Kevin Bacon's “The Worst Nightmare” includes one of his most iconic film roles.
While reflecting on his career at a panel at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, the 66-year-old actor talked about “Footloose,” a 1984 film that put him on the map, and the iconic title song of the musical drama continues to plague him more than 40 years after its release.
“My worst nightmare is attending a wedding, the DJ puts on the music, the songs come out, all of a sudden the wedding is in a circle around me, and I become a trained monkey,” explained Bacon. “So I went to the DJ and said, 'Don't play that song.' It's not that I don't like singing. ”
The song “Footloose,” co-written and recorded by Kenny Loggins for the film, was performed in the final scene of the film and received a nomination for the best original song at the 1985 Academy Awards.
Kevin Bacon says he tells the DJ not to play “footloose” when he's at his wedding. (Getty Images)
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The film stars Bacon as Len McCormack, a teenager who moves from Chicago to a small Midwest town, and is shocked to learn that dance and rock music is becoming illegal. “Footloose” features many dance scenes, but Bacon admits that he was “not a trained dancer.”
“I grew up in Philadelphia, I loved dancing. [New York]I went to Studio 54 and danced alone all night. This was when I was a waiter. I've always loved it,” he told the SXSW crowd.
“My worst nightmare is attending a wedding, the DJ puts on music, the songs come out, all of a sudden the wedding is circled around me, people draw circles around me, and I become a trained monkey.”
Bacon continued: “But when they sent me the script, I didn't know it was a dance film. They were talking about the choreographer. [and] I was like, “You really don't need a choreographer. You can just turn on the music, I can just dance and enjoy it.” And they were like, “Oh, Nanana, I don't know what you're in.” ”
In April 2024, Bacon returned to Utah High School, where the film was filmed following a social media campaign started by a Payson High student. The campaign included a video of a student re-enacting the scene from the film and posting online under the hashtag #Bacontopayson.
Kevin Bacon visited high school where he filmed “Footloose.” (Jesse Sorenson via AP)
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Video posted by Salt Lake City ABC 4 At the time, the actor was joking.
“When I first heard about this 'Bacon to Payson', I was like, 'Wow, this is crazy.' But you were all tired… you spoke to me,” he said. “I think it's great to see anything like that commitment.”
After the success of “Footloose,” Bacon continued to appear in successful films such as “Mystic River,” “Apollo 13,” “A Some Good Men,” and “Frost/Nixon.”
During the panel, the veteran actor also explained that he would sit with Johnny Carson on his talk show, “It was my dream to brighten up my name,” but when he finally achieved those dreams, he “realized.”[d] Something strange about it. ”
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Kevin Bacon said he had fraudster syndrome at the start of his career. (Jason Bollenbacher/Festival via SXSW Conference & Getty Images)
“Now I'm used to it. I had con man syndrome, I was resisting it, and I didn't want to make the report and go to the magazine,” Bacon continued. “I wanted to be a serious actor. I didn't want to be a pop star. It was the opposite of how I wanted to see myself.”
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