Kevin Bacon takes us behind the scenes of some of his most iconic roles.
“Six Degrees spread virally only through word of mouth, and there was nothing to hold on to.
It was more of just a concept.”
Kevin Bacon in ‘City on a Hill,’ ‘Apollo 11,’ and ‘Footloose’.Francisco Roman/SHOWTIME; Everett Collection (2)
He features as Chip Diller, a smarmy ROTC bootlicker under Nedermeyer’s (Mark Metcalf) tutelage.
Until he was promptly informed that wasn’t how things in the movie business worked.
“At one point, he had a party for everybody,” says Bacon.
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“And he had flown out from New York a whole bunch of smoked salmon.
I liked smoked salmon, but I would never get it because it was way out my price range.
Bacon’s Fenwick is a smart-aleck prankster, who hides his inner pain behind his antics.
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Bacon remembers the scene as “really, really cold.”
Adding: “I was cold, but I was loving every second of the fight.
My hands were so cold that when I punched that wise man, it hurt a lot.
Kevin Bacon in ‘Footloose’.Everett Collection
But those are the moments when you feel most connected to the work.
I could just [let loose] and really be inside Fenwick.”
“So I was like, ‘You don’t really need a choreographer.
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Just put some cool music on, turn the cameras on, and I’ll jump around.”
Of course, it turned out to be far more complicated.
“I had a little bit of an inferiority complex,” he admits.
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The Lanford Wilson play originally starredJeff DanielsandCynthia Nixonon stage.
“Jeff didn’t want to do it and neither did Cynthia,” explains Bacon.
“So, basically we have them to thank for our relationship.”
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Bacon’s Jake Briggs was, in essence, a fictionalized version of Hughes.
And the wardrobe was pretty much right out of his closet.”
“It was the most personal, heartfelt movie that John ever made,” he says.
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“It was not embraced by critics, and it broke his heart.”
Bacon was not all that enthused about signing on to it.
“I had begrudgingly done it,” he admits.
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“The super cool thing aboutTremorsis thatTremorsis all practical effects,” he says.
“It was all guys in puppets or people with things on their hands, and wires being pulled.
Acting with a puppet requires someacting,but we’re professional pretenders.”
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“Jack did it over and over and over again,” Bacon marvels.
“And each time was better than the next.
It was a lesson in professionalism.”
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“I was smart and took the drugs NASA handed us every day.
I will say they weren’t puking, but they were not looking good.”
“I don’t think I’ve really experienced what voicing an animated character is,” he says.
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“Usually, you record the dialogue and then they animate around you.
It was very hard.
I didn’t like it.
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We were all really sad to see it end.”
Bacon signed on to this project because of his admiration for directorMatthew Vaughn’sKick-Ass.
“I thought the character was interesting the billionaire power broker concept.
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That approach resulted in some truly wild days on set.
I was like, ‘What is this crazy gig I have?'”
“I read that guy and I just got him,” he says.
“I didn’t have to work on him or discover him, I saw him.
I saw what he was going to look like, his wardrobe, hair.
I could hear his voice and see how his body would move through space.”
