Actress Finola Hughes Looks Back at Cult Classic ‘Staying Alive’ With Brutal Honesty

In April, Fino­la Hugh­es marked a career mile­stone: 40 years since step­ping into the role of Anna Devane on Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. But before she became a day­time icon, Hugh­es made her fea­ture film debut in 1983’s Stay­ing Alive.  

The movie, a high­ly antic­i­pat­ed sequel to the 1977 block­buster Sat­ur­day Night Fever, starred John Tra­vol­ta, who reprised the role of Tony Manero. Join­ing Tra­vol­ta behind the cam­era was Sylvester Stal­lone, fresh off three suc­cess­ful Rocky films at the time, who served as direc­tor.  

The audi­tion process began ear­ly in the morn­ing. Hugh­es learned the rou­tines, then read and danced with Tra­vol­ta. “Sly [Stal­lone] was there, and then they sort of said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got the role,’” Hugh­es recalls. “They told me right there.” 

She took the news of get­ting cast as Lau­ra in stride. “I just went, ‘Oh, thank you,’” she says. “And they were like, ‘Is that all?’ They expect­ed me to sort of jump up and down, which, of course, I would have, but I didn’t real­ly know any­one. I think I said some­thing like, ‘Oh well, I’m Eng­lish.’ But I remem­ber being so hap­py. Even though I hadn’t read the whole script, it just felt so right.” 

It was her first big movie and her first time in Los Ange­les, but Tra­vol­ta helped Hugh­es find her foot­ing. “He was the sweet­est,” she raves. “He’s just love­ly. He was so sup­port­ive and so kind and kind of took me under his wing a lit­tle bit because I’d nev­er been to Hol­ly­wood and he real­ly looked after me. He made sure that I was tak­en care of, and he just is great.” 

“Look­ing back on it, I feel like I was kind of in a lit­tle bit of a bub­ble,” Hugh­es con­tin­ues. “I was alone in Hol­ly­wood, I was away from every­body I knew, but I think what made that eas­i­er for me was John, because he just was such a life­line. And even when we were film­ing in New York, he took me out. We went to Stu­dio 54, and he was very kind to me. He and all the peo­ple that were with him were just very kind to me, so I did feel like I was looked after in that respect.” 

Along­side Travolta’s guid­ance, Hugh­es also appre­ci­at­ed Stallone’s direc­to­r­i­al style. “He was fan­tas­tic, very spon­ta­neous,” she reports. “He likes things to be spon­ta­neous, and I think that was good for me because I didn’t know how to do that. I didn’t real­ly know how to do any­thing. I’m being com­plete­ly hon­est — I had no idea what I was doing, and John would sort of give me lit­tle clues. I think they were always try­ing to loosen me up, so they would sur­prise me some­times. They under­stood that they were work­ing with a com­plete new­bie.” 

That sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment helped Hugh­es stay ground­ed, even as the film car­ried the weight of being a sequel to a cul­tur­al phe­nom­e­non. “I was kind of blind to all that,” she explains. “I’m a bit of an in-the-moment per­son, so it didn’t real­ly reg­is­ter. But when I look back, I real­ize that there was a lot of pres­sure. There was a lot of pres­sure with the danc­ing, and I just didn’t feel it because we rehearsed for six weeks before we even start­ed shoot­ing. I think John had been work­ing for three months to get in shape and to dance and every­thing, so there was a lot of prep work.” 

he pre­mieres brought their own mem­o­rable moments. Before arriv­ing at the famed Grauman’s Chi­nese The­atre, Hugh­es had a lit­tle help with her wardrobe. “I didn’t have any­thing to wear, so Sylvester Stallone’s wife at the time, Sasha [Cza­ck], took me into her wardrobe and I wore one of her dress­es,” Hugh­es reveals. “I had bought some­thing, but they were like, ‘Yeah, no.’ And Sasha said, ‘Let’s just try on a bunch of things.’ So, I wore a long slip dress with beads over the top. It was real­ly pret­ty.” 

In New York, Hugh­es drew from her own clos­et. “I wore a vin­tage white, lacy top that I bought in Los Ange­les, which I think Sasha nixed, but I wore it any­way, ’cause that’s all I had,” she explains. “I wasn’t real­ly pre­pared for any of that. I just remem­ber talk­ing to Cindy Rhodes [who played Jack­ie], and she was like, ‘Oh, I had two dress­es made, one in this col­or for Los Ange­les, and one in this col­or for New York.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s such fore­thought.’ She had a pub­li­cist and an agent and that was real­ly good, but I didn’t have any of that.”

The fan­fare at home held a spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance for Hugh­es. “The Lon­don pre­miere was real­ly cool because I got to bring my dad and my broth­er,” she says. “And John was just so nice again that he includ­ed me in what­ev­er he was doing that night. He’s just a stand-up guy, that one. I can’t say enough good about him.”

Although the film received most­ly neg­a­tive reviews at the time, it has since gained a cult fol­low­ing. Hugh­es reflects on her role with char­ac­ter­is­tic hon­esty. “I think my act­ing sucked,” she mus­es. “I was up for a Razz­ie Award [for Worst Sup­port­ing Actress and Worst New Star], which I now know is kind of in good stand­ing.” 

For Hugh­es, being a part of the film is a jour­ney she wouldn’t trade. “It was amaz­ing,” she enthus­es. “It was real­ly a fan­tas­tic expe­ri­ence and was real­ly cool.” 

Even decades lat­er, the con­nec­tions she made on set endure. “I’ve seen John a cou­ple of times and I ran into Sly in Bev­er­ly Hills one time, many years ago,” she relays. “He was so great. I said I was doing this and that, and he said, ‘Yes, you always had a very good work eth­ic.’ He’s real­ly sup­port­ive and cool. It was nice.”