




John Travolta plays Charlie Wax in "From Paris With Love," directed by French director Pierre Morel (Taken). The film, which also stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers, is being released February 5 by Lionsgate.
On His Character
“Charlie Wax is one of those guys who, because he’s so good at what he does, can afford to be a little unethical,” explains Travolta. “He's the kind of guy that would be hired, for a lot of money, to go into very dangerous situations, war zones and so on, to do espionage type of work, undercover type of work, and he’s got it nailed. He’s not afraid of death. He has the war mentality.”
From the moment he read the script, Travolta saw in Wax the opportunity to try something completely new. “As an actor I’m first attracted to what I can do with a character that’s different than what someone else can do with it,” he says. “This was an outrageous character and it gave me a lot of opportunities to stretch.”
A Defined Look
Conferring with French director Pierre Morel (TAKEN) and Besson, Travolta decided to fashion Charlie Wax’s look after real-life soldiers of fortune. “These guys are almost stylish now for some reason,” says Travolta. “We looked at pictures of these guys with guns and scarves and leather jackets and parachute pants and they looked glamorous and it was so bizarre to see this dichotomy of glamour with guns.”
Travolta also grew a goatee and shaved off his hair, which he found unexpectedly liberating as an actor. “A bald look gave me the freedom to be bald,” he explains. “Just like in PULP FICTION, where this unusual kind of Dutch haircut gave a kind of euro-trash feeling to the character, this heroine hit man. It’s very important because film's a visual medium and all you know is what’s on screen, so you have to have a look that you are completely happy with. It satisfies the character.”