“Footloose” could have been a very different movie if Kevin Bacon hadn’t landed the lead.
Christopher Atkins, star of the 80s hit “The Blue Lagoon,” could have been the one who brought dancing to that repressed small town.
During a panel at the Fanboy Expo Knoxville in Tennessee, Atkins revealed the “Footloose” filmmakers wanted to meet with him, but he couldn’t get it together.
“I was a mess back then. I was partying it up way too much, and they called me in,” he said, per People. “I said ‘I can’t go in right now. I’ve been drinking and carrying on.’ And they said, ‘No, they need to see you.’ And I went in and I just blew that audition I mean, it wasn’t even an audition — I had the part, but I was so messed up that they said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have to pass on this guy.”
He added that things had turned around, telling the audience, “And I’m almost 40 years sober, so there you go.”
Atkins shot to stardom in “The Blue Lagoon,” also starring Brooke Shields, but revealed he hadn’t had any major acting ambitions growing up.
“I’d never done anything before. Never wanted to be an actor — only wanted to play baseball. That was my dream,” he said during the panel.
He continued, “I ended up modeling for Ford modeling agency in New York City and auditioned for ‘The Blue Lagoon’ And I kept getting called back and called back and called back. And then [after] a couple months, I didn’t hear from them And then all of a sudden I got another call back,” he said.
Atkins noted the filmmakers asked him to bring a “blond curly wig” for the final audition, which ended up being his character’s look in the movie.
The 65-year-old said he was so inexperienced when it came to making movies he “didn’t know what a camera looked like. I had no idea what a mark was, and I knew nothing. And I had to jump on an airplane and fly all the way to Fiji.”
Atkins said his “whole life changed” after “The Blue Lagoon,” which he struggled adjusting to.
“We were young, and so you’re constantly getting this notoriety,” he said. “And the magazines need you to sell their magazines, and you’re hot at that time. And so it does get overwhelming There are times where you’re doing interviews and you have a line of people and you have to say the same thing to each person because they have the same question. But it changes your life, because all of a sudden you’re nothing and then you’re on every single grocery store magazine.”
Follow us on Instagram @WeArePauseRewind for all your pop culture obsessions.