Why Kevin Bacon says it “sucks” to be an ordinary person

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The simple life is not for Kevin Bacon.

The prolific actor, 65, has often reflected on a day in the life of a normal, non-famous person, and in a July 2024 interview with Vanity FairBacon admitted that he had tried to do just that. “I went to a special effects makeup artist, got some advice and asked him to make me a prosthetic,” said the MaXXXine the actor told the publication. He knew that simply putting on a baseball cap and sunglasses would not be enough to hide his famous face.

“I’m not complaining, but my face is pretty recognizable,” Bacon said. So the makeup artist gave the star false teeth, a different nose and glasses, and Bacon headed to The Grove, a popular outdoor mall in Los Angeles. To his surprise, the disguise did exactly what he wanted – “Nobody recognized me,” he said. That’s when the Golden Globe winner realized he’d made a mistake.

“People were kind of pushing past me and not being nice. Nobody said ‘I love you,'” Bacon complained, adding, “I had to wait in line to buy, I don’t know, fucking coffee or whatever. I thought, ‘This sucks. I want to be famous again.'” Looking back, fame was always a “big driving force” in Bacon’s life. His father, Edmund, was a well-known city planner in Philadelphia who even appeared on the cover of Time.

“I saw people recognizing him as he walked down the street,” Bacon said, admitting that he knew then that he wanted to be famous, too. “Honestly, I wanted to be more famous than him,” Bacon admitted. “And you can put me on the psychiatrist’s couch. We could talk about that for a while. But it was definitely a spur.”

He has certainly achieved this goal with a catalogue of more than 75 films. In fact, Bacon is enjoying a double premiere week in July with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Premiere on Netflix on the third and MaXXXine will be in theaters on the fifth.

“I’m honestly very grateful for where I am now,” said Bacon Vanity Fair. “That two completely different films with completely different roles can come out within a few days. The fact that I got both is what I’m most grateful for. I fought really long and hard for this.”