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Kevin Bacon Tried to Warn ‘Animal House’ Co-Star About Partying, and It Went Terribly

Kevin Bacon really wanted to be one of the cool kids when he joined the cast of Animal House. All the actors stayed at the same motel. And Bacon heard that the raucous party scenes in the movie sometimes reappeared down the hall with no camera in sight.

Yet Bacon was only 19 when he accepted the part of Chip Diller. If you ever watched Animal House, the raunchy comedy from 1978, you know Chip Diller. He was an ambitious freshman who pledged to the snooty Omegas and joined ROTC, which was directed by Doug Neidermeyer, the frat enforcer. Diller was Neidermeyers’s protegee.

Kevin Bacon’s most famous line came towards the end of the movie when he’s trying to direct a crowd amped up by the Homecoming parade chaos. Thank you, Deltas.

Bacon screamed: “Remain calm. All is well. ALLLLLL IS WELLLLLLLLL!!”

He was trampled as flat as a pancake.

Kevin Bacon Really Wanted to Party

Bacon shared some of his Animal House stories with talk show host Jimmy Kimmel Wednesday night. He confessed that he tried his best to get an invitation to some of these after-hours parties. The actor he most mentioned was Bruce McGill, aka D Day, one of the Deltas, who didn’t speak much during the movie. But you can imagine the sort of parties thrown by John Belushi, the movie’s breakout star.

Bacon said that director John Landis opted to divide the actors by whether they were playing the good guys (the hapless, party-hungry Deltas) or the Omegas (the snooty, ambitious sadists).

“It’s like an idea (Landis) had and it sort of took hold in our private lives,” Bacon told Fallon. “We were all staying at the same motel. These guys would have parties, with music –Bruce McGill — parties were great and there were girls around. And I was never invited to be part of that thing.”

Then, Bacon befriended one of the hotel’s waitresses. She gave him some valuable intel. Or, so he thought.

Bacon Passed On a Tip For a Party Invite

Bacon continued to pass along his memories to Kimmel.

“I remember, I was trying to think of a way to kind of get in with the cool kids. I was friendly with this waitress, who worked at this motel we were staying at. And they were having this raging party downstairs, which I wasn’t invited to.

“She called me up at my room and she said “Listen, I want you to know that I have it on real good authority that the FBI is in town and they are keeping a close eye on the actors and on the production and there’s probably going to be a major bust going down sometime soon.

“So, I thought I could maybe I could get in good with this group, by like giving them a warning, that would endear myself to them. Plus, I think I was pretty high (at the time) and I was paranoid. I pick up the phone and I can hear the party, I could hear the party down the hall, right? I hear it and it was raging man — I think it was Bruce McGill at the other end of the phone. (Told him) ‘Listen, man, I just want you guys to know I have it on really good authority that the FBI is actually in town and they’re keeping an eye on what’s going on.’

“He was like F–K you.”

So what happened after the call? Bacon says: “I spent the night alone in my room.”

FBI Never Checked Out Movie Set

And the FBI never came.

Kevin Bacon didn’t find instant fame from the movie, which showed us a taste of college life, albeit what it was like at Faber in 1962. Bacon went back to work as a waiter. His big movie break came four years later in Diner. However, Animal House lived on with its movie-inspired Toga parties and cafeteria food fights.

And there were so many parties. Did anyone even go to school? It’s why Dean Wormer’s classic line to Flounder “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

Plus, if you’re feeling blue and need some motivation. think of Bluto’s wise words.

“Was It Over When The Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell No!”