To the outsider, being famous looks pretty cool. Of course, being famous often means you can’t do a lot of things in public without being mobbed by fans, but that always seemed to me like a small price to pay for all the benefits that come with fame. Kevin Bacon feels the same way, and he should know, because he’s gone to extreme lengths to learn that being a normal person is super lame compared to being famous.
Kevin Bacon has been making films for most of his life, and there are very few people in the world who have not seen his films. This week alone, Bacon has two films on the release schedule for 2024, as he is appearing in both the Beverly kills police officer: Axel F. Cast that appeared on Netflix yesterday, while horror film MaXXXines The release date has just been announced. If you were to pass Kevin Bacon on the street, you would certainly recognize him. Bacon himself has been famous for so long that he decided to experience what it was like to really not be recognized. He even went to the extreme of having special prosthetics made so that he could appear in public without being recognized. Bacon told Vanity Fair…
I’m not complaining, but my face is pretty recognizable. Putting on a hat and glasses only works to a certain extent. I went to a special effects makeup artist, got some advice, and asked him to make me a prosthetic disguise.
The disguise consisted of false teeth and a fake nose as well as glasses. Kevin Bacon then took his new look and went to The Grove, a large and often crowded shopping mall in Los Angeles. A place full of people would certainly recognize the actor under normal circumstances. The disguise apparently worked perfectly, because the Unbound Star, was able to move freely around the mall without being asked for selfies or autographs.
Unfortunately for Kevin Bacon, the disguise worked too well. The actor was able to be a normal, non-famous person, but in doing so he discovered that being a normal person kind of sucks. He realized he didn’t like the way he was treated and quickly decided he’d rather be famous. Bacon continued…
People were kind of pushing past me and not being nice. Nobody was saying “I love you.” I had to stand in line to, I don’t know, buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, “This sucks. I want to be famous again.”
I mean, at least he’s honest. I’m sure there are annoying aspects of being famous, but I think most of us would happily put up with the negatives to have access to all the positives, and Kevin Bacon has absolutely confirmed that to be the case. Who wants to go to Disneyland and stand in line when they can go to Disneyland and get VIP treatment? Being famous is much better than not being famous.
