John Travolta on the True Meaning of Success | Impact Theory

[Music] if you always do good work from your standards whether you're in a project that fails or succeeds you can live with that but if you're doing things that on other people's criteria standards and you fail you feel terrible there's nothing worse than failing on somebody else's idea fail on your idea or don't succeed on your idea it hurts so much less you go well I did my best I tried I had a good time I at least this happen you could look at the glass half-full you know you can do all these wonderful things if it's yours Shh everyone welcome to impact theory today's guest is one of the most iconic actors to ever grace the silver screen one of the youngest leading actors ever nominated for an Oscar he's received an Emmy two Academy Award nominations and six Golden Globe nominee one win for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and out of all the actors they could have chosen variety honored him with their inaugural cinema icon award at the Cannes Film Festival and given his storied career it is no wonder a triple-threat who has had a top-ten song appeared on Broadway in Smash TV shows and era-defining films he has had one of the most lauded and enduring careers of any actor in history he starred in two of the most successful films of the 70s including grease which is the top grossing live-action musical of all time and he is so compelling on-screen that culture literally changes in the wake of his movements his career launching dance moves in the big-screen phenomenon Saturday Night Fever tripled the sales of white suits and his starring role in the hit film urban cowboy inspired a country music craze that swept the nation and that is I assure you just the tip of a very large body of work that spans decades and includes some of the most memorable films ever made including seminal works like Pulp Fiction blowout the Thin Red Line get Shorty primary colors faceoff Broken Arrow and dozens more his list of credits reads like a list of the all-time great films across most every single genre so please help me in welcoming the star of fanatic which is now available on VOD the high school dropout who turned a deep passion for performance into one of the most astonishing careers in the history of cinema the living legend John Travolta [Applause] Wow welcome to the show Tommy Boy well what an introduction what a career jeez man I just I thought I want to meet that guy that was beautiful thank you very much and thank everybody who's here visiting for this show today the interesting thing if I hadn't just spent the last 30 minutes with you I would think that that was just sort of false humility but you really do carry yourself like you don't realize you're John Travolta which is amazing it's beautiful and is actually really wonderful to see and has got me in trouble being that low-key about it yeah because you know I'm from a working-class family and we are humbled by nature and love the the good things that we succeed in in life however you just become more of who you are when you get them because you can't forget your beginnings so I I literally forget any of that you know if I meet someone new I don't think that they're clocking or registering that I'm anyone different than the guy they just met so your your perception that is actually pretty correct yeah it's uh it is a fascinating thing so for Lisa and I my wife while on a scale so much smaller than yours we had a similar transition right so come from a working class family that teetered between blue-collar and white-collar and then generated real wealth like the kind of wealth that changes my not only my life with my entire family's life of course and you look at that and your whole world theoretically is different but at the same time money doesn't like it doesn't change how you feel about yourself right and that's the thing that I found so interesting in my own journey and watching you I'll even go farther and say the fame does not seem to have changed how you feel about yourself and whenever you talk you talk so much about the art what what has Fame been like how have you managed to keep art as the true north born into that because my mother was a I'm a coach she was a director she was an English teacher a speech teacher and she had a high integrity about theatre and all of the arts so all of us they got interested in her interest were held to a very high criteria of performance so performance mattered not Fame not money how well did you do at something is what mattered to her and my father who was an excellent athlete it was a semi pro athlete ins basketball baseball football and so they were more about achievement not so much about superficial things and the interesting thing is that when you are honorable to achievement the wealth and that kind of thing comes automatically you don't have to it's when you invert that when someone wants wealth or if they once want Fame it's harder for that to happen because it's not based on anything that has a bean exchange to it if you're good at senna find that being exchange well meaning that that if i make something that's of high quality you'll give me more beans for it's a things got its it's a it's a you know it's just an old-fashioned expression but it's what's the quality of what you're having worth if you know if I make this cup really well you'll pay maybe a little more for it than if I do a poor job of it so your exchange has to be at a higher level and then it automatically comes but it's not what you're going for is it might in my opinion now people could have done it you know I always say if you want to be wealthy on just money get into the money business investments banking you know but if you're in the arts I would do it for art's sake first and then hopefully others will follow but not make it a prerequisite but just keep doing the right thing and the good thing it'll happen I agree with that so aggressively so I chase money for nearly a decade that was like I woke up every day just thinking about getting rich I want to get rich and that's it and the punchline of that was I ended up being sort of emotionally bankrupt and just really sad and like not having fun too did not enjoy my life when I slightest and so I went to my wife and I said look I know