Gina Gershon had no hesitation reuniting with John Travolta for their new film High Rollers — especially after the pair had such an incredible time working together on the cult classic Face/Off.
“[John] was just as easy and professional and kind and fun to work with as he was when I was doing Face/Off,” Gershon, 62, exclusively told Us Weekly. “[But] I think in Face/Off we sang a little bit more. We had more time during setup, so I really liked it when we’d sing whatever musicals …There was a lot of time to kill.”
Gershon portrayed Sasha in John Woo’s 1997 sci-fi flick, the ex-girlfriend of terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage). While Gershon told Us much of her screen time was spent with Cage, 61, she still got to know Travolta behind the scenes — and their mutual love of music brought them closer together.
“I just remember singing [with him],” Gershon recalled. “We were just goofing around and then we started riffing on something and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m singing with John Travolta. This is heaven.’ You know what I mean? It was really fun.”
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Her role on screen, of course, was just as fulfilling. Gershon noted that she “loved” working with Woo because he was open to hearing her ideas, making the experience ultimately feel more “collaborative.”
“My part wasn’t really completely what it turned out to be, and I kept adding stuff here and there with the writer’s permission,” she explained. “I said, ‘Guys, can I just throw some stuff out?’ And I would go [and] work on [it] a little bit, and I would show it to John and he would like it, or he didn’t like a couple ideas, but at least I felt comfortable enough to throw it out there, and he would say yes or no. So it felt very collaborative.”
Triumphant Pictures
With all the fond memories of the cast and crew, would she return for a Face/Off sequel? Paramount did, after all, previously tap Adam Wingard to direct a follow up film in 2022. The answer is a resounding “yes” from Gershon, despite her character seemingly being killed off in the OG film’s final moments.
“I mean, we see her kind of dead, [but if] she miraculously didn’t die, I would love to. I would join, are you kidding?” she told Us. “John Woo, one of my favorite directors to work with, Nic and John and Joan [Allen] and everyone again? In two seconds.”
Outside the Face/Off universe, Gershon has yet to reunite with Woo — but she and Cage teamed up again for 2017’s Inconceivable. Now, she and Travolta are back together for High Rollers, a sequel to 2024’s Cash Out.
“My manager, who actually happens to be John’s manager as well, she told me … ‘I talked to John about you and John loves you,” Gershon recalled about how the project came about. “He would love you to do this [movie with him]. … We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and it felt like we were old pals.”
Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Gershon portrays Travolta’s wife, Ameila, in the film, a former FBI informant who is kidnapped and used as leverage in a high stakes casino heist. Travolta, meanwhile, reprises his role as Mason Goddard, a master thief on a mission to save the love of his life. Although separated from Mason and the rest of his crew for the majority of the film, Amelia is a key figure in the story — and a character that allowed Gershon to dive into her love for stunt work.
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“I love doing as many stunts myself as I can, just because I enjoy the physicality of it,” Gershon told Us. “I always probably want to do way more stunts than they actually let me, and I’m always like, ‘No, no, really, I’m really good at this. Let me.’ I have to convince them to be in the middle of all the mayhem.”
Gershon’s love for living on the edge certainly translates to the characters she plays on screen, as the actress is known for her portrayal of “strong women.” While Gershon is proud of that fact, she would be interested in exploring a new facet of her typical archetype.
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“I would love to play a completely fragile, meek person trying to survive,” she told Us. “I think I enjoy playing survivors more than victims just because I don’t like to watch that. I mean, [my High Rollers] character, [Amelia], she was strong to begin with. She’s been training and that’s been her job, but … It would be fun to play someone who’s really not strong in that same way, but yet they have to survive and they do.”
High Rollers is now playing in theaters, on demand and digital.
With reporting by Mariel Turner
