After his 1984 film Footloose, Kevin Bacon felt uncomfortable with the fame—especially being called a “pop star.” Bacon talked about how there was a lot of attention on the movie once it became a hit in 1984.
Footloose (1984) was the film that put Bacon into the limelight. In the film, he plays Ren McCormack, a dance-loving teenager who moves from a big city to a small town where rock music and dancing are verboten. Critics had different opinions about the movie, but it did really well at the box office.
Footloose Fame Left Kevin Bacon Uncomfortable
Kevin Bacon didn’t like being famous after Footloose came out. The 65-year-old actor talked about his fame experience on The Corp podcast with Alex Rodriguez and Barstool Sports. He shared what it was like for him.
Even though he had dreamed of this success and worked hard for it, he found himself resisting it. Bacon said he thought of himself as an actor, not a pop star:
“I’d put aside the pop star idea because I’d fallen in love with the craft of acting, you know, and I wanted to be Meryl Streep. I didn’t want to be David Cassidy and so when the movie came out, I was a pop star.”
The Hollywood star admired Meryl Streep and wanted to be like her. But when Footloose became a hit, people saw him as a pop star, which wasn’t what he wanted.
After Footloose, the Philadelphia native acted in many movies like Apollo 13, A Few Good Men, Mystic River, and X-Men: First Class. He also appeared in the series I Love Dick. But Bacon didn’t get the same anticipated career as he wished for.
How Footloose Become an MCU Punchline?
In the MCU, there’s tons of action, characters, and dialogue to take in. The pop culture references in Guardians of the Galaxy were especially well-done. The movie even ended with a dance-off to save the day, which is kind of poking fun at itself.
Guardians of the Galaxy pleased a lot of people, including Kevin Bacon himself, who watched it at his local theater. It must have been surprising for him to see his own name cited in the movie and even becoming important to the plot.
The film heavily featured music, with direct references to Footloose and a soundtrack full of rock songs. James Gunn incorporated dancing throughout the movie, notably with Star-Lord dancing to Hooked on a Feeling and the finale’s dance-off defeating Ronan the Accuser.
Bacon noticed the parallel between Footloose and Guardians of the Galaxy, calling them “symbiotic” due to their shared themes of music and dance expression.
Watch Footloose on Amazon Prime Video and on Guardians of the Galaxy Disney+.
