Barry Diller Says John Travolta Exited ‘American Gigolo’ Because of “Somewhat Gay Subtext”

by

According to Barry Diller’s account, John Travolta decided against playing the lead role in American Gigolo due to the movie’s implied homosexual undertones.

In his revealing autobiography titled “Who Knew“, a prominent figure reminisces about a past occasion when the star of “Grease” was initially chosen to spearhead a movie scripted and directed by Paul Schrader, but had to withdraw due to circumstances. According to Diller’s account in his book, Travolta informed Michael Eisner, who was then president of Paramount Pictures at that time, that he couldn’t take on the project because he was mourning the loss of his mother and girlfriend Diana Hyland.

He sank into a chair in Michael’s office, began to weep, and declared, ‘I can’t perform in American Gigolo. I’m too distraught. I’m still grieving. It’s inappropriate for me to take on this role. You need to release me from it,'” Diller, who was the CEO of Paramount at the time, recalled. “Michael then visited my office and said, ‘John has just departed, and we must free him from the movie because he simply can’t perform.’ I responded, ‘He’s pretending and manipulating you. It’s too late to replace him, and he’s ideal for the part.’

Diller stated that he was convinced Travolta had only acted during his meeting with Michael and no longer wished to star in “Gigolo”. He felt apprehensive about playing the character due to its subtle gay undertones. For several days, he firmly declared, “I will not even entertain the idea of letting him out of the movie, absolutely not.

Despite my own reservations about moving forward with the American Gigolo project, Diller pulled me aside and attempted to persuade me to overlook my “inexperienced, green agent.” In other words, he wanted me to brush off any doubts I had about my management.

One day, John visited my home in the afternoon. I started by telling him, “Currently, you are the most prominent figure globally, and you’re concerned about messing it up. You’re following the advice of this seemingly inexperienced manager, which is leading you astray, and it’s causing you to make poor decisions.” He wrote this. “This is a crucial period for you, and when you have an exceptional script and a great role, don’t let anything deter you from it.” I continued by providing several instances of how his management had been handling things incorrectly since his rise to fame.

Ultimately, Diller’s conversation with Travolta — and his comments about his manager — backfired.

He departed with a distressed and wounded expression. It wasn’t long before it was evident that he wouldn’t attend for the initial filming day, instead facing whatever repercussions might follow. His resentment towards me deepened because I had shared my criticism of him with his supervisor, resulting in both of them disliking me.” (Diller notes)

Richard Gere secured the main role of Julian Kay following his successful debut in our movie “Looking for Mr. Goodbar”, as mentioned by Diller. To add, the film “Gigolo” catapulted Gere to stardom and significantly impacted Diller’s personal life, since he was involved with Diane von Furstenberg at that time, who had an affair with Gere in the early ’80s.

Earlier, Schrader shared with The Hollywood Reporter that there were three primary reasons behind Travolta’s decision to withdraw from American Gigolo. These factors included the loss of his mother, a significant box office failure titled Moment to Moment that he starred in, and an increasing concern about the film’s implicit gay themes.

A rep for Travolta has not yet responded to THR‘s request for comment.

Read More

2025-05-23 20:24