John Travolta’s star power was so overwhelming it led to the shutting down of filming on Saturday Night Fever
Saturday Night Fever director John Badham has revealed how overwhelming fan attention forced filmmakers to use decoys, fake schedules and early-morning shoots during production.
John Travolta’s star power was so overwhelming it led to the shutting down of filming on Saturday Night Fever.
The Grease star, 72, had become a television sensation through his role as Vinnie Barbarino in the hit sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter when filming began on Saturday Night Fever in Brooklyn in 1977 – and the film’s director John Badham has now revealed thousands of fans mobbed its locations while he was battling to make the classic movie.
Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast, John, 86, said: “On our first day of shooting, (John’s fans) almost completely shut us down. In fact, they did shut us down by lunchtime.”
Recalling the chaos of filming on the streets of Brooklyn, John explained the production struggled to capture even simple scenes because of the enormous crowds gathering around its lead actor.
He said: “We shot in the morning, but we had 15,000 people on the streets of Brooklyn getting in every camera shot that we had, and all we're trying to do is get a shot of (John) buying a shirt in a shirt store.”
