Kevin Bacon has explained why he thinks he was a bad leading actor “for a lot of years”. The actor, who will next star in Netflix sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley and Ti West’s MaXXXine , shot to fame in the 1980s, starring in films ranging from Friday the 13th to Footloose , which he starred in when he was 23. Bacon reflected on his early career in a new interview, revealing that, at the time, he “was starving for success, and for creative fulfilment, and money, and girls, and fame – all of the coolness”.
However, after Footloose shot him to stardom in 1984, the actor, now 65, says he struggled to live up to the expectation placed on him. He told The Guardian : “Yeah, there was a lot of pressure in it when it finally happened. I’m not sure that I was really ready.
” After Footloose , the actor rounded out the 1980s with roles in films that either received negative reviews or tanked at the box office: Quicksilver , White Water Summer , End of the Line , She's Having a Baby , Criminal Law and The Big Picture . “I continued doing leads for a lot of years, but I wasn’t really doing it very well,” the actor added. “I was doing it OK.
But the movies weren’t successful. My picker was off. Like, I couldn’t choose! I didn’t want anybody’s advice.
I was making some bad mistakes.” Bacon soon recalibrated his approach, and realised he did not mind not being the lead star after years of being concerned about the hierarchy of on-set power. It wasn’.
