part. That's the fun and adventure of doing any movie that has a mandate on what the character is."

Hardy used to be an Army Ranger, so Travolta went to Ranger school and surprisingly discovered, "Oh, these guys are like this! When I got back, I had a knowledge and a feeling of what these guys are about."

Travolta said Quentin Tarantino, the writer-director of "Pulp Fiction," showed him another way to approach his character.

"I had a habit of having everything figured out before I got to rehearsal. And Quentin said, 'You know what? Let's not have everything figured out. Can we just discover this together maybe?'

"I had to be brave and kind of undo some of the things I normally do," Travolta said. "I had to go in without a lot of decisions made. And in that 10-day rehearsal period, I discovered with Quentin what we were to do."

"Pulp Fiction" fans will be disappointed to find out Travolta and Jackson, who meshed so well together as partners in crime, don't really get to work together in "Basic." Jackson appears mostly in flashback, Travolta in the present.

"It still feels the same, as though we were in scenes together, because our chemistry works even in parallel, oddly enough. It was still right. I was right for that part and he was right for the other. We'll trust that it will hold up anyway."

The movie portrays some of its American military characters as unsavory, unethical and even criminal. But Travolta isn't worried that it might not be what people want to see with U.S. troops primed for war in Iraq.

"No, because it promotes the self-correcting ethics of a military situation," he said.

Next up for Travolta is "Ladder 49," a movie about firemen starring Joaquin Phoenix.

"He really has the lead role in that. I'm supporting, not unlike Tom Hanks was with Leonardo [DiCaprio] in 'Catch Me If You Can.' I'm his mentor. I'm the chief of a fire house in Baltimore, and he is a protege. H'e caught in a fire, and his whole life is being reflected before him. You see firemen are real people and not just iconic illusions that sacrifice their lives for us. ... It's a beautiful homage to firemen, I think."

Whether that role -- or Tom Hardy, for that matter -- will join the list of indelible Travolta performances is something we can only imagine for now.