Why choose John Travolta’s character in Saturday Night Fever as Ral’s idol?
PL: Well, I think the interesting thing about that film is that it seems to be a regular American film, but it’s not. It’s a very social film. It’s a film where everybody’s in danger. The father is unemployed and his mother is obsessed with the church. His brother is a priest who quit the church, his best friend commits suicide…. And we have this working class hero, that doesn’t want money, he wants to dance well. So it’s very original, very beautiful. And the interesting thing that my character thinks is that the reality for that guy is possible for him. So that’s where the problem begins, because he’s 30 years older, he doesn’t look or dance like John Travolta, and the most important thing is that he lives in Chile in the middle of a terrible dictatorship. LF: You were born just two years before the time that the film is set. What research did you do? PL: Well, I saw documentaries that were shot undercover. And then I also talked to many people and asked them what they remembered bet
