John Travolta may have arrived at Cannes to celebrate a major career milestone, but the internet was far more focused on one thing: whatever was happening with that beret.
On Friday, the Grease icon hit the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival alongside his daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, for the screening of his directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach. He wore a black suit, cream tie, gold-rimmed glasses, with one accessory stealing the show – a cream beret paired with a freshly dyed beard.
© GettyThe actor looked almost unrecognizable to some fans online, and social media wasted absolutely no time roasting him. X, formerly known as Twitter, was filled with reactions like, “When did John Travolta become Samuel L Jackson?”
© XOthers compared him to everyone from Jack Harlow to Joe Pantoliano, with one user writing, “It must be so nice to have so much money you can dress like a surrealist painter on the Left Bank of Paris in the 1930s.”
© XAnother viral post questioned, “Why does bro look like he’s about to negotiate his sovereign right to enrich uranium,” while someone else simply asked, “What’s he wearing that stupid beret for?”
© XStill, not all the reactions were brutal. Plenty of fans defended John’s eccentric Cannes look, with some actually loving the dramatic European-film-festival energy. “John Travolta out here looking like a whole vibe with that beret,” one person wrote.
But the biggest conversation quickly became his daughter, Ella Bleu, who many people said looked strikingly similar to her late mother, Kelly Preston. “Ella is the spitting image of Kelly. This is so beautiful,” one fan posted, while another simply wrote, “She’s beautiful like her mother.”
© LOIC VENANCEThe appearance carried an emotional layer beyond the memes and fashion jokes. John has remained incredibly close with his children following the death of Kelly Preston in 2020 after her private battle with breast cancer.
© GettyThe actor and Preston shared Ella, son Ben, and late son Jett, who tragically died in 2009 after suffering a seizure during a family vacation in the Bahamas.
Over the years, Travolta has frequently spoken about family, grief, and how much aviation has shaped both his personal life and career.
That passion for flying is deeply tied to Propeller One-Way Night Coach. The aviation-inspired film is based on the children’s book John wrote back in 1997. The story was inspired by John’s own childhood memories of watching airplanes take off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, and stars Ella alongside actress Olga Hoffmann.
According to DailyMail, he was presented with an honorary Palme d’Or ahead of the world premiere and was seen weeping. During the emotional Cannes presentation, John admitted he was overwhelmed after learning the film had been accepted into the festival earlier than expected.
Speaking onstage, he praised Cannes director Thierry Frémaux and said he “cried like a baby” after hearing the news. “This is beyond the Oscar. Surprise complement! I can’t believe this. This is the last thing I expected,” he said.
And while the internet may still be debating the beret, the Cannes appearance was ultimately a rare, heartfelt father-daughter moment.
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