The reclusive “Saturday Night Fever” star stepped out in Cannes to promote his directorial debut with a head-turning, beret-forward new aesthetic.

John Travolta addresses viral new look debuted at Cannes: ‘I’m going to play the part’

The reclusive "Saturday Night Fever" star stepped out in Cannes to promote his directorial debut with a head-turning, beret-forward new aesthetic.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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May 18, 2026 8:20 p.m. ET

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John Travolta at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16. Credit:

Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

- John Travolta debuted a striking new look at the Cannes Film Festival, which he attended to promote his directorial debut, *Propeller One-Way Night Coach.*

- Travolta turned heads for his dapper, black-and-white formal wear, dark, closely-cropped beard, and in particular an assortment of slouching berets.

- "I said, 'I'm a director this time. You're an actor, play the part of a director, look like an old-school director,'" Travolta revealed.

John Travolta looked at the president of the Cannes Film Festival and said, "I want to make history." And that's what this is.

The eternal *Saturday Night Fever** *star made a somewhat rare public appearance at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend to debut his first-ever film in the role of director: the jetsetting family film *Propeller One-Way Night Coach*. But he debuted something else that's caught even more attention — a striking new look consisting of a dark, close-cropped beard, thin-rimmed, circular spectacles, and a series of slouching berets.

The buzz around Travolta's new aesthetic has rivaled some of the most hyped premieres of the eminent film festival, which tapped acclaimed auteurs like Cristian Mungiu, Pedro Almodóvar, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi for its main Competition. On Monday, the actor-turned-director finally offered an explanation for the beret seen 'round the world.

"I've been around for over 50 years doing movies, but I can't tell, when I look back, the difference between the events," Travolta told CNN's Leah Dolan. So he endeavored to make his Cannes 2026 fits unforgettable.

"I said, 'I'm a director this time. You're an actor, play the part of a director, look like an old-school director,'" he explained. "So I looked up pictures from the '20, '30s, '40s, '50, '60s, and the old-school directors wore berets, and the glasses, and I thought, 'That's what I'm doing. I'm doing an homage to being a director, so I'm going to play the part of being a director.'"

Problem solved. Now, when Travolta looks back on this time, "I'll know — 'Oh, that was *Propeller One-Way Night Coach*, that was Cannes, that's when I won the Palme d'Or,' and I'll have a vividness of it."

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Travolta is not actually in contention for the prestigious Palme d'Or, which Mungiu, Almodóvar, Hamaguchi, and 19 others are vying for with films in Competition. *Propeller One-Way Night Coach *is playing in Cannes Premiere, a non-competitive section established in 2021 that's generally seen as a holding pen for films that were 11th hour cuts from Competition, like Rodrigo Sorogoyen's *The Beasts* or Alain Guiraudie's *Misericordia*.

John Travolta on May 15 at the Cannes Film Festival.

Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty

And yet, Travolta has *already won *a Palme d'Or while at Cannes 2026.

On Friday, the festival awarded him with an honorary Palme d'Or, the Cannes equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. Indeed, his work has played an important role at the festival over the years, from 1994's* **Pulp Fiction** *winning the Palme d'Or to 1998's *Primary Colors *playing in the Out of Competition section, to films like *Grease** *and *Saturday Night Fever *recently playing in the repertory "Cinéma de la Plage" section."

"You said this would be a special night, but I didn't know it would mean this," Travolta told festival director Thierry Frémaux after accepting the award. "This is a humbling moment. This is beyond the Oscar."

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