The only movie Kevin Bacon will always regret not making: “I completely fucked it up”
For the last four decades, Kevin Bacon has managed to navigate his career without accruing many regrets, but rules are made to have exceptions, with the actor admitting there was a movie he really, really wanted to be in that he’s rued forevermore as the one that got away.
The closest thing he has to an out-and-out lament is Kenny Loggins’ theme song from Footloose, with Bacon making a habit of bribing the DJ at every wedding and function he attends to ensure that he doesn’t become the centre of attention, or piss anyone off when he’s being urged to kick off his Sunday shoes and doesn’t.
He also turned down the role of Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump and never mentions it as something he wishes he’d done, even though Robert Zemeckis’ modern fable became a box office monster and scooped up the majority of the most important Oscars, although that worked out in the best interests of everyone involved, given what Gary Sinise has done for veterans in the years since.
There have been plenty of ups and downs along the way, with Bacon accidentally stumbling upon the most cherished part of his professional life when he agreed to star in Tremors for the sole reason that his career “was in the toilet,” even if there’s a bittersweet irony to the star making it the only role he’s played more than once in the pilot episode for a TV show that was never ordered to series.
Since the creature feature’s cult status saved him from the brink of irrelevancy, Bacon has thrown caution to the wind and made as many different kinds of films as possible, whether he’s playing reprehensible figures, shit-heel villains, clean-cut good guys, or bounty hunters resurrected by the devil himself.
Throughout it all, he’s no doubt turned down more than a few features that became huge hits and bombed a couple of auditions for high-profile films. The closest thing he’s got to a regret occupies the latter camp, and he could only watch from a far as the picture he was desperate to be a part of went ahead without him.
When asked by Business Insider if there were any gigs he really wanted that he didn’t get, there was a solitary movie that came to mind. “I think the only thing that pops into my head is Raising Arizona,” he revealed. “And part of the reason is because I love the Coen brothers so much. They went on to make just so many incredible movies, and I had a meeting with them and completely fucked it up. So that’s the one that resonates with me.”
Sadly, he didn’t mention which part he was chasing. It might have been HI McDunnough, since he’s only a couple of years older than Nicolas Cage, and they were equally established at the time, with Bacon having Footloose under his belt and the latest generation of the Coppola dynasty fresh from Peggy Sue Got Married.
He’s less than three years William Forsythe’s junior, so it could have been Evelle Snoats, too. Either way, Bacon didn’t get the nod for Raising Arizona, and he’s never forgotten.
