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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Edward Fox British actor

To be able to play the piano like Artur Schnabel.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 April 2017 source ↗

Edward Enninful Ghanaian-born English editor and stylist

In African families, you can be one of three things: a doctor, a lawyer or a failure. I wanted to be an Egyptologist, but things worked out in the end.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 December 2022 source ↗

Paul O'Grady British comedian, actor and television presenter

To work in a dry cleaner’s.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 November 2021 source ↗

Rick Astley Singer, songwriter and radio presenter

When I was about 14 and got my first drum kit, I wanted to be a drummer in a band like the Police.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 October 2018 source ↗

More from Kevin Bacon

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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 ↗

Question What is your idea of perfect happiness? Identity & self

A family dinner. Candlelight. Lots of laughs.

Recorded The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, 3 June 2025 source ↗

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 ↗