In Herbert Ross’s Footloose … well, do I really need to describe the plot of Footloose? Since its release in February 1984 – yes, 40 years ago now and Paramount has released a new 4K disc in celebration – it just became part of the cultural zeitgeist and just never really went away.
Fueled by a soundtrack with six Top 40 hits, Footloose is the story of a big city boy, Ren (Kevin Bacon) moving to a small town where dancing has been outlawed by the local reverend, Shaw Moore (John Lithgow). Ren falls in love with wild child Ariel (Lori Singer), who we see early in the film straddling two cars while flying down the highway and also happens to be the reverend’s daughter. Along with their friends Willard and Rusty (Christopher Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker), they mount an effort to hold a school dance despite the reverend’s objections. A lot of the themes in Footloose feel even more relevant today. Footloose would spend three weeks as the number one movie in the United States in a very crowded year for hit movies.
Ahead, Lori Singer reflects on 40 years of Footloose – which she calls an “American classic” and why Ariel’s rebellious side spoke to her as a character. And why she feels she’s lived this role in her real life, going as far as to self-choreograph some of her stunts – to the point a stuntman had to push her out of the way of a moving train because she was cutting it too close for comfort. But, first, we get a little sidetracked talking about working with Robert Altman on Short Cuts, also with her Footloose costar Christopher Penn.
I apologize I don’t have a voice right now because of the Super Bowl. I’ve been yelling.
Congratulations.
Kansas City, birthplace of your mom in Footloose, Diane Wiest.
Yes, she did a great Robert Altman film, Kansas City.
I just watched that not long ago.
It’s such a great film.
I went on a whole Robert Altman kick not that long ago. Some of his movies are hard to find.
What did you have a hard time finding?
At the time I had to order the Blu-ray for 3 Women.
That’s so brilliant. I also couldn’t find it. This is years and years ago when I was working with him on Short Cuts. And I couldn’t get the DVD so he said – he always called me Singer – and he goes, “Oh, Singer, don’t worry about it.” He went and he got a copy that had a leather binding, or something like a DVD, kind of a very special. And he’s like, “Here, just take this.” And then his wife was like, “You gave that to Singer?” “Don’t worry about it.” So I saw the film. It was so brilliant. I couldn’t believe it. But it was hard to find then, is my point.
Short Cuts is also hard to find. I had to order the Criterion Blu-ray and I remember it wasn’t cheap. Co-starring your Footloose co-star Chris Penn.
Yeah, I did three movies with Chris. Altman asked me about Chris because he was thinking about Chris or someone else for that film. Because he said, “Is he too wild or what’s the story?” I was like, “No, he’s fantastic and blah, blah, blah.” And then you see him in this film and he’s so brilliant, Short Cuts. I think Chris is brilliant in Short Cuts. And I did a film with him called Made in the U.S.A., which Ken Friedman wrote. He’s wonderful in that film. And then, of course, Footloose.
He’s so vulnerable in Footloose. I think he gives this amazing performance in Footloose. But I don’t know what he was like on set.
He’s sweet. I’m talking about then, I’m not talking about in Made In U.S.A. and any other films. But at that time, he was really sweet, really focused and knew what he wanted and was very self-protective in the sense that he didn’t want to get wrapped up. His dad was a director in Hollywood and he didn’t want to get wrapped up in the Hollywood scene. I mean, at least at that time, in Footloose at least, he was very innocent. What we all shared is that each one of us were very much like our characters. And we really, I would say, bumped that up to the 10th notch or times a hundredth or whatever you want to say, a thousandth or whatever, for cinema. But we all had exactly the makings of whoever we were.
So Chris was very sweet, very innocent, and just straight ahead. It was meat and potatoes. It’s like nothing in between and could not have been sweeter. And he also had an interesting way of approaching acting where he didn’t want to know about anyone else’s scenes, “I’m just doing my stuff.” It’s a genuine approach. It’s a genuine belief. He said, “I’m living this. I don’t know what you’re living.” He was very interesting that way. He was experimenting. We all talked technique because we’re all young actors. At least I was talking to him about it. So, he had an interesting approach to that specific character, and I had tremendous respect and love for Chris.
When you’re making Footloose, is there any thought in your mind like, “This movie is just never going away. We’re going to talk about it forever?”
