Kevin Bacon Didn't Realize A Crucial Detail About Footloose While Reading The Script

Paramount

In a just world, Kevin Bacon would have multiple Oscars by now. He's spent decades playing teen heartthrobs, heavies, heroes, romantic leads, working class shlubs, cops, and even himself in the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special." Although he starred in hit films like "National Lampoon's Animal House" and "Friday the 13th" as a young man, he might've really gotten the world's attention with his performance in Barry Levinson's "Diner," a talky film about young men trying to figure out their lives in 1959 Baltimore. 

Then, in 1984, Bacon scored his first blockbuster as a lead when he played the free-spirited Ren McCormack in Herbert Ross' teen drama "Footloose," one of the best teen movies of the 1980s. Made on a budget of only $7.5 million, "Footloose" raked in $80 million at the domestic box office, i.e. more than 10 times what it cost to make.

"Footloose" takes place in the conservative burg of Bomont, Texas, where the community is led by the fire-and-brimstone preacher Shaw Moore (John Lithgow). Ren moves to Bomont from Chicago with his mom, displeased with the change of scenery. However, he soon falls in with Shaw's daughter, the feisty Ariel (Lori Singer), and learns that Shaw pushed for a citywide ban on music and dancing several years earlier when Ariel's brother died in a car wreck after a night of music and dancing. Ren, knowing about the transformative power of dance, moves to get the ban lifted, allowing the local high school to have a senior prom. 

Bacon recalls making "Footloose" quite well, and he discussed the film with Shadows on the Wall in 2005. He also admitted that when he read its script, he didn't quite put together that it was meant to be a dance movie. He was more focused on the drama.

Paramount

More than anything, Kevin Bacon didn't expect "Footloose" to become the juggernaut it did. It was huge. Not only did the film make millions of dollars, but it also had an enormously successful soundtrack album. The title song was performed by Kenny Loggins, and most Gen-Xers have it embedded deep in their grey matter. Hit tunes such as Bonnie Tyler's "Hoding Out for a Hero," Shalamar's "Dancing in the Sheets," and Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" were featured on the soundtrack as well.

Bacon was astonished at the film's success. Moreover, he admitted that the dancing initially seemed like a small part of the movie. And because he could already dance, he felt that he could simply wing it, explaining:

"Nobody could anticipate the scale of it. Honestly. I didn't even know when I read the script that it was really a dance movie. They said that the guy dances, and I said to the director, 'I'll dance, just turn on the music.' The use of the music and the use of the soundtrack in order to break the movie was a completely new thing; it was unique. Some of those songs were smash hits before the picture even came out, and it was just a phenomenon. I don't think anybody really expected it." 

Bacon continued working on interesting films over the next decade, but few of them were hits like "Footloose." Indeed, many of his post-"Footloose" movies lost money, including his reunion with his "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" director John Hughes on the 1988 comedy "She's Having a Baby" (much to Bacon's chagrin years later). Luckily, that all changed with the actor's successful early '90s offerings like "JFK" and "A Few Good Men."