John Travolta Describes Dancing With Daughter Ella For Super Bowl Commercial As 'Magical'

Apr 24, 2021 by apost team

John Travolta has been through a lot in the past couple of years. He’s starred in some big movies like “Gotti,” “Savages” and “From Paris with Love,” but he’s also suffered tremendous heartbreak in the past two decades. In 2009, the star lost his son Jett Travolta while on vacation in the Bahamas, and the “Pulp Fiction Star” lost his wife, Kelly Preston, to cancer in July 2020. With that said, John continues to do what he does best — dance and act. One of John’s most recent projects is the Quibi series “Die Hart” in which Kevin Hart plays himself. Hart goes to a premier acting school, where he meets its crazed director, who’s played by John. The show was renewed for a second season and is ongoing, so we’re sure to see more acting from the “Hairspray” actor in the near future. In February 2021, John also brushed off his boogying skills for a Super Bowl commercial that he appeared in with his 21-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta.

The award-winning actor, who turned 67 at the end of February 2021, opened up about this experience and more in an exclusive interview with Esquire Mexico, which was published earlier this month. It is one of the most revealing interviews with the star since his wife passed a little less than a year ago. The in-depth Q&A covers everything from his passion of collecting airplanes to the Super Bowl commercial that everyone was talking about earlier this year. Read on for highlights from the intimate interview.

The Miracle-Gro Super Bowl advertisement begins with Ella telling her father to press a red button in order to record a dance video. As John struggles to find the button, Ella says, "Dad it's the red one ... the other red one." John replies with, "I know," and after a few more tries, the two are featured dancing away, doing the famous hand jive from “Grease.”

However, one difference in the commercial is that it features different music from what the cast of "Grease" jived to in the movie. Instead of "Born to Hand Jive" by Sha Na Na, the father-daughter duo dances to "Sunday Best" by Surfaces. Despite the choice to dance to a different song, John and Ella's hand jive moves are on point. Besides, the hand jive itself did not necessarily originate from the "Grease" movie. The dance was popularized in the United States by American singer Johnny Otis and his hit single "Willie and the Hand Jive."

The commercial aired during the second quarter of this year's Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 7, and the Travolta father-daughter duo are not the only celebrities featured in the advertisement. Keen eyes can spot Martha Stewart, Leslie David Baker from the hit show "The Office," Peloton instructor Emma Lovewell, NASCAR's Kyle Busch and Carl Weathers.

“It was magical. There's no one else in the world I'd rather dance with than my daughter Ella," John told Esquire of the advertisement.

"It worked on so many levels! First, as a unique moment of entertainment that people loved seeing. Secondly, it allowed me to introduce my daughter to the world on a huge stage, showing off her talent and beauty," John added.

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John also explained that the advertisement served as a tribute to his late wife and Ella’s mother, the actress Kelly Preston, who he said loved to dance. Preston died in July 2020 after fighting breast cancer for two years.

"Kelly and I dance a lot. It was really important to us," John said in his interview with Esquire Mexico. "We had 5, 6 million views and then we did a TikTok challenge, asking people to recreate the dance and it went viral. I'm really thankful that the brand asked us to do it together."

John spoke to his late wife’s love of dancing on Instagram as well, where he posted a video of himself and daughter Ella dancing alongside a heartfelt caption.

“My daughter @ella.travolta and I dancing in memory of momma. One of Kelly’s favorite things, dancing with me,” the 67-year-old actor wrote a little more than a month after Preston’s death.

But John didn’t just address the darkest parts of his past in the Esquire interview. The actor also reflected on his career and legacy, which he says prepared him for the isolation that everyone felt in 2020.

"It's fame that trained me for 2020," John said. "When you are famous, you live in a kind of plastic bubble, cloistered like an oyster. You can't abandon it if you want to go out on a normal day to explore life. Part of me of was already familiar with this kind of life. Fame is what has made me prepare for these rare times that we live in."

As for the storied actor’s legacy, John had this to say:

"Life is movement and a journey; what you leave behind in people, I guess that's your legacy," he said.

What do you think of John and Ella Travolta’s dance moves in the Super Bowl advertisement? What do you think this father-daughter duo will do next? Let us know — and be sure to pass this on to friends and family members.