Kevin Bacon is looking back fondly at the time he spent shooting the hit film Footloose, nearly 40 years after slipping into his dancing shoes for the role of Ren McCormack.
In an interview on Todaythe musical drama’s leading man also marveled at its longevity, and how it’s been able to garner new fans over the course of the last four decades.
‘I love it. I think it’s great,’ he told the co-host Willie Geist, adding, ‘It’s like all of those things that you think “Oh, my gosh, is it ever going to go away?” At a certain point, you have to embrace the beast.’
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Classic: Kevin Bacon, 64, is looking back fondly at the time he spent shooting the hit film Footloose, nearly 40 years after the release of the musical drama
Bacon, 64, went on to add how ‘it was a great gift to be part of that movie. I certainly took it very seriously when I was doing it and I love that people will still come up and say that they just showed it to their kids.’
The Philadelphia native also credited the film’s enduring popularity to the Broadway musical that premiered back in 1998, and has since gone on to have traveling versions of the musical in the US and UK, while also having a couple of runs on London’s West End.
‘After the Broadway show (ended) its run, it then becomes available to be done in every single high school,’ he explained. ‘And there’s not that many plays, certainly musicals, where you can have a musical and a bunch of high school kids in it.’
Gracious: In an interview with Today, Bacon marveled at the film’s longevity, and how it’s been able to garner new fans over the course of the last four decades
Leading couple: Bacon, who was 25 when he shot Footloose, played the role of Ren McCormack alongside Lori Singer, who portrayed Ariel Moore
The film’s popularity can also be attributed to the music, which included the title song, Footloose by Kenny Loggins and Let’s Hear It For The Boy, which was performed by Deniece Williams.
Just a few weeks ago, Bacon convinced his wife, actress Kyra Sedgwick, to take part in the ‘Footloose Drop’ challenge that went viral on TikTok.
The trend, which is set to Loggins’ iconic song, has one partner holding the other horizontally grabbing onto one hand and leg. Then, the partner unrolls the other toward the floor, catching them before they fall.
While confessing he didn’t remember these such moves being part of the original movie, Bacon and Sedgwick went on to pull off the faux drop in their video that was posted on his Instagram page; although she did suffer a wrist injury.
Trending: Just a few weeks ago, Bacon convinced his wife, actress Kyra Sedgwick, in taking part in the ‘Footloose Drop’ challenge that went viral on TikTok
Mission accomplished: Bacon and Sedgwick went on to pull off the faux drop in their video that was posted on his Instagram page
Hyped: The couple, who have been married for nearly 34 years, high-fived after pulling off the move in the living room of their home
In the film, Bacon played a teenager who moves from the big city of Chicago to a small town in rural Southeast Texas, where he attempts to overturn a ban on dancing instituted by the efforts of a local minister, played by John Lithgow.
Along with Bacon and Lithgow, the cast also included Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Penn, among others.
Directed by Herbert Ross from a screenplay by Dean Pitchford, an Academy Award-winning lyricist who co-wrote the title song for the hit film Fame (1980), it went on to gross more than $80 million at the box office in North America on an $8.2 million budget, despite receiving mixed reviews by critics.
That box office receipts in the US and Canada would end up being good enough to be the seventh highest-grossing film of 1984.
Bonafide hit: Directed by Herbert Ross from a screenplay by Dean Pitchford, Footloose went on to become the seventh highest grossing films of 1984, earning more than $80 million in North America alone on an $8.2 million budget
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