Kevin Bacon Says He Hasn’t Been to the Oscars Since He Was the ‘It Boy’ in ‘Footloose’
Kevin Bacon hasn’t been to the Oscars since arriving onto the Hollywood scene in Footloose four decades ago.
"It was crazy,” Bacon, 65, told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published on Thursday, June 20. “I was thinking about it — I have never been to the Oscars since 1984.”
Bacon recalled being invited to present an award because he was “It Boy of the Year” following his breakout performance as Ren McCormack. “Footloose was sort of the thing that entered me into the world of Hollywood, if you will. You know? So it was a big year for me,” he said.
At the time, Bacon was joined by Daryl Hannah to present the Best Sound Effects Editing award to Jay Boekelheide for The Right Stuff.
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Elsewhere in the interview, Bacon opened up about teaming up with Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which will be released on July 3. Like Footloose did for Bacon, the original film served as a launching pad for Murphy’s career in 1984.
“I loved the movie when it came out,” Bacon told ET. “It’s the greatest fish out of water franchise that there is. But the thing that people forget is, you can’t do that movie without Eddie.”
Bacon said that he spoke to Murphy, 63, about how it was “weird” that they’d never filmed a movie together before. He also noted that his fame has changed in the eyes of young people today due to his social media presence.
“I did an interview the other day and this woman told her daughter, ‘I’m going to do an interview with Kevin Bacon later,’” Bacon recalled. “And she said, ‘Oh, Kevin Bacon. Is that the guy from Instagram?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, man!’”
He joked that he has “no one to blame but myself” for his new reputation.
Bacon, who starred in blockbusters like A Few Good Men and Stir of Echoes after breaking into the industry, still holds onto special memories from his Footloose fame.
In April, the Golden Globe nominee returned to Payson High School in Utah — the filming location of Footloose — hours before the school’s prom.
“It’s been a long time — 40 years — that just blows my mind, you know,” Bacon told students on the football field before the dance. “Things look a little different around here. I’d say the thing that looks the most different is me.”
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Bacon added, “I also think that it’s amazing the power that this movie has had to just kind of bring people together, and connect on the basic ideas there are behind the movie — you know, standing up to authority sometimes, and to being forgiving to people who are not exactly the same as you, and for standing up for your own freedoms and your right to express yourself, and for having compassion for other people.”