Four decades have passed since one of Rob Lowe’s biggest Hollywood rejections – but he’s admitted he’s still not over it.
In the early 80s, Rob was in the running to play the lead in the big-screen musical Footloose, only to lose out on the role to Kevin Bacon.
“The thing that’s awful about it was, I was the guy. I was going to get this part, I just had to do the dance, which was to a Styx song, by the way. Not helpful,” he recalled to USA Today.
“But it ended with that drop-to-your-knees slide across the floor. My knee just exploded. They took me out on a stretcher.”
Rob continued: “As they were wheeling me out, the producers were like, ‘We’re going have to get a real professional dancer.’ A week into my rehab, I read they cast Kevin Bacon. That’s when I learned what Hollywood was about.”
He added: “There are two ways I’ve been very helpful to other actors’ careers. Blowing out my knee really helped Kevin Bacon, and turning down Grey’s Anatomy really helped Patrick Dempsey.
“I spoke to Kevin about it. He told me, ‘You wouldn’t have gotten it, anyway’.”
Footloose, of course, went on to become a huge hit, and will celebrate its 40th anniversary later in the year.
Upon its release in 1984, Footloose was one of the highest-grossing films of that year, and sparked a hugely successful soundtrack album, which included Kenny Loggins’ hugely popular title song and Deniece Williams’ Let’s Hear It For The Boy, both of which received Oscar nods.
The soundtrack also included the Bonnie Tyler classic Holding Out For A Hero, which was written especially for the film.
Last year, Kevin Bacon cleared up one particular mystery surrounding the film that had been dogging fans for decades, after revealing the ending had to be “completely re-shot”.