John Lithgow has revealed the story that changed his mind about one of his teen movies. Lithgow is a versatile actor who has held many roles in iconic film and television projects since he began his onscreen career in the 1970s. In addition to his Oscar-nominated performances in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment, this includes roles such as the Trinity Killer in the Showtime drama Dexter and Winston Churchill in Netflix’s The Crown, both of which won him Primetime Emmy awards. He also recently played a supporting role in the Oscar-winning 2024 movie Conclave.
While Lithgow is a performer with a number of serious dramatic performances under his belt, he has also held roles in quite a few movies and television shows designed for families, children, and teenagers. This includes his run as alien patriarch Dick Solomon in the six-season sci-fi sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, a performance that earned him three Primetime Emmy awards. Other Lithgow projects for younger audiences include the first of the Shrek movies, Harry and the Hendersons, Rugrats in Paris, 1985’s Santa Claus, and the 1980s teen movie that he reassessed more than a decade later.
He Played The Antagonist In The 1984 Teen Movie
John Lithgow has now revealed that he has changed his tune about his 1980s teen movie Footloose. The 1984 release starred Kevin Bacon as Ren, a Chicago teenager who moves to Bomont, Utah with his mother, only to help lead a teen rebellion against local reverend Shaw Moore (Lithgow), who has banned dancing in the town. The movie, which grossed $80 million against its $7.5 million budget and was nominated for two Oscars, also starred Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn, and future Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker.
Footloose was directed by Herbert Ross from a screenplay by Dean Pitchford.
John Lithgow recently participated in a video for Variety where he had to guess which of his projects some of his most famous lines were from. During the segment on Footloose, he revealed that he “never really gave it the respect it deserved” because it was his “teenybopper movie.” This was the case until the 1990s, when a guest actor from the circus episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun told him a story about showing the movie to his Baptist minister father.
Lithgow says that, when the actor was describing how the storyline softened his father’s stance on dancing and allowed him to become the first of his siblings to go to prom, “tears were running down his cheeks.” Below, read his full quote and see the original video:
My favorite story about Footloose… When I was doing 3rd Rock from the Sun, we had this dumb episode… They were all dumb. Dumb and wonderful… Where we were in a circus sideshow. Somehow we had ended up an act in a freak show and there was this young actor. Tall, gorgeous, hunky guy who played the circus strong man… It was a two-day part. He took me aside at one point and said, “I just want to tell you, I come from a little town in Louisiana and my daddy was the Baptist minister in that town. Footloose came to town. I saw Footloose and you were my daddy. We were not allowed to dance. We weren’t allowed to listen to that music. And I took my daddy to that movie the next night, without telling him anything.”
By this time, literally tears were running down his cheeks. He said, “because of your performance, I was the first of six children who got to go to his high school prom.” And I listened to that like, “Oh my God. This was my teenybopper movie.” I never really gave it the respect it deserved until I heard that story. It just shows you, you never know what you’re throwing out there.
It Speaks To His Lasting Influence
It seems likely that the 3rd Rock from the Sun cast member who John Lithgow is referring to is John Valdetero, who played Giganticus in the season 4 premiere “Dr. Solomon’s Traveling Alien Show.” Valdetero kicked off a television career in the mid-1990s, appearing in other notable series including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Murphy Brown, Two and a Half Men, The Drew Carey Show, Coach, Scrubs, Malcolm in the Middle, and Seventh Heaven.
John Valdetero appeared in 13 episodes of Coach between 1993 and 1996.
It is entirely possible that his ability to pursue a career as an actor was similarly influenced by John Lithgow‘s Footloose performance, which is yet more proof of the way the actor’s work has influenced the world in a wide variety of ways over the years, as this story is just one of many.
Source: Variety
Footloose
6/10
- Release Date
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February 17, 1984
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Herbert Ross
- Writers
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Dean Pitchford
- Franchise(s)
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Footloose