John Travolta performed a spoof of one of his hit songs from Grease in a new Super Bowl commercial, alongside Zach Braff and Donald Faison.
The advertisement for T-Mobile’s Home Internet service began with Travolta standing outside of his house in Los Angeles. He then sang about the stress of setting up home internet to the tune of Grease’s “Summer Nights”. In the film, he played Danny Zuko and performed the song with his co-star, the late Olivia Newton-John.
During his performance in the commercial, Travolta was joined by Faison and Braff, who portrayed his neighbours. The pair proceed to sing to the tune, with lyrics that encouraged Travolta to use the internet provider, such as: “Try T-Mobile, it sets up so fast” and “It’s like WiFi that runs on 5G.”
As the three men danced together in their neighbourhood, Travolta sang “tell me more, tell me more,” a signature line from “Summer Nights,” while he looked towards the camera.
Throughout the commercial, the trio praised T-Mobile’s internet, as they sang lines like: “Don’t worry about speed” and “I can’t believe it’s only 50 bucks”. There were also subtle references to Grease, including a clip of Braff combing his hair, which was a nod to Travolta’s character in the movie.
The advertisement proceeded with Travolta standing in the middle as he sang: “That’s what T-Mobile can do.” He also had his hand on his hip and arm in the air, to represent a dance move that his character did in Grease.
As Braff and Faison stood behind him, the clip ended with the three of them singing: “Tell me more, tell me more.”
During an interview with People, Braff and Faison opened up about working with the Saturday Night Fever star. The Clueless star noted that this experience was his first time meeting Travolta.
“Listen, I have a really hard time meeting other actors or peers and stuff like that,” he said. “I get excited for anyone and everyone, but I will tell you this: If you are in my top five, top 10, I’m going to go crazy. Travolta’s in my top five and I went crazy.”
Braff then noted how he encouraged Faison to stay relaxed when meeting Travolta, explaining: “We had a talk beforehand. I said: ‘Donald, be chill. Don’t start asking questions about the movies until we’ve settled this.’”
However, Faison confessed that staying cool during his conversation with Travolta “went out the window”, once they started talking about the actor’s 1997 film, Face/Off.
Faison noted that before doing the commercial, he and Braff had “never seen John Travolta on-screen” and only “seen characters that he plays”. He also said that Travolta was open to answering questions about the roles.
“It’s very clear when you’re having a conversation with him that he’s nothing like these characters,” Faison said. “I’m sure he has some sort of connection to them, so one of the first questions I asked him was about his walk in Saturday Night Fever and how I tried to imitate it all the time because it’s one of the most iconic walks ever.”
Braff also praised the Pulp Fiction star and acknowledged how much he enjoyed learning about his career.
“He’s so generous with his stories,” Braff said. “Now that we’ve gotten to know him a little bit, now we’re not afraid to ask questions. He’s so generous and kind with answering all our anecdote questions and everything.”
For the Super Bowl last year, Braff and Faison also did a commercial with T-Mobile. During their conversation with People, they expressed how pleased they were to be doing another ad with the network for the 2023 event.
“We just feel really, super lucky and we had no idea that the one we did last year would be such a hit,” Braff explained. “We certainly had no idea they’d ask us back again, so we’re just super excited and honoured because it’s the most people that watch anything in the country.”
