Guardians Of The Galaxy's Kevin Bacon Obsession All Started With An Improvised Line
Kevin Bacon's appearance in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" might have seemed like a random bit of stunt casting if you went into it without the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie fresh in mind. Given that eight years passed between that movie and "Holiday Special," it would be easy to forget the "Guardians of the Galaxy" scene where Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) tells Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) about the Earth legend of "Footloose." It comes during their balcony sidebar on Knowhere, as the other Guardians gamble and Quill encourages Gamora, the dance-averse warrior and assassin, to lighten up.
In Quill's retelling of the "Footloose" legend, "a great hero named Kevin Bacon teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that dancing, well, it's the greatest thing there is." It's a movie reference that made Bacon's jaw drop.
Cut to "Holiday Special," where kidnapping Bacon to cheer Quill up on Christmas became an integral part of the plot. It turns out that might have never happened if writer-director James Gunn hadn't left room for a little improvisation on "Guardians of the Galaxy." In an interview with ScreenRant to promote "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (which does feature some footloose and fancy-free dancing on Knowhere), Gunn explained how he and Pratt were spitballing lines about "Footloose" and Bacon, and those lines worked their way into the script:
"Chris and I found this gift that we have. So we kind of one-up one another and make a scene better. And so we were talking about whatever and I think I brought up 'The Great Legend of Footloose,' and [Chris] brought up 'And The Great Hero Kevin Bacon.' And then, and then it became the sticks up their butts after that."
Here it is improvisation time
Chris Pratt has spoken elsewhere about how he improvised the funny moment in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" where Peter Quill looks longingly at Nebula (Karen Gillan) and compliments her on the blackness of her eyes. It seems the Kevin Bacon line in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie was something of an anomaly, however, as budgetary concerns left less room for improvisation in that film than in "Vol. 3." James Gunn emphasized: "We didn't do that on set. We did that in my office in Shepperton, UK."
Prior to "Guardians of the Galaxy," Gunn had directed "Super" and "Slither," which respectively had a $2.5 million and $15 million budget. That's significantly less than the $232 million Disney spent on "Guardians of the Galaxy" when it went over budget. Gunn also suggested he was more uptight about budgets after cutting his teeth as an associate director on the 1997 Troma film "Tromeo and Juliet" (which had a $350,000 budget):
"I come from low budget filmmaking. My first movie I ever made was $350,000, for my first feature length film. And so I come from a place where you got to really move fast and shoot a lot of stuff. And I didn't let go of that on the first 'Guardians.'"
Among other things, "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" enabled Bacon to get on stage with the Old 97's and perform "Here It Is Christmastime," as you can see in the video above. So it's a good thing for him and the overall humor in "Vol. 3" that Gunn, true to the "Footloose" legend, learned to loosen up and allow more improvisation. "I think that I just am more willing to take the time if I see something new, if I find the magic, go ahead and do it," he added.