John Travolta names the most complex character he ever played
With a career spanning over four decades, John Travolta has played more roles than most people realise. While Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, and Face/Off might stand out as the roles that define the various eras of his acting career, each period is densely populated with productions that fly more under the radar than the cultural monoliths that bear his name.
Recently, his reputation had been marred with references to and jokes about his involvement in Scientology and the whiff of supposed controversies, which is perhaps reflected in the fact that one of his most acclaimed performances of late is a Capital One advertisement in which he plays Santa Claus, but diving back into the 1990s we find a string of intense dramatic roles, one of which turned stands out to Travolta as his most complex portrayal of a character.
The character in question is based of the real life lawyer Jan Schlichtmann, a Boston personal injury specialist who took one of the largest corporations in America to court over the improper disposal of industrial chemicals and subsequent poisoning of drinking water in the small town of Woburn, Massachusetts. The contamination led to the deaths of eight children from leukaemia and a range of other health problems for the citizens of the city. Schlichtmann’s court case became the topic of a book and, ultimately, a film, A Civil Action. It is the tale of the bold underdog—and like all the best underdogs, Schlichtmann is one filled with quirks.
Now, a lawyer who pursues this case might sound like a pretty stand-up guy, but not Jan Schlichtmann. Travolta’s character is initially uninterested in the case, seeing it as a waste of resources with no significant payout at the end. That is until he discovers that the parent company is responsible for owning half the big brands in America. What follows is a classic David vs Goliath story, at times eerily reminiscent of Tom Cruise’s equivalent courtroom drama, A Few Good Men.
Throughout the tale, Travolta’s character becomes more and more invested, both emotionally and financially, to the point where he and his business partners are staring ruin in the face. Alas, he response in a deeply human way to these perils, quite expertly portrayed by Travolta. “He’s the most complex character I’ve ever played,” Travolta told Roger Ebert. “That’s because he doesn’t always know which way he’s going. His firm is going broke, that’s for sure. Is he working from ego, professionalism, or what?”
In a nutshell, Schlichtmann is a sleaze-ball lawyer who gets emotionally wrapped up in a case and accidentally does something good to prove a point. His complexity comes from whether that’s motivated by his desire to prove he’s not an “ambulance chaser” – a morally bankrupt lawyer looking to profit from the pain of ordinary people out of the pockets of corporations – or his desire to get justice for his victims, or his desire to not become bankrupt.
And that’s what Travolta manages to capture so well: these shifting priorities all exist within Schlichtmann simultaneously. The Harvard boys bruise his ego and insult his intelligence, so when he’s offered payout after payout, he turns them down. Or is that because he wants more for the families? Or is it plain, uncomplicated greed? We never get a clear answer.
A Civil Action is by no means a prominent film in Travolta’s filmography, but his portrayal of Schlichtmann is certainly worth a watch. It sits comfortably alongside some of the best ’90s courtroom dramas, and as is often the case with ’90s courtroom dramas, it has a superb and often surprising supporting cast.
Elsewhere, Robert Duvall earned an Oscar nomination for his role as the cold, long-in-the-tooth opposing lawyer, Jerome Facher. William H Macy and Tony Shalhoub serve as Travolta’s legal team. The late great James Gandolfini plays the whistleblowing employee. Kathy Bates and Stephy Fry have minor roles. And, for only a split second, the eagle-eyed viewer can spot a very young Rob McElhenney.