I promised I would you rich and I will but I'm gonna need more time because I need to do something that makes me feel Elisha sure and that was a that was like eye opening actually living the cliche of money can't buy happiness and sort of finding myself in that conundrum and then going back to what you're saying about the bean exchange like so I'm sure you're hyper aware of this one your Instagram game is pretty strong and then having a daughter who's like prime Instagram age yes so many kids now reach out to me and they they aren't even asking me how I became successful as an entrepreneur they want to know how I built my following and I'm like dude let me tell you I built my following by putting my head down for 20 years and making a better cup like learning how to do something that intrinsically has value right and when I look at your performances dude your your career is so [ __ ] insane dude and the reason it's insane is you've never phoned a performance in in like how long have you been acting oh I mean it's like crazy ideas as I was 12 years old but but you know i would say professionally since I was 16 so it's been quite a while but you're 100% correct because I I I always behave as though my my performance that I'm doing is is not only the best role I've ever had but that may be the last role and even though I don't mean that literally I have to think in that in that frame of mind just so I do my best work do you know and I take I take every role as seriously as the next so if I'm doing a light comedy I make sure that I'm as invested in that as I am a very well-written drama let's say it's interesting so I came in so when I saw Pulp Fiction I was at film school so I was studying film when that landed and I mean Jesus dude like that blew up the film school like people were just freaking out but I grew up on you and like the look who's talking era and then my mom who is sitting literally right there which makes it so much more fun for me as a psychopath for grease yes I have I have seen that many many times so it was so interesting to sort of as I grew I got to dip into your films in different time periods where the tonality of that film matched where I was as a human so like seeing Saturday Night Fever which is [ __ ] gritty and I think people forget how intense that movie really is how do you go about the selection process how have you thought about it maybe as it changes over the the length of the career well just as a global perspective on choices I've never planned the end result of what I was going to do for instance I never III didn't do Saturday Night Fever thinking that I would start trends do you know or urban cowboy knowing that I would start a trend you do it because it's a good piece of work you love it you're gonna do the best job you can you're going to invest in research you're gonna drill and practice and get it right and then whatever results it is I mean senator fever for instance I thought was a little art film the only film I ever did that I felt had any absolute commercial viability was grease because I had done the Broadway show and I saw the success with my own eyes and I thought if we even execute this halfway as good as we did on Broadway and on the road were were in high cotton but that's the only film the others who knows what I thought Pulp Fiction was gonna be Reservoir Dogs I thought Saturday Night Fever was gonna be Mean Streets honestly so I I I didn't predict that all I did was what we started this conversation with guaranteeing good work as best I could now there's some of it that's out of your control you have a director you have a writer you have you have designers on the movie that could alter your intent but you are responsible for your aspect of it and as much you know cheerleading as you can with all the other departments but you must always show up whether the end result is a good one or not as good going full-throttle and delivering the best product you can and otherwise don't do it don't do it you know it's it's not about one foot on the shore and one foot on a boat you commit just like today I drove you're you're beautiful true and they are beautiful gorgeous people but I Jersey because I wanted the lighting right for this interview but that's part of my responsibility too too so I don't have any attention on it I can talk to you Tommy Boy directly without wondering whether it's boys that I don't know about that this doesn't feel right but I can be here with you and and and have my attention not on other things yeah so talk to me about work ethic man your work ethic seems and saying hearing some of the preparation that you did for like Saturday Night Fever which of course I had to rewatch and the dancing in that is crazy man you look like you're ready for the Olympics it is decide and let me give let me give another actor a bit of the credit for that spirit because when I was starting out were Robert De Niro was with the Scorsese doing very in-depth or you know Raging Bull and and Mean Streets and that whole early lineup of films that you know when he did in New York New York we heard he practiced a year on the saxophone we heard he you know became a real fighter and all this and then it suddenly gave permission if you will for us younger actors to commit at a new level not that we weren't doing that before but it up the game for everybody so when I worked with him in the killing season I said I got it I flew it a serbian bosnian did my research to read soldiers and and I came back with a stack of research that fills this room with recordings and to deliver an authentic performance because I thought well here's I'm gonna do a movie with a guy that that believes in that so there was an important moment where we were given permission there's a lot of young actors to to go the distance because you had Pitino DeNiro going in the distance differently then earlier actors had other than let's say Marlon Brando who always went but it's even no question how do you manage to sustain that over a career like you do see people that they can do it once or twice but man too like even now with fanatic it's so clear how much time and energy you put into that character the mannerisms they're just really embodying it and I think people be shocked by the physical transformations how do you why why