Kevin Bacon returns to filming location of classic movie after local campaign
Actor Kevin Bacon has made good on his promise to go back to the high school in Utah that was used as the filming location for his legendary 1984 musical drama film Footloose.
It’s been 40 years since the film was first released. Bacon played Ren McCormack, a Chicago teenager who moves to a small town and proceeds to try and get the ban on dancing instituted by a local Reverend overturned.
Now, Bacon has returned to Payson High School, one of the iconic film’s shooting locations. His visit follows a month-long social media campaign led by high school students to try to get the actor to attend the last prom at the school, which will soon be demolished.
“It’s been a long time – 40 years – that just blows my mind, you know,” Bacon told the Salt Lake City news outlet, ABC4. “Things look a little different around here. I’d say the thing that looks the most different is me.”
Bacon proceeded to point out the “tireless” and “unrelenting” characteristics of the Payton High School students and admitted that it was only because of their dedication to the social media campaign that he agreed to come back to their school one last time.
“I think it’s great to see that kind of commitment to anything,” the actor noted. “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.”
Bacon continued to say how it is sometimes important to “stand up to authority” at the same time as having tolerance and forgiveness for “people who are not exactly the same as you. For your own freedoms and your right to express yourself,” he said, “and for having compassion for other people.”
According to the school’s principal, Jesse Sorenson, students of Payton had been trying to get Bacon to come to the school for many years. The social media campaign initially began as a lighthearted idea, but eventually, it grew into a partnership with Bacon’s charity SixDegrees, whereby the students agreed to contribute to 5000 care packages.
When Bacon turned up at the school, he helped to pack up the care packages before attending the Footloose-themed prom at the end of the night. According to Sorensen, DJs of the prom still continue to play the film’s theme song each year out of tradition.