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“I went in and I just blew that audition,” Christopher Atkins confessed.
Key Points
- Christopher Atkins says he lost the role of Ren McCormack in Footloose because of his heavy partying lifestyle at the time.
- “I said… ‘I can’t go in right now. I’ve been drinking and carrying on,’” he recalled.
- The role instead went to Kevin Bacon.
Christopher Atkins is looking back at losing a major onscreen role due to his struggles with alcohol.
The actor, 65, revealed that he’d initially been cast as Ren McCormack in the 1984 musical-drama Footloose, but couldn’t take the role because of his heavy partying at the time.
“I was a mess back then. I was partying it up way too much, and they called me in,” Atkins recalled at a Q&A panel at the Fanboy Expo Knoxville in Tennessee, per PEOPLE. “I said… ‘I can’t go in right now. I’ve been drinking and carrying on.’”
Still, Atkins explained that the film’s creatives wanted to see him for the part before making any casting decisions.
“I went in and I just blew that audition,” he confessed. “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.’ And I’m almost 40 years sober, so there you go.”
The role of Ren McCormack would instead go to fellow actor Kevin Bacon, propelling him into the mainstream.
Directed by Herbert Ross, Footloose follows rebellious teenager Ren as he stands up to a town-wide dance ban and gets the rest of his fellow citizens on their feet. The film also starred Lori Singer, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, and more.
At the panel, Atkins revealed that it was never his plan to become an actor. “I’d never done anything before. Never wanted to be an actor — only wanted to play baseball,” he said. “That was my dream.”
It was while modeling in New York City that he ended up auditioning for his own breakout role in the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon opposite Brooke Shields. “I kept getting called back and called back and called back,” he remembered. “And then [after] a couple months, I didn’t hear from them… And then, all of a sudden, I got another call back.”
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The Dallas star shared that his “whole life changed” after the film landed in movie theaters.
“We were young, and so you’re constantly getting this notoriety,” he recalled. “And the magazines need you to sell their magazines, and you’re hot at that time. And so it does get overwhelming.”
He continued, “But it changes your life, because all of a sudden you’re nothing and then you’re on every single grocery store magazine.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
