Kevin Bacon revealed he was supposed to “start making out” with Wild Things costar Matt Dillon during their shower scene in the 1998 film.
While discussing career highlights on Esquire’s “For the Record” video series, the 66-year-old actor said a “great twist” between his character, police detective Ray Duquette, and Dillon’s, guidance counselor Sam Lombardo, was cut from the erotic thriller’s script.
In their already steamy shower scene — in which Sam walks into the bathroom to shower, only to discover a fully nude Ray is already in there — the scrapped twist was an intimate kiss between the two men.
“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.’ ”
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Columbia Pictures
“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,” the Footloose star said about making Wild Things, which also starred Neve Campbell and Denise Richards.
As 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.”
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Bacon previously discussed the axed scene 20 years ago in a 2005 interview with Total Film magazinerevealing that “another surprise” was supposed to be Matt climbing into the shower with him for the kiss.
“I thought it was great because the whole movie is about secrets coming out, right? As reveals go, that one was just huge,” Bacon told the publication at the time. “Unfortunately, the financiers didn’t like the idea of men making out. They felt it went too far. They felt it wasn’t right.”
Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon in a ‘Wild Things’ portrait.
Columbia Pictures/Getty
Wild Things director John McNaughton also discussed the could-have-been moment with Entertainment Weekly in 2023, explaining, “They were supposed to look each other up and down and then wham — go at it.”
Bacon stars in Prime Video series The Bondsman, which debuted April 3.
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