How do you cope with seeing yourself “live” as you looked almost a quarter century ago?

That’s the experience Kevin Bacon, the seasoned actor, re-lived now at age 53. He was shocked when he saw a long forgotten copy of his audition for the film "Footloose."

He relates how he was so shocked at his appearance that he turned the recording off, and went to the closest mirror and wondered if that was really him in the recording.

Probably many of us have had the experience of seeing ourselves when we were young in a home movie or a video, depending on how old we are, and had a somewhat similar experience. But it must be harder for actors because they can watch their performance and their appearance for an uninterrupted 90 minutes to two hours.

This had always interested me because I had never heard an actor describe their reaction at seeing how they looked almost a quarter century before, and how it had affected them. It has to be unsettling. The passing of time is cruel for all of us.

Kevin Bacon was furious because he was reacting to the famous dance scene in the warehouse. While he boasts of having done almost all of the dancing in the film, he explains there were four people involved in the warehouse dance scene; himself, a dance double and two gymnastics doubles.

That’s not fair he explains because while he had done all the other dancing in the film, he had to step aside in the famous warehouse performance.

But in the end, he had to admit that he could not have pulled off that wild warehouse dance scene alone.

Apparently the film went on to be a great success and gave Kevin Bacon a big boost at the beginning of his cinematic career. He apparently had no trouble getting good roles from that time on. He was an overnight success, but it was a long night till his career took off.

I find this little story about Kevin Bacon particularly interesting because my wife and I are both movie lovers, and have gone to see many of Kevin Bacon’s movies. We have enjoyed every one of his performances.

We’ve often talked about the variety of roles he has played, and we never hesitate watching a movie he was playing in.

Our conclusion about a movie is that if Kevin Bacon is in the movie, it’s going to be a great film. We have not been disappointed yet.