JOHN TRAVOLTA - TRAVOLTA'S HAIRSPRAY RESERVATIONS

TRAVOLTA'S HAIRSPRAY RESERVATIONS

Actor JOHN TRAVOLTA nearly turned down the role of overweight mother EDNA TURNBLAD in new movie HAIRSPRAY - but director ADAM SHANKMAN's passion for the film persuaded him to accept. The actor worried the new musical wouldn't live up to his 1978 hit movie Grease - but Travolta cast his doubts aside after realising the cast's commitment to the film. He says, "(Shankman) basically said to me, 'I take this movie personally and if it doesn't come out right, I'm going to die.' "And I said, 'Whoa, I've got to go with that guy', because musicals don't work unless every throttle's on full, so when I got the sense everybody cares, then I said OK... "I'd already had the biggest musical in history with Grease and I wanted to leave it at that. So, excuse the pun, but it took a lot of grease to get me back in the frying pan."