Kevin Bacon "rejected" the fame from his role in 'Footloose'.

Kevin Bacon 'rejected' the fame from his role in 'Footloose'

Kevin Bacon 'rejected' the fame from his role in 'Footloose'

The 65-year-old star rose to prominence after playing the part of Ren McCormack in the 1984 musical drama film but wanted to be known as a "serious actor" instead.

Kevin told the 'Podcrushed' podcast: "When I became a pop star, the last thing I wanted to be was a pop star.

"I had already moved into, you know, 'I want to be Dustin Hoffman or Meryl (Streep) or John Cazale or De Niro. I want to work with Scorsese. I want to do Chekhov.' You know what I mean?

"I was so into what my idea of a serious actor was, and all of a sudden I was given this thing ('Footloose') that was completely not a serious actor. So I rejected it, like, full on. And really, I think in some ways, I tried to self-sabotage that piece of myself and my popularity."

Kevin is also the inspiration behind the 'Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon' trivia game – which comes from the idea that anybody in Hollywood can be connected to him in just six steps – but it gave him a feeling of unease at first.

The 'A Few Good Men' star said: "I thought that, and this is my own acting insecurity – impostor syndrome – I thought that the joke of it was that the greatest actors could be connected to a loser actor like me.

"They were saying, 'Look, can you believe he can be connected by Meryl Streep?' By the way, I think I had already worked with Meryl Streep, so it wasn't even... It's just in my own head."

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