Kevin Bacon: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Kevin Bacon said elsewhere, not written here

Before I knew what being an actor was, I wanted to be one.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 November 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Winston Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964

At the end he asked me if I would like to go into the Army. I thought it would be splendid to command an Army, so I said 'Yes' at once: and immediately I was taken at my word. ... I was told later that he had only come to the conclusion that I was not clever enough to go to the Bar. However that may be, the toy soldiers turned the current of my life.

Recorded Chapter of his autobiography, written at Chartwell in 1930, Winston S. Churchill, My Early Life (Thornton Butterworth, 1930), Project Gutenberg Canada, October 1930 source ↗

Kevin Pietersen English cricketer

A pilot or a ranger in the bush.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 June 2019 source ↗

Aidan Gillen Irish actor

A stuntman. Evel Knievel was an icon.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 May 2017 source ↗

Sofia Coppola American filmmaker and actress

A magazine editor like Diana Vreeland.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 March 2023 source ↗

More from Kevin Bacon

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Question Which living person do you most admire, and why? Values & belief

My wife – for her intelligence, talent, ability to survive this business and be such a fantastic mother to our two kids. (Of course, I have to say that, because she’s sitting right here.)

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 November 2018 source ↗

Question What would you like to be remembered for? Death & what remains

As someone who did what he could with what he had.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 November 2018 source ↗

Question What is the trait you most deplore in others? Values & belief

Lying. Let’s not call it “untruthful.” Or “factually inaccurate.” I don’t even call it bullshit, because I like bulls. And bulls need to shit. So you can’t hold that against them. Let’s call it what it is: lying.

Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2025 source ↗