are you so hungry like why do you keep doing this at this level because at the end of the day you know that's what you you have as evidence of a life well-lived a contribution to people you know you you know if let's say I have 70 movies and each one delivers a kind of joy to a certain audience the collage or the mosaic of your career has this blanketed effect that suddenly you can go away with pride that you it was a job well done and you you maybe made a difference in a lot of people's lives you know when you see young fans with a tattoo of Danny Zuko or Vincent Vega on their arm and you and you say this somewhere I made a difference in their life where they were was someone glad that you were alive were you valuable to someone by being here and you you want to be valuable you know otherwise you're kind of wasting your time if you don't find your niche to be valuable to something I think you really we're like that the love the sort of raw connection to the art on your sleeve in a way that I find is [ __ ] enthralling like even now like I can see in your eyes like you were really hit by what you were just saying how do you connect with that is that just you've always just been connected or have you found through acting a way to like open yourself to that to draw in that well it's a fair question but I believe that because of my family's commitment to the purity of the Arts we always we just didn't ever want to be caught not being professional and not being good at what we were doing ever that was more of a shame to our group as a family unit than it was anything else even in fooling around improvising at home or creating humorous skits or skits and you know you you you either own that idea or you don't and we just had to that was our survival mechanism was to be as good as we could at what we were doing you know or don't do it there's a side to you though that it's gonna be hard to put into words what I'm gonna try and then I will get to a question at the end of this bear with sugar great so seeing you on Oprah I've seen enough Oprah to get a sense of like where she is with you and she was so effusive with how much she loved you and just felt like there was something special and she had a connection to you countless actors have said very similar things that that you lift the set up that that you have this playfulness the spirit about you dude 40-plus years in the industry I literally expect you to be cynical and so the fact that you aren't I don't buy is accidental so I'm curious like what you've done how you've stayed you've had ups you've had downs in your life outside of this you've had loss like heartbreaking loss and yet literally sitting across from you where I'd like to think you couldn't fake me out I can feel the like you actually love what you do and and I mean that a big way you the way you were you were kind when you were changing the lighting you were [ __ ] up like holding signs and saying like is this working it's not like you were just telling other people to do it like there's a you're you're involved in your own life I don't know there's a joy of work there's a joy of creating and that's free whether you write or play music or act that's free the joy and you can splurge on that joy everybody can you just have to give yourself permission it's like Wizard of Oz you know you click your heels you always can go home well you can always create something you know if we were if it was just the two of us and you know we finished talking and I said you know let's draw some pictures man or let's you know let's make a little movie or you know we could find something to do that might heighten the awareness of being alive cynicism is always going to try to get you and it's your job to navigate around that cynicism how because they're like nipping dogs at your feet they're not important cynicism is valueless in my book I have no time for it I will be patient with it to a degree and then I have no patience for it and I would love for you to have actually witnessed me on phones trying to make something happen and eliminate all the naysayers on the foot let's say seven well you know this from being in business seven people are on the on the phone and three of them are lawyers and two of them are manners and through more agents and I can like radar who are the people that are not for this and I detected whatever the person's name is could you please remove yourself from this phone conversation because if you stay on we're not going to make this deal you get down to the people that want the show to go on the road you got a deal you have to get rid of the people who don't want to play the same game as you do dude go go harder on that so one of the number one questions I get asked is okay so in in sort of my space whatever that is you hear a lot that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with okay so you say that enough to I actually really believe I also think it extends to ideas but you get people saying okay but there's people in my life they're not lucky enough that it's an attorney or and a manager or somebody it's their mom it's their cousin it's whatever their boss their manager and they have that person in their life and they can't just get rid of them do you have methods for dealing with yes I handle them and you have to go if you love brother or sister mother father friend a business associate whatever degree you are committed to them and you don't want to do that they're different than just a professional person that's assumed a beingness in your group then it's easy to eliminate if they're not wanting you to survive but if you have people that you deeply love and you can't feel comfortable about that you find a way in its artful you have to find a way of handling each of them so everybody goes away feeling happy and not antagonized about your displeasure with them so you know I could make up examples but you know if you have someone who you know let's say I'm creating this idea but some parent that doesn't want their kid to play violin okay and their antagonist ik you know you've got to be an accountant you've got to be an account you go okay dad I love you but if I become an accountant I'm becoming what you want me to be and I have a good chance of having a not so happy life even if I fail at being a violinist