Kevin Bacon admits he ‘rejected’ his Footloose fame to save his career in a new interview.
Movie star Kevin Bacon has opened up about Footloose, the flick that put him on the map. Despite finding stardom with the upbeat film, he faced struggles after the release. The celebrity spoke about the ordeal with TV star Penn Badgley on a recent episode of Podcrushed. Even though many beloved fans loved him in the role of Ren McCormack he wanted to distance himself – and for a good reason.
Kevin Bacon is an icon in Hollywood – but it took him years to realize that.
Footloose follows Kevin Bacon’s character Ren, who is a city teen that moves to a small town. But, his new home has banned rock music and dancing, which doesn’t sit well with the teen rebel. He works to shake up the town to convince the council to lift the awful ban.
He told the hosts Penn, Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari: “When I became a pop star, the last thing I wanted to be was a pop star.
“I had already moved into, you know, ‘I want to be Dustin Hoffman or Meryl [Streep] or John Cazale or [Robert] De Niro. I want to work with [Martin] Scorsese, I want to do Chekhov.’ You know what I mean?”
Bacon added: “I was so into what my idea of a serious actor was, and all of a sudden I was given this thing [Footloose] that was completely not a serious actor.
“So I rejected it, like, full on. And really, I think in some ways, I tried to self-sabotage that piece of myself and my popularity.”
‘Everything that I had dreamed of gave me a tremendous amount of self-doubt’
The star went on to explain he became “very, very uncomfortable” in the spotlight. He had dreamed of photo shoots, interviews and Red Carpets growing up. However, when they finally happened, it wasn’t what he hoped.
The meme and game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon also didn’t help. The game, also known as Bacon’s Law, is where players challenge each other to choose one actor, and then try to connect them to another star where both actors were in the same flick. The aim of the game is to get the connection in six or fewer acquaintances a part.
An example: George Clooney starred in Ocean’s Eleven alongside Matt Damon. Damon was in The Departed with Jack Nicholson, who in turn, was in a A Few Good Men, with Kevin Bacon.
But the game made Kevin Bacon feel Footlose fame made him a laughingstock.
He says his own “imposter syndrome” thought he was a “joke”, and thought “great actors” wouldn’t want to be connected to a “loser actor” like him.
But he admits it was ‘in his own head’ and realized over time to come to terms with his feelings.
Kevin Bacon had nothing to worry about, after Footlose he stacked up famous roles in various TV and movie stints.
He bagged a role in Lemon Sky, She’s Having A Baby, Flatliners and A Few Good Men. He was also featured in Apollo 13, Sleepers, Picture Perfect and Hollow Man. The star went on to be cast in Frost/Nixon, super, X-Men First Class and RIPD.
As it stands, his net worth is estimated to be around $45 million.
He married Kyra Sedgwick, also an actor, producer and director. Sedgwick was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her part in Something to Talk About (1995).
The duo tied the knot in 1988 and share two children, Sosie and Travis.
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