John Travolta Reveals Film Inspired By Near-Death Experience While Flying Plane With Family

Caroline Frost
·2-min read

John Travolta has shared that he was inspired to make his new film by a near-death experience he just recently gone through himself.

The BBC reports that the actor, who stars in the film The Shepherd, adapted from a novella by Frederick Forsyth, told a London audience:

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“The kismet of the project is, I actually experienced a total electrical failure, not in a Vampire but a corporate jet, over Washington DC, prior to my discovering the book.

“So when I read the book, it resonated more because of this experience I’d personally had. I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you’re going to die, because I had two good jet engines but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing.

“And I thought it was over, just like this boy, portrayed so beautifully [by actor Ben Radcliffe]. He captured that despair when you think you’re actually going to die.

“I had my family on board and I said, ‘This is it, I can’t believe I’m going to die in this plane.’ And then, as if by a miracle, we descended to a lower altitude, I saw the Washington DC Monument and identified that Washington National Airport was right next to it and I made a landing. So I’m reading this book saying, ‘I’ve lived this.’”

Travolta first dreamed of adapting the book thirty years ago, with himself in the role of the young pilot who encounters difficulties. “I was young enough then that I could’ve played that part,” he jokes. “But I had to wait 30 years to play the shepherd.”

The film was shot largely in the UK.

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