at least I failed on my own terms and I failed doing something I loved so you got to let up on me dad or brother or sister or mother whoever that character is that has a counter intention to you you have to get with them and get real and say look it's my life it's not your life and this is how I need to do it you see so there's ways of Henle you know I gave the first example I gave you as a high-end example because you're trying to close a deal mmm but there's many examples whether someone wants to be a baseball player but their parents want them to be a football player it doesn't even matter if it's of the wrong sport you see it's not your sport mmm you know and I've watched people do this my whole life I've watched them you know yeah wow you got to be a professional football player for six months why didn't that work out because I never liked I wanted to be a baseball parent well what what happened they said well my dad wanted me to become a football player and I was really going on his wishes there you go hmm so if you had to redo history you'd say what I have told dad at that time look you know you I'm just enjoying this more than that can you let up on me so there's any all these interesting increments of how you give yourself permission and navigate around people that are counter your intentions you know and then sometimes it does matter sometimes you go I don't really care which way I do this or that and you acquiesced to just keeping peace and and good good roads good will and and it doesn't matter so much other times it matters a lot because it's your personal destiny speaking of people being contrary to your wishes was anybody weird about you dropping out of high school to pursue acting only my dad for a minute and then when he saw that I could make a living at it he let it go like a hot potato really all he cared about was that I could survive in life and he wasn't sure without a diploma that I could and I was saying in my mind I was singing it I'm not a scholar so therefore I'm gonna do luggage handling at LaGuardia or I'm gonna become what I do best acts sing and dance so dad let me get I'm 16 I'm chomping at the bit let me out of the stable my mother she had no problems she said let him go thank God he's got a target he what he wants to achieve he's already got a manager an agent let him go you know and finally I made a deal with him and I said well again keeping the peace I said what if I just took the year off and and possibly even did home school so I didn't miss any you know credit he said yeah that lasted about a month you know I send in my assignment you know and then I started making money and then he started to see how well I could do so he was more you know he's six kids working class he wanted to make sure I was gonna be okay so it was much more pragmatic mine was much more no I want to put my bets on my abilities that you guys have let me so beautifully have and nurtured since I was born you know you know my parents would sit there you know in those days everybody smoked he had a cigar my mother have a cigarette glass of wine and they would watch me for three hours lip sync records and improvise and imitate people and whatever and they would look he's something as an ebow you know he look at can you believe how they made me feel like I was God's gift to the arts so it's like really dad you you encouraged all this love of my performing and now I want to do it he just wanted me to be protected by a diploma I don't know how much that the Bono is gonna protect me you know when you're auditioning for a Terrence Malick film right you seem to have done okay without it yeah the jury's in it worked out you embody characters with swagger so well it's crazy from obviously Saturday Night Fever to grease but even like Vincent Vega and Pulp Fiction or in get shorty what were you like when you left high school did you have a swagger like that because there is there are people that have an it factor and I really think that is it's the hardest thing to talk about and maybe the most important thing in somebody when you're thinking about casting them did you have that were you able to convey it or did you step in to meet people in a character well there's a few angles that you're approaching there so the first one I'll address with the only swagger I ever had as a as a child and as a teenagers that I'd like to dress well and that was unusual meaning I wanted to look like a Beatle I wanted to look like George Chakiris and West Side Story I wanted to look like Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde so I would save up very little money that I had to look pretty Swift but I it wasn't necessarily like I was acting that way I just like tell that elysian looked you see now as far as the swagger my generation was at the tail end of the beginning of what cool was you had Marlon Brando James Dean Paul Newman Warren Beatty creating cool these illusions the Beatles were those they were cool so as a child you're absorbing what you think cool is it that necessarily you're behaving like them but you're registering somewhere what cool might be so you get a role like Danny Zuko in Greece and you're gonna apply all that whether you are that or not no I'm not but I grew up with a family of artists so I can apply it very easily when I observed in and what was seemingly the the effect of what cool was so it's an affectation within the confines of a character if that makes sense just like with the fanatic he's anything but cool you see because I understand that character so I'm gonna be honorable to the attributes of that character only I don't cross collateralize characters you have an obligation to be that guy if it includes cool like let's say certain a fever Greece Pope fiction or be or get shorty it includes cool but that doesn't mean every character it just happened to be that those needed that do you see yeah definitely you've said that the characters that come closest to you are from phenomenon or Michael and you specifically said it's it's some of the things that they say and stand for what are those things that they say in sampling phenomenon the his emotional life is very much like much you know I don't want to break anyone's heart I believe in not doing anything that someone else can can't handle very easily you