To get into character, actors ofter undergo months of preparation and immerse themselves into the environment that is most like the one to be portrayed on screen.
Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon said he was bullied in school while preparing for “Footloose,” 1984, a drama about a city boy Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) who moves into a small town where music and dancing have been banned. The boy rebels and tries to get the whole town interested in dancing.
“I was afraid that I was too old to play a high school student,” he said.
To get a feel for his character, Bacon enrolled into a high school in Provo, Utah, even though he was too old for high school. Only the principal knew his real identity.
“It had a very very profound effect on the way that I played the part... it was a terrifying day,” he said.
The guys would pick on him, while the girls just stood by watching. He also decided to wear a tie, which was a cool thing to do at the time, but the boys in the community didn’t understand and bullied him.
“[They] made fun of my tie, made fun of my hair, made fun of the whole thing,” Bacon said.
“There was a big corn-fed kid who took me under his wing, just like the movie,” Bacons said, noting that this all happen within the span of a day.