What a sweet thought. Well, I never think that way. I come from a family of artists. So this script to me, I think one of the reasons that I played Ariel is I just saw, exactly, this is a classic American story. This is a heroic story. This is an archetype female heroine, an American hero, rebel. This is an American rebel. This is like rebel without a cause. And I just saw it instantly and that’s all of the craziness and all the yearning to change anything that was in my path made sense to me. So I just lived it. I didn’t think, “Are people going to like this or not like this?” I just believed in the rebellion of it. I believed in the rebellion against my father, against religion, against the constraints of the town, against the silliness of burning books, the insanity against the belief that you shouldn’t dance. All of that to me: that you shouldn’t cross the state line, that the boundaries were so serious, you shouldn’t cross the state. All of that to me was about breaking free and about being rebel.
All the stuff you mentioned is almost more relevant today.
It’s an American classic. It’s an American classic. It’s still relevant. And with Kenny Loggins also, it’s just infectious that music.
So you grew up in Texas, right? Corpus Christi, is that right?
A lot of it. Some of it, yeah. Some of my life I kind of traveled a lot, but yes, yes I did.
I’m guessing that helped define this character?
Yeah. I mean, I traveled a lot growing up. So from Texas to Oregon to New York to all the three corners. But we traveled always back and forth. And I got into fights in schools. I had to prove myself in schools. I got challenged in schools; I challenged other people. You grow up and you learn a lot about humanity and about groups of people and about religions and about separations and about fighting and about being a daredevil. I mean, I remember when I was very young, I think it was my 11th birthday, I remember looking at someone else and saying, “Every year, I can’t believe I made it.”
Wow.
And I never thought about that comment. But then, years later I thought, “I felt that every year. I couldn’t believe it.” That’s why with these stunts with Ariel, it’s like secondhand. It’s like second nature to me, just second nature. It’s no problem. Choreographing them was something that I had either experienced or come close to experiencing. So with the train, the stuntman had to rush out and push me out of the way because I was there too long.
Really? Wait, how close did you get?
I’m sure it’s in the production notes.
Is it?
Or maybe not. Maybe not actually.
They might not have wanted people to know that for insurance reasons.
Yeah, just certain things I did and I did because I felt it was important. I felt like, I mean, sometimes you hear things about actors doing things and it’s because of the role they’re in. You have to experience; you have to explore it. Because it’s going to be different every time and it’s going to give you information back every time. And I think with experience comes knowledge. And I think that’s what Ariel is seeking. She’s seeking some understanding of the world. So she’s constantly testing everything. And that’s sort of what I was doing when I was growing up. I had a lot of that spirit and feeling, so.
Speaking of, that’s one of the first lectures I got about a movie from my parents after we saw it. I was warned never to straddle two cars while they are moving because it’s dangerous.
Again, she’s an American rebel and that was part of it. Actually, I choreographed that.
Oh, really?
Yeah. And they were sort of shocked, but always pretended they weren’t. Herb would tell me later. The stuntman grabbed me, pinched my arm, and said, “Don’t say one more word.” I was like, “Okay.”
How does that work? Do you tell Herbert Ross, “This is the way this should look”?
Oh God, I would never say that. You just live it. In other words, I think Herb Ross, I also worked with John Schlesinger and also, Robert Altman. And Alan Rudolph…
With Schlesinger, that was Falcon and the Snowman, right?
Yeah. Particularly those four directors have come out and saying in books, they believe that most of their work, a lot of it is done in the casting. They want to cast the person and they want that person to be more of a rebel. And Herb understood that. So he comes from choreography. Herb was a living artist. He would say okay because he believed that he cast the right person. So he would ask, “Let’s see how this might feel?”
And he would step back, not just me, all of us, he’d step back and let the actors live what they thought it might be and play off of each other. And then he would sit back and think about it and then come forward and say, “This is what I want.” And then he starts to work. So it’s really a fascinating way of working. And I just worked with Victor Nunez. I did a film called Rachel Hendrix. Completely different way of working. So every director is different. That was Herb’s way. So it’s pretty fascinating to go through. It’s like you’re living in a world and all these different worlds you have to be in.
You know what I find fascinating about Footloose? They don’t really win at the end. They don’t change the town. They just have the dance over the county limits. It’s like a compromise, which feels really realistic.
It is because they respect the borders. It’s kind of funny. And they go on the other side. But that being said, you also see John and Diane watching it, which is beautiful, too. Because they’re appreciating what’s occurring. And so, change takes time, but it’s definitely coming.
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