know if in the loved world of loving your children loving your wife loving your friends I am respectful of the effect I have on them like that character was respectful of the effect that you know separate from business this is personal okay business I'm much different about but her personal I I just some degree and it's hurt me warned my heart on my sleeve but I won't take it off my sleeve I don't believe in that so there's that and as far as just behavior let's say the character and look who's talking it was kind of like how I talk and how I might him err and that kind of thing so there's only a few roles that have actually felt that were kind of like me but the rest is just just my obligation to the attributes of that character what is one of your defining characteristics like in your own mind then thing maybe you're most proud of or that you think is the the core of who you really are probably that I deeply care at an unusual level for another human being and I have the ability to take responsibility for them completely even if they're not able to take responsibility for themselves and not that I'm not artful about who I choose to do that with but I do have an uncanny ability to look at every angle to make sure something is completely taken care of and I've had moments where people have done that for me but I think that's probably what I my stable concept of myself is that I I'm willing to to the greatest degree I'm capable of take responsibility for others it's very interesting it triggers the notions in my mind about empathy and what makes humans so uniquely capable of the level of empathy that we have and then sort of playing that out in my mind about what makes you such a great actor the ability to sort of understand where they're coming from relate to them feel connected to them is that sort of all part and parcel of I think so and even when I'm playing an evil character like I did in Broken Arrow or aspects of Pulp Fiction or well you name it there must be a dozen guys that I played that that have that aspect to them I don't have to even like those characters I just have to like playing them I have to be an by them so if I think I can get a kick out of playing a bad guy and you'll find it humorous and insightful to and entertained by it then I will gravitate toward it so sometimes I you know there's a dichotomy there where my empathy doesn't go for the evil and a person but goes for what what's entertaining about their evil you know what makes me laugh about their evil face off you know it was so much fun because those carry the evil part that both Nick and I shared was hilarious at the same time it was evil you know see you don't get the the impact on the audience doesn't isn't appalled by you as much as they're entertained by you and I think it's important to balance the impact of an evil character when you're doing that you know good guys are good guys unless they're falsely good it's more of a pretense of some sort I want to go back to what you were saying about taking responsibility for people so recently heard an interview with your daughter who is also an actor late teens if I'm not mistaken teen now 19 and when asked about you and if you ever embarrass her or anything like that she was effusive in her praise of you like it's very clear that you guys have a phenomenal relationship normally a child at that age is really trying to distance themselves from their parents Rebell back a little bit but she really seemed like no no I'm like this has been wonderful yeah how have you accomplished that what are some values that you carry into that dynamic well look I'd love to take a lot of credit for Ella and Ben but I can't because I think truly they are innately incredibly wonderful human beings and whether Kelly and I set examples here there that's fine or whether the people that were around her set good examples possibly but their innate quality human being is their quality as a human being and she's just a sterling human being as has been incredibly understand incredibly tolerant patient ethical and gorgeous people you know they're there I'm so proud of them you know and I really give them the credit more than I give myself anything you know I'm there and I'm take full responsibility for them but they're responsible for their own personalities you know I mean I'm sure your mama she's sitting there might agree that my mom would violently disagree with you I'm telling you right now that woman is like taking credit for anything I've ever done she's like I raised you right and in our defense like I actually do come at it that way because I think that you know going back to Ella I think that it's very different to be a good person than to have a few civ praise for your father so you're not a neutral force in her life so while I'm happy to grant that she is just she is just a wonderful person oh if I had to give myself any credit for her gorgeous being it would be my patience tolerance and understanding of both my children as children I've never hit them I've never I've never made them feel bad and salted them nothing never nullified him ever I just treat them like my parents treated me which was with an enormous heart enormous tolerance and normals and enormous patience and trust me they're nothing like I was I was something to be you know dealt with because I was I was demanding you know and I was everything I am now but in a little body and you see me running around here fixing the lighting well imagine what my parents went through you know at with the little body telling and orchestrating what they're gonna do and how much so do you think that's helped you like there's so in my life the lesson I had to learn was to toughen up I grow very soft I I would get hit in the leg with a soccer ball now grow up into comas is cold but I would cry and walk off the field and nobody ever said hey get the [ __ ] back on the field or like paying something I leaned in to like and I get it and I know when people hear that they're like oh you should never say that but literally I couldn't be successful until I face that stuff and could push through pain and learn to deal with it all understand so I'm gonna guess that one to say on a phone call I'm gonna need you to excuse yourself from this phone call no matter no matter how much control you