The role that saved Kevin Bacon’s career: “A big, big turning point for me”
From dancing idol to critical darling to the subject of a fun connecting game, Kevin Bacon is many things to many people. The actor made his debut with National Lampoon’s Animal House, which isn’t a bad way to kick off a movie career. Since then, he’s won countless awards, starred in blockbusters and indie darlings alike, and, rumour has it, he can get you a pretty sweet deal on your next phone contract.
Throughout the 1980s, Bacon made his name in popcorn movies like musicals and comedies. He starred as Ren McCormack, the rebellious protagonist of Footloose, and made an appearance as one of the doomed teens in the first Friday the 13th movie, making him an early adopter of slasher horror. He rounded out the decade with The Big Picture, the first feature by Christopher Guest of Best in Show and A Mighty Wind fame. This might have been OK in the moment, but Bacon yearned for something more.
In an interview with Cigar Aficionado (of all places), Bacon outlined how one movie role helped alleviate years of creative frustration. “JFK was a big, big turning point for me,” he said. “After Footloose, I kept trying to fit square pegs in round holes. When JFK came along, I got a chance to go back to what I had been working on off-Broadway, which was playing character parts. It surprised the industry in a way that was very, very helpful to me. [The role] directly led to The River Wild, and Murder in the First, and A Few Good Men.”
JFK, Oliver Stone’s conspiracy-laden, controversial movie about the assassination of the titular president, features Bacon in a very minor role. He plays Willie O’Keefe, a key witness in the shooting who inspires Jim Garrison’s (Kevin Costner) investigation of the crime. This was the first time he had been given a role of such magnitude, despite only appearing onscreen for a handful of minutes. He made a big impact, and a lot of people took notice of what he could do.
This led to an uptick in more prestigious offers for Bacon. The following year, he featured in A Few Good Men, Rob Reiner’s acclaimed military legal drama that was nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars. In 1995, he played Jack Swigert, one of the stranded astronauts in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13. Though he didn’t receive any individual honours for this performance, he did win a SAG Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture’, the first major gong of his career.
It can be extremely difficult for actors to break out of a mould set for them by other people. A modern example would be Zac Efron. Much like Bacon, he got his start in a popular musical and, for the next few years, was confined to frivolous teen roles. Things began to change, however, and he soon branched out into raunchy comedies and eventually picked an award-bait drama, like 2024’s The Iron Claw. The Efron revolution was complete.
Had JFK not come along when it did, who knows how much longer Bacon would have been stuck in unsatisfying roles. Thankfully for his fans—and his own mental health—he finally got the chance to spread his acting wings.
