Although for manyFootlooseis one of the most important films inKevin Bacon’s filmography, and has become a classic, the actor was not very sure about joining the cast. And, in fact, he was not very happy with the fame he achieved thanks to that film.
By 1984, whenFootloosewas released, Bacon had already made ten films and had participated in two television series. However, there is no doubt that it was the movie that gave him a strong foothold in the businessFootlooseturned him an icon for teen audiences, which is always a good thing for a young man with a promising future in the industry, but it could also be an impediment for an actor trying to achieve his goal of being considered a serious performer.
In an interview with thePodcrushedpodcast (via Insider), Bacon confessed that he wasn’t very happy with the kind of popularity thatFootloosebrought him and what that could that mean for his future back then:
“When I became a pop star, the last thing I wanted to be was a pop star. I had already moved into, ‘I want to be Dustin Hoffman or Meryl or John Cazale or De Niro. I want to work with Scorsese. I want to do Chekhov.’ You know what I mean? I was so into what my idea of a serious actor was, and all of a sudden I was given this thing that was completely not a serious actor. So I rejected it, full on “I tried to self-sabotage that piece of myself and my popularity.”
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Kevin Bacon Didn’t Know Footloose was a Dance Movie
In the movie, Bacon plays ayoung man named Ren MacCormack, who, accustomed to city life, finds himself lost when he moves to a small town. In his new home, dancing and rock music are prohibited, and it is this prohibition that awakens MacCormack’s rebellious spirit, using dance movies as his fighting tool.
However, the actor confessed that when he joined the project he didn’t understand very well the concept of a dance film:
“When I did the dance movie, I was not a dancer. I wasn’t trained as a dancer. If I’m being honest, I didn’t even really understand that it was a dance movie. I thought it was just a movie, and then, where they would indicate that there was dancing, I would just get up. They said something about a choreographer and I said, ‘You don’t really need a choreographer. I’ll just get up and dance. It’s not a big deal. Just play the record for me and I’ll jump around.’ So I was definitely not trained by any stretch of the imagination.”
TheFootloosecast also included Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, John Lithgow, Chris Penn, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Laughlin, Elizabeth Gorcey, Frances Lee McCain Jim Youngs, Timothy Scott, and Andrea Hays.