have in the relationship dude you you're an empathetic person like everything about you exudes empathy so I know you know what that feels like even if he's being a dick even if he is the problem being willing to say you have to get off the phone is powerful so while I'm sure it may have been at times troubling for your parents do you think that's been useful as a tool in your arsenal yes because one should never confuse kindness with weakness ever because just because a person's kind or wonderful or loving or patient or telling it doesn't mean their cup not runneth over at the right time didn't when my cup runneth over especially when it's so clearly cut that what I'm trying to do is keep a boat floating and they're trying to sink it I have no tolerance for that so that's what I'm talking about is more about that subtlety is that I'm all that and a bag of chips when it comes to empathy and tolerance and patience but if you are trying to bring to sink a boat that has a lot of people that have good intentions and of our good or our of good will and now you're trying to take that away from all of them I will fight you on it you see because you're not doing the survival thing for that particular group so you can keep your sentient if you will concepts about yourself but at the same time you have to be strong enough to otherwise you will fold you can't do this like a a bull in a china shop that doesn't work either you you can't just be unthinking about every movie wait you have to you don't pull those moves of extremity until you see the real intent of something that someone's really trying to destroy something and you have every right to handle that I think what do you hope your daughter learns from your career are there certain missteps that you'll point her to and say hey here's how to better handle this there's certain things you did that set you up for wonderful things and say hey make sure you do this I've only instilled one idea always commit to your work at a deep level and do all the homework and research that you need to do to portray a great role don't do material you have a luxury you're not where I was you don't have to do material that's not up to your abilities you know I've had to do jobs sometimes where I had to rise above the material in order to make it a good performance but my goal was still to make it a good performance she may not have to do that so she could be discerning and luxurious about what she chooses and you know if you always do good work from your standards whether you're in a project that fails or succeeds you can live with that but if you're doing things that on other people's criteria standards and you fail you feel terrible there's nothing worse than failing on somebody else's idea fail on your idea or don't succeed on your idea it hurts so much less you go well I did my best I tried I had a good time I at least this happen you could look at the glass half-full you know you can do all these wonderful things if it's yours but man you you start playing someone else's chess game and you feel terrible when I said oh man what I shouldn't have done that I shouldn't have let them influence me at that level when things get hard for you when you're having one of the difficult times when you're trying to get in shape when you're learning the dance four moves for Saturday Night Fever when you're doing something us really hearts really taxing what do you do mentally to stay focused stay strong and get through it the global view of the end product what's your valuable final product on anything keeps you going you know what's the end result I'm gonna get this routine I'm gonna get that accent down I'm going to under the behavior of that character and your your endgame keeps you going because you you have a goal you've accomplished some pretty extraordinary things outside of filmmaking it's very interesting when you were talking just now I was thinking about you know one of the ways I know that you've dealt with challenging times in your career anyway has been to live life as you said to just go and embrace take adventurers and go do other things because life is an art you can't forget that life is an art this is why I Oprah and I connected immediately because you know we did a whole episode one time on enlightening people that didn't have money on how they can live art or if I said very easy I said can the average fellow go to Walmart and afford it let's take your tray yes it might be three dollars can you afford a cup instead of a paper cup might be a dollar sorry now can you put your favorite coffee on that cup can you can you go to a market or somebody can get a nice blueberry muffin can you make that look pretty put a flower on that tray now can you go give it to your husband or your wife they'll think they're at the fire at the Four Seasons getting room service and you have minimum money it's how you approach it you know it's the art of life if you want to look a certain way it doesn't take money I remember I had a couple of friends that were in a bind they needed a suit for a wedding they didn't have one I said let's go to Walmart I said I can get you a suit for $46 it oh it's gonna look great on you and it did because the designer of the Walmart thing had a better tailoring than some of the top designers and everybody complimented about the wedding man yeah you look great you look great never told them it was from Walmart $46 but he upstaged everybody with all their designer suits I did that with my sisters once I never told I wasn't used to buying them expensive clothes I went tomorrow bought a cocktail dress for one sister and a kind of other type of cocktail where they wore them out they loved them so much and I never told them how much they cost $19 each and I never told them where I got it from because I did not want it to influence them but I wanted to show that you can experience life if you're clever with money and still be as artful it's interesting I'm so in agreement with you and I think that people get hung up on the money and don't realize what you're saying about doing it artfully one thing that I found really interesting and researching you specifically for fanatic is you were talking a lot about that so fanatic the main character that you play is an obsessed fan and you said to play an