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Behind The Shield

John Travolta (Ladder 49, Movie Magic and Firefighter Health) - Episode 58

Behind The Shield

James Geering

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Fitness

4.9 • 667 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John Travolta starred in one of the few movies about our profession that is truly respected. We talk about his early career, Ladder 49, training with Baltimore FD and the charitable projects he now champions.

Nominated for two Academy Awards, eight Golden Globes and two Emmy awards, two-time Golden Globe and Emmy winner John Travolta recently starred in the film THE FANATIC and won the lead acting award at the Rome Film Festival for his role.

John most recently filmed Quibi comedic action series DIE HART starring Kevin Hart. DIE HART was Travolta’s first TV role since his Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated turn as Robert Shapiro in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

John has been honored twice with Academy Award nominations, the second for his riveting portrayal of a philosophical hit-man in Quentin Tarantino’s PULP FICTION. He also received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for this highly acclaimed role and was named Best Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, among other distinguished awards.

John has starred in a number of monumental films, earning his first Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his role in the blockbuster SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, which launched the disco phenomenon in the 1970s. He went on to star in the big- screen version of the long-running musical GREASE and the wildly successful URBAN COWBOY, which also influenced trends in popular culture. Additional film credits include the Brian DePalma thrillers CARRIE and BLOWOUT, as well as Amy Heckerling’s hit comedy LOOK WHO’S TALKING and Nora Ephron’s comic hit MICHAEL. Travolta starred in PHENOMENON and took an equally distinctive turn as an action star in John Woo’s top-grossing BROKEN ARROW. He also starred in the classic FACE/OFF opposite Nicolas Cage, and THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER, co-starring Madeline Stowe. In 2005, Travolta reprised the role of ultra- cool Chili Palmer in the GET SHORTY sequel BE COOL. In addition, he starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in the critically acclaimed independent feature film A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, which was screened at the Venice Film Festival, where both Travolta and the films won rave reviews.

Travolta starred in Walt Disney Pictures’ 2009 film OLD DOGS, along with Robin Williams, Kelly Preston and daughter Ella Bleu Travolta, followed by the action thriller FROM PARIS WITH LOVE, starring opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers. John starred alongside Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir in the Oliver Stone directed movie, SAVAGES.

John is very involved in his charity, The Jett Travolta Foundation which was established in 2009 by John and his wife Kelly to raise money for a wide variety of charitable and educational causes.

John's Website: https://travolta.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome, guys, to episode 58 of Behind the Shield podcast. My name is James Gearing, and I have yet

0:06.2

another amazing guest for you this week. The firefighting profession, I think, would collectively

0:11.6

agree that there have been very few movies made about what we do that earn our respect.

0:18.1

Backdraft certainly was one of the first. Most recently, Only the Brave absolutely

0:23.3

is held up to that same standard. But the other one would be Ladder 49. So my next guest is

0:30.0

John Travolta. Now, John lives in the town I live in as a very proud member of our community.

0:36.8

I was able to get a message to

0:38.5

him and he immediately replied saying that he would love to come on the show and he ended up coming

0:43.1

to my house to do a face-to-face interview which I'm going to tell you right now, blew my wife's

0:47.6

mind. So we talked about an array of subjects. We started off with his early career. Then we got

0:53.9

to Latter

0:54.5

49, what it was like to shoot, what it was like to train for it, his perspective of the fire

0:58.9

service. And then we transitioned to some of the health initiatives that he's actually helped

1:03.8

spearhead, helping firefighters around the country, including Ocala, where I live. So this was an

1:09.7

incredible interview.

1:15.4

Again, I was blown away that he was able to come to the house and do a face-to-face,

1:19.9

a medium that I love to do because the sound quality is so good when they do that.

1:22.0

So I'm going to stop yapping.

1:24.6

If you guys have a chance, again, go on iTunes.

1:28.3

Please rate the show and share the hell out of the episodes. Remember, the responders we get to the more people that we're going to help so without further

1:32.6

ado I introduced to you my home on the couch and across from me is John Travolta.

2:06.5

So welcome to the show.

...

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