Kevin Bacon Was Offended by '6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon': I Thought ‘They’re Making Fun of Me’ at First

Kevin Bacon has a few thoughts on the popular game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

The actor, 61, said he was initially offended by the game that assumed anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry can be linked through their film roles to Bacon in six steps.

Bacon told Alex Rodriguez on the podcast The Corp that he thought, “‘They’re making fun of me.’ I’m an actor. Exactly. I thought the joke was, ‘Can you believe that such a lightweight could be connected to Laurence Olivier or Meryl Streep or whatever in six steps or less?'”

“That’s how that’s just the actor’s insecurity,” he continued. “That’s how I felt.”

In 2012, Bacon gave a talk about the game at TEDxMidwest in which he said he was “absolutely horrified” by the game when it first gained popularity.

“In 1994, I’m minding my own business, I’m making movies and raising my family,” Bacon said. “People would come up to me like, ‘My cousin came up with a game about you.’”

He continued, “I was absolutely horrified. I know its a cliche, but actors, behind all the muscles and shining white teeth and low-cut dresses, it really is just masking a lot of deep, deep insecurity. I thought, ‘I’m going to be a laughingstock.’”

RELATED: Kevin Bacon Turns ‘Six Degrees’ Game Into Charity

Bacon didn’t take the game to heart for too long. In 2007, the actor launched the charity Six Degrees, which encourages people to donate or raise money for any charity within the United States.

“If you take me out of the six degrees idea it really is a beautiful concept because we really are all connected,” he said. “The things that we do here now, in our block, affect people on the other side of the world and they affect people on the other side of town.”