Donna Pescow Reminisces on the 40th Anniversary of Saturday Night Fever
Forty years after it debuted in theaters, the unexpected mega hit Saturday Night Fever still has people interested in the life and times of Tony Manero (John Travolta) and the women in his life: Stephanie (Karen Lynn Gorney) and Annette (Donna Pescow), who all had dancing fever.
In honor of the movie's milestone, Paramount Home Media Distribution is releasing a new Director’s Cut, which has been restored in 4K in collaboration with director John Badham, and features an updated surround sound mix to further enhance the memorable Bee Gees soundtrack, with additional scenes added to flesh out the characters and the story of a Brooklyn kid with no prospects who lives for Saturday night when he becomes king of the dance floor.
"The sound is extraordinary," Pescow tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview for the May 2 release of the updated Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD. "John Badham had said that when the film was released many of the theaters did not have Dolby Sound, so a lot of what people heard at the time was in Mono. So now, they have redone the sound and it’s absolutely extraordinary. It sounds like you’re at a concert, it’s that clean and it’s that beautiful."
During our conversation, Pescow also talks about how life changing the film was for her, how she auditioned multiple times, the added scenes, what she's doing now, and more.
Donna Pescow
Saturday Night Fever is on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list. When you were filming it, do you recall feeling that it was going to be something special that we would still be talking about and watching 40 years later?
No, I don’t think anybody would have that in their head, you know? You’re so immersed in what you’re doing at the moment and you just hope it comes off well.
I read that you had to audition for the film six times?
John Avildsen was going to direct it originally. I think I had three auditions there, and then there was a gap of time before I went back in for John Badham. The interesting thing is, I had never seen a full script. I was at the point in my career where I was lucky to get any kind of sides, so a lot of what was done was improvised. I really had no clue that the role was as big as it was, which was probably good. I might have tanked if I had known that.
I did read that when you got the part, you said, "Yay, it’s the first Christmas I won’t have to work at Bloomingdale’s selling ornaments."
I did engrave Christmas ornaments as one of my part-time jobs.
That was an immediate effect of the film, but how did it long-term change your life?
Oh, it completely changed my life. I had only been out of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts about a year and a half. I had done some off-Broadway. I did a tour of a show with little roles and was grateful to have it. And this was such an enormous success that I suddenly went into a different category of being sought after and I was being offered roles that I never dreamed of getting. It was extraordinary to go from nowhere to everywhere in film.
Is it true that in the scene where the guys fall off the bridge, that no one told you that there was a platform a few feet below so they would get a real reaction from you?
I have to tell you, I don’t even know where that came from. It was a question I had been asked recently, and I was kind of dumbfounded because I did know obviously what was going to happen in the script.
I think the confusion is that when they played that trick on the character in the film, because it was my side of the camera, I was not really looking at them. The director was pointing to different areas and saying things like, "This is where John would be, and this is where Barry [Miller] would be, and this is where Paul [Pape] would be." So, I was acting to nothing in the sense that just my eyes were in the right direction. So, maybe, I’m thinking that when I saw it, it was a surprise, because I’d never seen the other half.
Any other differences in the Director's Cut than we've already discussed?
They re-digitized it, so the color is just so much more vibrant. I think that just the print itself may even be better than the original print. So, you have all of the bells and whistles, which is always fun.
Are any of those added scenes with you?
Not really. What’s great about it is that they are scenes with John, and they show this vulnerable side of the character that you see, obviously throughout the film, but this really adds so much more nuance to it because you can really see how this is a young man who’s struggling to make his life work and doesn’t quite know how, and wants desperately to not give up, where his friends have already given up and have accepted the fact that this is as far as it’s going to go. So, that’s quite lovely. John’s performance was so amazing anyway, so this is really icing on the cake.
You’re a Brooklyn girl in real life. Did you have disco fever? Did you and your girlfriends go out and club?
Truthfully, I had never been to a disco until I got this part. Several of us went to the club, because it was a real club, prior to filming so we could see what it was like. I had no clue, to be honest with you. I think I went in there with jeans and I looked so ridiculous compared to…I just had no clue.
So, what are you up to these days?
I’m still acting and when something comes along that I like, I’m certainly there. I do a lot more theatre now. I think, just generally speaking, when something comes along that’s really wonderful, I’ll grab it. I’m not as interested in just doing something to have a job. I’ve been really so blessed and lucky in my career that I’ve worked more than I haven’t. So, you get to a certain point where you can be a little more picky.
The Saturday Night Fever Blu-ray includes both the Director’s Cut and theatrical version of the film, commentary by director John Badham, a five-part look at the film entitled “Catching the Fever,” behind-the-scenes featurettes, and more.