obsessed fan I need only think about how I have been obsessed yes with other people in my own life and there's something about your ability to be inspired by other people who are some people that have really inspired you especially if it's somebody that we might have heard of and how do you capture that and not have like a professional jealousy about it well my earlier inspirations were for instance Jimmy Cagney and I was 5 years old watching Yankee Doodle Dandy and he just rocked my world you know to the degree where my mother if she pretended Jimmy Cagney was on the phone she'd get me to do anything and I bought it because we're show business family my sister was on Broadway with doing the Broadway tour with Ethel Merman and gypsy it's like my mother could very well know Jimmy Cagney no she didn't so what I'm saying is that that affected me the Beatles affected me deeply the certain movies I grew up with that La Strada Fellini's La Strada where Giulietta Masina 's character affected me deeply because she died of a broken heart and I couldn't I couldn't comprehend that someone could die from something non-physical and I decided then at four or five that I'd never want to break someone's heart you know those are the kinds of impacts so from an early age you know watching Gene Kelly in American Paris you know watching West Side Story all these films that had great impact you're it's you collect these inspirations and you certainly stand on their shoulders and then you perform with all of them in you to sir greater or lesser degree you have to be a fan you won't make it if you're not a fan I will put money on any great artist or great ballplayer or great business person had a secret obsession with someone they were admiring in that profession and just wanted to do them to love them they would love them they'd be entranced by everything they they they did and and you know but it's limited in your ability to express it unless you're a girl that watching the Beatle and you're screaming nobody was inhibited then but but for most average guys that say they would have lead lives of quiet desperation over their admiration of Mickey Mantle or you know or Jimmy Cagney I was in a theater family so I could express a little more freely but you have to be a fan in order to I think have the the jolt of life in you too expand on it and give to others what they gave to you dude that to me is one of the things that has served me so well in my life is I can let in I can allow myself to be and there's something too I think people you said it really well when you talk about guys and then quiet desperation over Mickey Mantle you know in today's language a rod or somebody like that you know it's like they they want to say something they want to have that connection and I think it speaks to why fandom has become such a thing it's it's people having this relationship with something that allows them to sink into like you said the people who get the tattoos right you affected them in some way but what's interesting is some people then really make it a part of who they are so that they can continually get that in absolutely I find that really interesting they need to to keep it going mm-hmm yeah it's 100 percent accurate the grease and the frying-pan that that is a really interesting thing and I think if when people can open up and when I look at the trajectory of your career and I think this is somebody who has continually kept the grease in the frying pan whether it was hey I've had enough of acting for the moment I'm gonna go get my pilot's license right yes and and that I find so interesting and how much is having multiple passions a protection emotionally again something going wrong and acting which is traditionally I have a hypothesis I'll ask it another way yeah my hypothesis is this your career is the extraordinary thing that it is precisely because you have a stable home life and you have a passion for flying so you have these other things that would fulfill you and so there's you're never walking into a situation with any air of desperation absolutely you have to balance the playing field within your own thing so when I was on Broadway and I wasn't enjoying the experience my second year and I was I was done with doing that same show ever and I was kind of depressed over it having a brochure about a airplane that I could build got me through that year you see I actually built the airplane no I wanted to my mother called it a flying coffin I said well that's not your spirit you know cuz she'd always love she loved flying each other that but she didn't want me to build my own flying which I understand but it got me through even though I didn't do it it got me through that year because I was in the doldrums and he gave me something to dream about this feels important to dream about something to do I wore that brochure out just imagining being in it as I'm flying it just got me through so yeah that that's always been a a you know when I did got my jet license it was because I had been in four months or five months on blow out in the dead of winter in Philadelphia and it was very brutal and I needed a break and an officer and gentleman was written for me by the same guy who had done boy in the plastic bubble and I turned it down twice because if I can't be there at the level we've discussed earlier I don't you know I don't do one step on the shore and one step on a boat so I said I would be in a maybe I'm not doing it I'd rather go enjoy life learn how to fly in this jet and accomplish something that way get a little bit of respite from the stress of of filming and by the time I came back which was urban cowboy I was revitalized it was it was great so as you look forward I mean look you've had an insane career you still look fantastic even up close man I'm telling you like it's crazy I actually want to punch you right in your intro is like [ __ ] this guy like sings dances acts has a crazy career obviously at this point you never have to work again so when you think about that you've got so much you know juice left in the tank like it's pretty clear like you're showing up to your latest film [ __ ] on fire doing your thing what what's it about like what do you want to achieve is there a genre you want to tackle is there just no just more keep doing it