John Travolta thanks Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

John Travolta will always be grateful to filmmaker Quentin Tarantino for helping him revamp his career with Pulp Fiction.

The Grease star had resigned himself to the fact that his greatest roles were behind him when the writer/director approached him with two projects and asked him to pick a role.

"Quentin Tarantino had given me a choice between Dusk Til Dawn and Pulp," John tells WENN, "and I said, I'm not really into vampires... I like the other one'."

As a result, Travolta was cast opposite Samuel L. Jackson as Vincent Vega in cult movie Pulp Fiction.

"I think I was at a point where I felt I had done well in my career, but I never imagined that one project could give me that kind of second career, where I was offered the 'A' scripts again and the Oscar contender type scripts," he smiles. "There weren't many examples of that in the history of cinema, so I was very honoured and privileged that I have that little niche."

Travolta's career took off again after portraying Vega, and he has since starred in movies like Hairspray, Get Shorty, Primary Colors, Swordfish, Be Cool and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

He's back in the spotlight again for a new TV role - the movie star will play top attorney Robert Shapiro in upcoming drama American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson - and he cannot wait to tell the whole story of the Simpson murder trial for the first time: "I was more surprised by the theatrics behind the scenes than the actual trial," he explains. "We were amazed every new episode, we couldn't believe it. When those Mark Furman tapes came up - which you're gonna see - we couldn't believe what we were reading.

"Some of this at the time was not allowable into court. Those were the secrets. When the case was over it was put away. This is the first time it's been brought out. There are so many things that weren't allowed to be talked about."

- WENN