Kevin Bacon Explains Why He Rejected 'Footloose' Fame

Kevin Bacon knows firsthand to be careful what you wish for. 

The “Footloose” actor recently opened up about desperately wanting fame in any form and then immediately trying to “self-sabotage” once he experienced it. 

“I really wanted to be super famous, I really wanted a lot of money, and I really wanted girls,” Bacon said during an appearance on actor Penn Badgley’s podcast, “Podcrushed,” on Wednesday. “And I would do anything to get that. And I didn’t really care if it was being an actor or being a musician.”

But once Bacon got “Footloose,” which he referenced as “The F Movie” on the podcast, he began to reject his newfound popularity as “pop star.” 

“When I became a pop star, the last thing I wanted to be was a pop star,” the actor explained. “I had already moved into, ‘I want to be Dustin Hoffman or Meryl [Streep] or John Cazale or, you know, 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, like, completely not a serious actor,” Bacon said. So, he “rejected it.” 

“I tried to kinda self-sabotage that piece of myself and my popularity,” he continued. “I was very, very uncomfortable with photo shoots and magazines, and all these things that I dreamed of as a kid! Everything that I had dreamed of gave me a tremendous amount of self-doubt, but also, like, anxiety.” 

Bacon has spoken about rejecting “Footloose” fame before, even telling Conan O’Brien in 2013 that he goes so far as to pay off DJs at weddings to not play the classic “Footloose” song.

“I go to the disc jockey and hand him $20 and say, ‘Please don’t play that song,’” the actor said. “Because, first off a wedding is really not about me, it’s about the bride and groom, and it’s embarrassing.” 

And if people think playing the song will goad Bacon into performing some of his dance moves, he said it feels “awful.”

“I try to avoid that if possible,” he added.