At the recent press day for Hairspray, John Travolta talked about his newfound experience with women’s grooming and fashion for his role as hefty home laundry operator Edna Turnblad, mother to inveterate dreamer Tracy (Nikki Blonsky).

“I don’t know how [women] do it, I really don’t,” Travolta says. “I mean, of course, this is 1962, and of course, there was a lot more accoutrement in those days, right? Bras, bustiers, what have you, especially if you were overweight. But I do remember my mother wearing stockings, a girdle, a bra, and then high heels. Of course, that was enough to exhaust her in getting ready. And I remember I thought, ‘What’s up with this? Why is it so exhausting?’ Well, cut to 40 years later, I know exactly why it’s exhausting,” says Travolta with a laughs. “I tried it. It’ll take your breath away, putting all that on.”

While some of his preparation brought back thoughts of his mother, Travolta didn’t fashion his specific movements on her, per se. “I have a library of memories because I grew up with a lot of great women. But I also grew up with a lot of women in theater, and women on films,” he says. “And I think that collective memory of watching… you know, I like watching women. As an actor, I observe as much as I can. I think I never thought I’d ever have to use it, but it didn’t mean that I wasn’t noticing it. And I think that, you know, you watch her mother’s friends, you watch the ladies on screen, on stage, you get to build up a knowledge of behavior. And to that degree, it became, ‘Oh, this is interesting. I wonder what it would be like to try this?’ or ‘I remember so and so, and they looked like that.’ And of course I had people reacting to me in fame, you know, whether it be fans or whatever. So with Tracy, the character in the movie, becoming a local star, I could [show a] fan’s reaction to that to a certain degree. So it was a mixture of things, really.”