Footloose Is 40! Lori Singer Recalls 'Natural' Chemistry with Kevin Bacon: 'It Was Electric' (Exclusive)

‘Footloose’ actress Lori Singer talks to PEOPLE about the film’s 40th anniversary

Four decades later, we’re still cutting Free.

In honor of the Herb Ross-directed film’s 40th anniversary, PEOPLE spoke with Lori Singer, who starred alongside Kevin Bacon as Ariel Moore, a small-town girl he falls in love with as they fight to overturn her reverend father’s ban on dancing ( John Lithgow).

Despite her family status and reputation, Ariel is a rebellious teenager, and she is immediately intrigued by the arrival of Ren McCormack (Bacon), who moves with his mother Ethel (Frances Lee McCain) from Chicago and shows Ariel a completely new side of life through dance.

Singer, now 66, recalls meeting Bacon, now 65, for the first time for the film: “It was electrifying.”

“It’s just one of those things when you have someone like Herb Ross as a director and he’s been with so many great actors … he was already very established, so he knew what he was doing,” she adds.

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Lori Singer and Kevin Bacon inside Free (1984). Everett ‘Footloose’ Elizabeth Gorcey claims the actress ‘lost her virginity’ while filming the 1984 hit.

Noting that she and Bacon had a “natural” chemistry that didn’t necessarily require extra preparation, Singer says, “What you experience [in real life] it doesn’t always translate to film.”

“But when you have someone like Ric Waite as cinematographer and Herb Ross directing, then they can manage to capture what they wanted to capture, and it was electric,” she adds.

The actress refers to a specific scene near the beginning of the beloved film, which marks the first time Ariel and Ren meet — and their dynamic is palpable.

“Even the first time Kevin and I meet in church and I look back at him, it can be like, ‘Eh, so?’ But you knowing“, she explains their immediate connection. “Then later… when [Ariel’s] says the father [to Ren]’I’d like you to meet her,’ you realized.”

“I mean the meeting [Ren] it’s also part of what makes Ariel climb between the car and the truck. She’s excited, and she doesn’t even know why,” Singer says of her character’s iconic daring moment.

Lori Singer and Kevin Bacon in Paris on April 26, 1984.

Micheline PELLETIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Singer is still in touch with several of them Free castmates and says they “see each other quite a bit”.

“Kevin and I are in touch if anything happens. We contact each other from time to time,” she says. “John lives in the building where my best friend used to live, so just weird coincidences. I met his daughter recently and she felt like my sister. We joke that we’re sisters.”

“Dianne [Wiest], I went to see her play. She was doing something with Alan Cumming and I went to see their show. She was brilliant as always,” Singer continued.

Although she hasn’t seen Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Ariel’s friend Rusty, in a while, she predicts they’ll meet at the New York City Ballet at some point, since Singer was there recently and Parker is a frequent attendee.

“Her style is incredible,” Singer says of the 58-year-old Parker.

Enter Kevin Bacon Free (1984).

Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Kevin Bacon reacts to the idea of Free Sequel 40 years later: ‘I think it would be a disaster’

Looking back how Free has stood the test of time, Singer calls it an “iconic American film” and an “interesting exploration of society,” in part due to the fact that her “rebel” character “tests every single social norm, from religion to school to physicality to justice to art.”

“Music then moves him [to] next level,” she continues. “Americana music with Kenny Loggins, who… I mean, it just flows [the movie] with a spirit that embraces the whole world. So I understand why it became popular. I’m still really thrilled that people like it as much as they do.”

“I’m still thrilled that Herb Ross and crew captured the spirit that we had on set and the angst and excitement and restlessness that we all go through as young teenagers with our parents, and that they captured that on film,” adds Singer. “No you can always catch it on film. They captured it, and it’s remarkable.”

As for her character, the actress says that fans have come up to her over the years and told her how much of a role model Ariel was to them as a teenager, to the point that some have even named their children after the character.

“I’m so honored by it,” Singer tells PEOPLE. “I’m very proud that I gave as much as I did and I feel proud of it.”

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