Kevin Bacon says he didn't realize 'Footloose' was a 'dance movie': 'I wasn't trained as a dancer'

• Kevin Bacon said he didn't know his iconic movie "Footloose" would be a "dance movie."
• Bacon told "Podcrushed" that he thought it was just a drama with some improvised dancing in it.

Kevin Bacon is sharing how he wasn't aware that the iconic "Footloose" was a "dance movie" until after he got the role.

Bacon is best known for his lead role in the 1984 musical drama, in which he plays a teenager who moves to a small town and attempts to overturn a ban on dancing in the area.

In a new interview on the "Podcrushed" podcast released Wednesday, Bacon recalled how he accidentally auditioned for the movie, though he referred to it as "the dance movie" rather than by name.

"When I did the dance movie, I was not a dancer. I wasn't trained as a dancer," the 65-year-old actor said. "If I'm being honest, I didn't even really understand that it was a dance movie. I thought it was just a movie, and then, where they would indicate that there was dancing, I would just get up."

Bacon continued: "They said something about a choreographer and I said, 'You don't really need a choreographer. I'll just get up and dance. It's not a big deal. Just play the record for me and I'll jump around.' So I was definitely not trained by any stretch of the imagination."

Elsewhere on the podcast, Bacon said that he did not enjoy the fame that came with "Footloose" at the time of its release.

"When I became a pop star, the last thing I wanted to be was a pop star," Bacon said, likening the experience to being a popular musician. "I had already moved into, I want to be Dustin Hoffman or Meryl 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 that was completely not a serious actor. So I rejected it, full on," Bacon continued.

He added: "I was very, very uncomfortable with photo shoots and magazines, and all these things that I dreamed of as a kid. Everything that I had dreamed of gave me a tremendous amount of self-doubt and anxiety."