Kevin Bacon Barely Read Guardians Of The Galaxy's Holiday Special Script Before Signing On
The following post contains spoilers for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special."
If James Gunn called you and asked you to be a major plot point in a project he was doing, your answer would be yes. How could it not be? Gunn makes great — and, more importantly, fun — movies. Case in point: "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," which was released on Disney+ just in time for the 2022 holidays. In the special presentation, the Guardians have taken over their new home base, Knowhere. Christmas is on the way, and the gang is looking for a good present for Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). The guy has had a rough time of it since he lost his love Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) and found out that another version of her from an earlier timeline doesn't feel the same way about him.
Kraglin (Sean Gunn) mentions Peter's childhood hero, actor Kevin Bacon, a name that was dropped by Quill in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie. Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) head to Earth to get Kevin Bacon and bring him back as a present. Of course, they don't know he's an actor who did a movie called "Footloose." All they know is that Quill spoke about how Kevin Bacon saved the world by dancing.
When Bacon got the call, he didn't even need to look at the script to say yes, according to a 2022 interview with IGN.
'I don't even know initially if I knew if I was playing myself'
Kevin Bacon said in the interview that he had no idea he would be name-dropped in the first film and that he found out as he watched the movie in a theater. When he got the call for this, he didn't hesitate. He told the site:
"I didn't really read the script. I just said, 'Oh yeah, that sounds great.' In fact, I don't even know initially if I knew if I was playing myself. I'm trying to remember, because it's been quite a few years since the idea first arrived. It took some time to get it off the ground because of COVID and other kinds of things. But yeah, I was thrilled when I read the script and then when he later on told me that I was also going to sing, I was like, 'This is really fun.'"
Bacon performed "Here It Is Christmastime" with the Old 97's in the special. Even more fun is that his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, has a small voice cameo as herself. It's no surprise that Bacon was game for this. He's been the center of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game for years, even writing an introduction to the creators' book of the same name about it. (If you don't know, the idea is that Kevin Bacon is the hub of the entertainment world and that everyone in that industry is no more than six people or projects from knowing him.)
If you haven't had a chance to watch the special, do it now. It's delightful. The scene where Mantis and Drax come to find him had me laughing the cat off my lap.
"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is currently streaming on Disney+.