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John Travolta Breaks Out Into Song and Dance, Sings "You're the One That I Want" With Abigail Spencer

Get the scoop what went on behind the scenes while filming The Forger

By Marc Malkin Sep 20, 2014 1:00 PMTags
Abigail Spencer, John Travolta, TIFFJeff Vespa/WireImage

John Travolta has never met an opportunity to sing and dance that he didn't like.

And that's exactly what he was doing behind the scenes while filming his upcoming crime thriller, The Forger.

"I was a song and dance girl and he's a song and dance guy," Travolta's co-star Abigail Spencer told me at the Hollywood premiere of her new dramedy This Is Where I Leave You (in theaters now). "I play an undercover agent and we'd be in the park and he'd be in his criminal getup and all of a sudden we'd be doing a time step in the middle of a park in Boston. It was amazing."

Even more amazing, singing Grease tunes with Travolta.

"It was kind of surreal," Spencer said. "We'd bust out, 'You're The One that I Want' or something. It was very organic though. I didn't want to push it."

She added with a laugh, "It was very organic to bust out in song with John Travolta."

Eagle Films

In The Forger, Travolta plays a convicted art forger who gets out of jail in time to spend time with his cancer-stricken son (Mud and The Tree of Life's Tye Sheridan). Directed by Philip Martin, the cast also includes Christopher Plummer, Anson Mount, Travis Aaron Wade and Fifty Shades of Grey's Jennifer Ehle.

The movie was reportedly bought for $2.5 million by Saban Films after it premiered earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Travolta studied with art teachers in Hong Kong and the U.S. to prepare for his role. He also painted a version of Monet's "Woman With Parasol" over the course of filming.

"I framed it," Travolta said at a TIFF press conference. "I'm very proud of it."

Up next for Spencer is a trip to Morocco in about a month to shoot Damascus Cover, a spy thriller set in the early 1990s. "I play a photographer so I'm carrying around this 1990 Nikon F2 camera that weighs 35 pounds," she said. "It's been great to research. And there's a big twist at the end. I'm excited."

Directed by Daniel Zelik Berk, Damascus Cover also stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Navid Negahban, best known for his role as terrorist Abu Nazir on Homeland.