Los Angeles, June 2 (IANS) Hollywood actor John Travolta has spoken up on how he battled his profound personal loss, and continues to find light.

The actor, 72, lost his son Jett Travolta in 2009, when he was 16, after he had a seizure that caused a fall, reports ‘People’ magazine.

11 years later, in 2020, his wife Kelly Preston died at the age of 57, two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

As per ‘People’, the actor shared that he dedicated his new film, Propeller ‘One-Way Night Coach’, to the two of them, as well as his parents and siblings.

He told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, “I dedicated the film to Kelly, to my son Jett, to my brothers and sisters, to my mother and my father, because they are the model from which this film was born”.

When asked how he was able to stay optimistic despite experiencing so much pain and loss, he told the outlet that, while “life has certainly tested me”, it’s his “nature is to look for the positive, even in the face of the worst”.

He further mentioned, “I’m not made to remain absorbed in the darkness. I can look at the darkness, but I don’t choose to die in that darkness”.

Based on his own first flight as a child and inspired by his 1997 children’s book of the same name, ‘Propeller One-Way Night Coach’ is semi-autobiographical. The film, which also stars Travolta’s daughter, 26-year-old Ella Bleu Travolta, is a family movie that shows the U.S. in 1962 through the eyes of 8-year-old Jeff.

It doesn’t shy away from difficult historical themes, including Nazi concentration camps, but remains anchored in the perspective of a child.

He said, “I wanted this sincerity. A child’s hope and resilience are unique, we adults have forgotten what that means. As a child, I always looked at the glass half full; I thought life could be better”.

He presented his film at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where he received a surprise honorary Palme d’Or, and he looked back at his first appearance there, for ‘Pulp Fiction’.

–IANS

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