Tampa, Fla.- Kevin Bacon, a popular actor and philanthropist, spoke at the USF Lecture series in celebration of USF Bulls Week on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. Bacon, best known for his role in the 1980s dance flick “Footloose” spoke about several of his films and shared with the audience how his charity organization, Six Degrees, came to fruition.

  The game “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon”, made popular in the 1990s by college students, is a game where any person, actor or otherwise (depending on who is playing it), can be connected back to Kevin Bacon with six people or less. For example, Meryl Streep is one degree away from Kevin Bacon because of the film they worked on together.

  At first, this game annoyed Bacon, he thought it was just a way for college kids to get drunk, and was constantly bombarded with people talking to him about it. “Apparently it had taken off as this drinking game, and I thought I would be responsible for all of this young alcoholism,” Bacon said. “I hated the idea [of the game], I had worked so hard at trying to have a career that was taken seriously… All of a sudden here I was a drinking game, and I thought I was like, the biggest joke.”

  After an appearance on the Jon Stewart Show where Bacon was able to meet the creators of the game, he began to feel humbled. “After I thought about it, I couldn’t believe that a lightweight like me, Kevin Bacon, could be connected to the greats like Laurence Olivier,” Bacon said. “This was an idea that spread like wildfire, it was before Myspace or Facebook… It was just an idea, just a concept. It was one of the first things, I think, that went viral.”

  After the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, Bacon began to think of ways that he could use his celebrity to help people. Suddenly, it hit him, the game that had once plagued him and humbled him simultaneously would be the way that he makes a difference, leading him to create SixDegrees.org. Six Degrees connects celebrities with smaller organizations and charities to help gain publicity and fundraise. “I just loved this idea of celebrities connected with grass roots organizations that are out on the field doing good,” Bacon said.

  Six Degrees gives celebrities the opportunity by or even just do a social networking shout out to organizations, and gives average people the opportunity to reach massive audiences. “I think we can get overwhelmed by the state of the world,” Bacon said. “There are a lot of great charities that can throw an event for fundraisers and fill tables at $30,000 a pop, and that’s fantastic, but there are lots of people that are out there working in our communities, hands on, and thats what Six Degrees is about.”

  Aside from talking about his charity, Bacon also shared some behind-the-scenes secrets about his work on films such as “Footloose” and “Animal House”. Students laughed with him as he told the story of riding the subway to his first film premier in New York city, his night ending not in swanky champagne bubbles but in a restaurant where he worked as a waiter.

  One of the more surprising things that Bacon shared was that the original “Footloose” had body doubles for much of the dancing. “I came in there and thought I was a good dancer, I said ‘Oh, I have some moves’, but then I saw what the dancers could do,” Bacon said. He also told how he transitioned from film to television, and how he landed the star role in the hit show “The Following”. “I always said I would only do a show if it was on HBO or Showtime. Then I thought well maybe I could do a show for cable. Finally, Fox came to me with the script for “The Following”, and I honestly couldn’t believe it was a network show… filming a one hour drama is truly intense work.”

  For critics and fans of Kevin Bacon alike, the USF lecture series was a real treat. Bacon has had a successful career full of films that have informed a generation, a game that has livened up thousands of parties, a charity that changes the world, and a television show that is changing the face of network TV. For more information on Six Degrees, visit SixDegrees.org.