more very I guess I can't you know half the things I've ever done I couldn't imagine that I would have done them you you if I don't know 30 years ago if you said to me there one day they're gonna want you to play the president United States primary colors one day they're gonna want you to play a very large woman in a musical not even identifiable and you're gonna help it make me a big hit and I like being amused for I love I love people shopping for their performance in their writing like the other words are you know what actor can I shop forth that would fulfill as a muse my writing and pull it off I love that I'm ambidextrous enough to say okay yeah yeah I got a lawyer here somewhere I got I got a hitman here I've got president in the back my pocket Oh even he had a very large woman in the back of my thing I love having that ability to service that I don't normally ask people about legacy I don't think a lot about legacy in my own life do you think about legacy only in the terms of simplicity like I don't do we're people glad that you're alive did you help them did you contribute to life did you it was a was it worth your stay here you know can you say that what level it's at or how people interpret it is really up to them but at the end of the day you have to be able to say to yourself did you achieve those things and with me I have the good fortune of people showing me right there in present time what what I've done for them you see so like like Jimmy Cagney must have felt when I met him and I said I I just love you and he started to cry as 80 80 years old and he started to cry and I thought he's crying over my telling him I loved him and we were out we're friends for five years until his death I get that a lot you know where people are telling me what I mean to them so I'm a I'll be a little bit of a fool if I didn't take it to heart to some degree and say it mattered to them and I'd like to continue to matter to them that keeps me going you know you you because revelant being relevant is is a is a subjective thing you know you're always relevant it's how you connect those points to continue to be relevant and maybe you're relevant in your own way maybe irrelevant and only a certain audience is right it doesn't matter you're connecting and you're continuing gotta blabbered a lot this nah man it's been nice no I don't want to do because there's there's and I'm asking this question in absolute sincerity a first compliment you and you're a very interested and lovely person and you have very good questions and they're very well thought-out they're very smart and they're thoughtful and I appreciate it a lot man that's so meaningful and so kind and as a student of filmmaking which is my first love by the way is film I can see that yeah I I have been moved by your work it's it's astonished me it's inspired me I mean it's really incredible man like we were look it it is hysterical I wish we had a camera here pointing out people to see how many [ __ ] people are here watching this we've never had this many people sit in on an episode before thank you all right man where can people see fanatic where can they find out more about you where do you want them to join you well I mean the fanatics my latest project they're very proud of it I think it's one of the roles that I disappear in the most that I've ever done disappear Desna Edmund hairspray pretty good and in primary colors that disappeared pretty good but you know I really feel like this is a very complete performance and I I think it's also entertaining it's a very entertaining movie it's very original and unusual and I like the idea that in this day and age of film er we've had a hundred plus years of it it's hard to find something different to watch this is really different this is senator original movie like pulp fiction was it won't have ever have the commercial value of pulp fiction but neither did I think that would when I did it you know so but anyway I I'm really really proud of it and I I was very I got a Best Actor Award in Rome for the performance and I was very proud of that out of the blue that it was recognized and I thought wow this is so random that this beautiful and a very important film festival by the way acknowledged that performance so it it it equaled what I put into it the be nice it was beautiful there do you know definitely that's available on the video on demand right now so people can stream it what is the impact that you want to have on the world I want it to have been valuable that I was here for people that I actually they're glad I was alive that I helped somehow I was valuable to them whether it got them through a day a week a year a month whatever I did I just want to my legacy was that I made a difference and that that's really it you know and entertained at a big level which is what I my intention always from a child was to entertain that's why I had no problem with arguing my dad about leaving to do it I knew that was my destiny was to entertain people and I had the tools so that's probably you know all all that in capsule I'll take Tommy you did such a good job thank you so much for coming on the show yeah absolutely I thank all of you for being here guys basically anything this man touches you should be diving into his Instagram is on point by the way watch his entire film catalog you will not be let down this is somebody who always shows up performs of their best absolutely amazing there's a reason that this guy is an icon do you haven't already be sure to subscribe and until next time my friends be legendary take care there's always another game so take your game and ratchet it down just a drop and you're going to have another game and he was right I didn't listen to that to me winning is everything

Channel: Tom Bilyeu

Views: 277,256

Keywords: Tom Bilyeu, Impact Theory, ImpactTheory, TomBilyeu, Inside Quest, InsideQuest, Tom Bilyou, Theory Impact, motivation, inspiration, talk show, interview, motivational speech, John Travolta, IT, Travolta, Hollywood, dance, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Urban Cowboy, Pulp Fiction, actor, acting, Fanatic, legacy, Mean Streets, Best Actor, Academy Award, Robert DeNiro, cynicism, arts

Id: 7GvNO3h-_4M

Length: 57min 57sec (3477 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2019