John Travolta reportedly pulled out of hit film over its ‘gay sub-text’

John Travolta backed out of the lead role in American Gigolo over the film’s “somewhat gay sub-text,” according to billionaire Barry Diller.

The former Paramount executive, who co-founded the Fox Broadcasting Company with Rupert Murdoch, shared the anecdote in his memoir, Who Knew, in which, for the first time, he also discussed his relationships with men.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Diller said Travolta, who had shot to fame in Paramount’s Saturday Night Fever a few years earlier, and then Grease, was set to play Julian Kay in Paul Schrader’s 1980’s film about a male escort.

Diller claimed Travolta approached Michael Eisner, who was Paramount Pictures’ president at the time, about stepping back, citing his grief over the the death of both his mother and girlfriend Diana Hyland.

“He slumped down in a chair in Michael’s office, started to cry and said: ‘I can’t do American Gigolo. I’m too sad, I’m still in mourning. It’s the wrong thing for me to do, you have to let me out of it’,” philanthropist Diller claimed.

“Michael came down to my office and said: ‘John’s just left, and we have to let him out of the movie because he just can’t do it’. I said, ‘He’s faking it and using you. It’s too late to recast and he’s perfect for it’.”

Diller then alleged that Travolta “acted his way through his meeting with Michael”, and that the real reason the star wanted out was “he was afraid of playing [the] character because of its somewhat gay sub-text”. He went to say that he tried to persuade the actor to stay.

“John came to my house one afternoon. I began by saying: ‘Right now, you are the biggest star in the world, and you worry you’re going to screw it up’. This is a critical time for you, and when you’ve got a great script and a great part, don’t let anything put you off’.”

However, this backfired and Diller said he “made the situation worse because [Travolta had] told his manager about my criticism of him, so they both hated me”.

Richard Gere, who went on to have an affair with Diller’s wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, eventually stepped into the role, cementing the success he had carved out in Looking for Mr Goodbar.

Diller’s story echoed Schrader’s account of the situation. The director told The Hollywood Reporter last year that Travolta backed out of American Gigolo – which went on to gross close to $53 million at the worldwide box office, (close to $206 million/£153 million in today’s money), from a budget of just $5 million – because of his mother’s death, his appearance in film flop Moment by Moment and his “growing anxiety about the gay sub-text [of the film].”

PinkNews has approached John Travolta for comment.

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