Barry Diller Claims John Travolta Got Cold Feet about 'American Gigolo' Because of Film's Gay Vibes

Why didn't John Travolta show up to the set of "American Gigolo?"

According to Barry Diller, John Travolta backed out of starring in American Gigolo because of the film's "somewhat gay subtext," the Hollywood Reporter writes.

"In his tell-all memoir, 'Who Knew,' the power player recalls a time when the 'Grease' star was attached to star in the Paul Schrader written- and directed-movie before he had to step away. In his book, Diller writes that Travolta told then-Paramount Pictures president Michael Eisner he couldn't lead the project because he was grieving the death of his mother and then-girlfriend Diana Hyland.

"He slumped down in a chair in Michael's office, started to cry and said, 'I can't do 'American Gigolo.' I'm too sad. I'm still in mourning. It's the wrong thing for me to do. You have to let me out of it,'" Diller, who was the CEO of Paramount at the time, writes. "Michael came down to my office and said, 'John's just left, and we have to let him out of the movie because he just can't do it.' I said, 'He's faking it and using you. It's too late to recast and he's perfect for it.'"

Diller concludes that he "was certain [Travolta] had acted his way through his meeting with Michael" and "no longer wanted to do 'Gigolo.' He was afraid of playing that character because of its somewhat gay subtext. For days, I said, 'I'm not even going to hear of letting him out of the movie, full stop, period.'"

To convince him to stay in the film, Diller had him over his house one afternoon and told him to disregard the advice of his manager.

In his book, Diller writes, "I began by saying, 'Right now, you are the biggest star in the world, and you worry you're going to screw it up. You're listening to this twerpy, inexperienced manager of yours, and it's leading you to the wrong decisions. This is a critical time for you, and when you've got a great script and a great part, you don't let anything put you off it.' I went on with various examples of how his management had been mishandling things since his spurt to superstardom."

But Diller's tactic backfired. "He left with a pained and hurt look. A day or two later it became clear that he was not going to show up for the first day of shooting and would take whatever consequences ensued," Diller writes. "I had made the situation worse because he'd told his manager about my criticism of him, so they both hated me."

"American Gigolo" would turn out to be a star-making role for Richard Gere. But Diller notes that "for extra good measure he would go on to break up my relationship with Diane," in reference to the affair his longtime love, Diane von Furstenberg, had with Gere in the early '80s.

Paul Schrader, who wrote and directed the film, previously told The Hollywood Reporter that "three things" led Travolta to sign off of American Gigolo: the passing of his mother, "his first mega-flop, a film called 'Moment to Moment,' and "he had growing anxiety about the gay subtext [of the film]."