National Lampoon's Animal House Hazing Scene Was A Little Too Real For Kevin Bacon
The cast of National Lampoon's "Animal House" acted very similar on and off the screen. The 1978 comedy classic was the acting debut of Kevin Bacon, who was only nineteen at the time. Bacon had his big break when director John Landis plucked him out of acting school and cast him as Chip Dillard, a pledge in the prestigious Omega Theta Pi fraternity. It seemed like a dream come true at first, but the young actor quickly learned that playing one of the bad guys comes at a price.
Landis alienated the clean-cut, antagonistic Omegas from the rugged anti-heroic Deltas before they even began filming. The director brought the Deltas to set a week before the Omegas, where a strong bond quickly formed, The New York Times reported in a 2018 oral history. The group actually visited a nearby fraternity at the University of Oregon for a party — and got in a brawl with the brothers. "That fight cemented us as a group," said James Widdoes, who plays Delta chapter president Robert Hoover.
The Deltas were still in a fighting spirit when the Omegas came onto the set. "We walked into a coffee shop, and the Deltas were at a table with Landis," recalled Mark Metcalf, who plays the authoritarian nightmare Neidermeyer. "He said, 'It's Neidermeyer! Get him!' They started throwing food and yelling at us."
Bacon was treated like the enemy
Bacon might have been new to acting when he scored his first role in "Animal House," but the director wasn't going to take it easy on him just because he was green. Chip was an Omega, he was one of the bad guys, and Landis wasn't going to show him any mercy — especially during his hazing scene. "They showed me the paddle Metcalf was going to use on me, and it was made of balsa wood," Bacon recounted. "I was like, 'No problem.' But Landis had him hit me over and over. In the script, my character said 'Thank you, sir, may I have another?' maybe three times. Landis kept yelling, 'Again! Again! Again!' and it definitely started to sting."
Being ruthlessly spanked with a paddle has got to hurt, but the thing that stung Bacon the most was feeling alienated on and off the set. "I was in the a****** group, along with Neidermeyer and all the bad guys," he explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "But the good guys, he wanted them all to be separate from us and have this, like, really cohesive unit [...] and it sort of took hold in our private life."
The young actor's castmates would throw nightly parties just a few short feet from his bed. "We're all staying at the same motel, but these guys would have parties with music, and Bruce McGill," he recalled. "And they were all super cool, and their parties were great, and there were girls around, and I was never invited. I was never part of that thing."
Don't feel too bad for him, though
Being left out of the Deltas' camaraderie was difficult for Bacon, but it ultimately made sense for his character. In fact, Metcalf harnessed this alienation as a character-building exercise. "I stayed in the room above McGill's," the actor told The New York Times. "I wanted to party with the Deltas, but it would've been wrong for Neidermeyer to do that. I was kept up late by the noise. I'd polish my R.O.T.C. helmet and get deeper and deeper into character."
It's interesting that Metcalf viewed his alienation from the party as his choice as an actor, while Bacon was positive that he just wasn't invited. Regardless of their reasons, the Omegas were successfully isolated from the Deltas, just like Landis had intended. It might have been a little mean-spirited, but it helped to produce a revered staple of comedy history.
Bacon feels grateful to have been a part of the "Animal House" cast and holds no ill will towards Landis today. "I found John [Landis] to be extremely warm and funny," he said. "In fact, I would run into him [in the Village] sometimes after we did the movie, and he was always a super friendly and generous guy. He was cool. I really liked John."
Sure, he had to go through a little hazing, but look where his career is now! "Don't feel too bad for me," he reassured the audience of Jimmy Kimmel Live — Kevin Bacon is just fine.