Donna Pescow Was 'Nervous All the Time' After “Saturday Night Fever” Made Her a Star

The actress looks back on being “overwhelmed” when she was suddenly in-demand as an actress after the 1977 smash hit

Donna Pescow is looking back on her star-making turn in Saturday Night Fever, the iconic 1977 film that also helped catapult John Travolta to the A-List.

“I was overwhelmed, I think, a lot of the time,” Pescow, 70, told Steve Kmetko on the Oct. 7 episode of his podcast, Still Here Hollywood.

“At the time, I just kept going forward thinking, ‘Alright, just get through it and it'll be fine.’ I was, you know, nervous all the time,” Pescow, who played local Brooklyn girl Annette in the film, said.

“I went from leaving pictures and resumes to getting phone calls saying, 'They want [to] set up a meeting with you and [famed director] Dino De Laurentiis,' ” she continued.  “And I thought, 'Do you have the right number?' You know, it was just — it was a leap. It made a career happen.”

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“I was really just blessed because I had no clue that this was unusual,” she said, adding that she “knew that I was really in a world that I didn't quite understand yet.”

“When I look back on it now, I think of it differently because I realized just how spectacular [it was],” Pescow said.

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After Saturday Night Fever — which would be her last blockbuster feature film — Pescow pivoted to television, starring in the soap operas One Life to Live, All My Children, and General Hospital. She also starred in the syndicated children’s show Out of This World before moving to the Disney Channel to play the family matriarch in the Shia LaBeouf sitcom Even Stevens. 

But she looked back with fondness on her experience filming Saturday Night Fever, telling Kmetko that co-star Travolta, now 70, left a lasting impression on her with his kindness.

Related: John Travolta Celebrates Milestone 70th Birthday in Brazil

“Working with John was incredible. He he was so generous with making everyone feel comfortable and not feel like they weren't equal in importance,” she said of Travolta, who at the time was coming off the success of the hit sitcom, Welcome Back, Kotter. “And, you know, he set the tone, I think, and everyone was so much of a team player and everyone wanted it to be great and everyone wanted it to be the best they could do.”

“He did something that I always thought was so extraordinary. After every scene, after every take, he would always say, ‘Are you happy? Would you like another take, or are you happy?’ “

“I was always so amazed that his concern was very genuine that everyone really felt good about what they put out on film, so [it] couldn't have been better.”

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