During a video interview with Variety where he reflected some of his most famous lines as he promoted his new Prime Video series The Bondsman, the Footloose actor, 66, recalled his dialogue from the 1998 film before sharing a brief anecdote about how the movie’s crew once found a dead body during filming.
“We were out in the swamp one night — a lot of mosquitoes, wow — and we were shooting some scene, I don’t remember what it was, by kind of a river,” Bacon explained. “They had kind of floated a raft out there so that they could put a light.”
“All of a sudden I hear across the walkie-talkie: ‘Hey, I think I just saw a floater.’ And it was a body that was floating by,” he recalled with a laugh before adding, “It was kind of indicative of the vibe of the movie.”
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Kevin Bacon, 66, Strips Down to Just His Trunks for Bloody Good The Bondsman Thirst Trap
The film’s director John McNaughton also recalled the moment — which occurred in a marsh in the Everglades — during a previous interview with Entertainment Weekly. He explained at the time that shooting had to be briefly halted on the film as they waited for authorities to get to the scene to investigate the incident.
“We called the police, and they actually grabbed the body and kept it from getting into our shot,” McNaughton shared for EW’s 1998 Spring Movie Preview.
Wild Things followed a police detective Sergeant Ray Duquette (Bacon) who uncovers a conspiracy behind a case involving a high school guidance counselor when accusations of rape are made against him by two female students, according to a synopsis of the film. It stars Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell and Denise Richards.
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The film was supposed to be filled with tons of twists and turns, and earlier this month, in Esquire’s “For the Record” video, Bacon also revealed that unexpected twist was supposed to happen in the film: a kiss between him and Dillon’s guidance counselor character Sam Lombardo.
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“In the original script, we start making out,” Bacon recalled. “Part of what was crazy about the movie was that there were all these twists … you know, that was like the hook of the movie, so to me, [the kiss] was a great twist. That’s all. I was like, ‘That’d be an awesome twist.’ ”
“But I don’t know. For some reason, it got cut. We didn’t shoot it. I don’t think we shot it. I think it just got cut,” Bacon added.
When an off-screen producer then asked Bacon to confirm that he was “attached to” the kiss scene — a statement they previously made before the actor looked back at the cut moment — he said in response, “Yeah, I definitely was. Look at him — he’s gorgeous.”
The Bondsman season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.
