Everyone knows about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon by now. In case you’re not everyone, here’s how it works. The theory is that everyone in the world (well, actors at least) is separated by no more than six other actors from Kevin Bacon. The number of degrees of separation of that actor from Kevin Bacon gives you that actor’s ‘Bacon number’. So if the actor is in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 1; if the actor appears in a movie with someone who’s been in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 2; and so on.
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon has become a party game for film nerds but now Google has ruined it for everyone who has a smartphone. All you now have to do is type “Bacon number” followed by the actor’s name and Google will not only tell you the Bacon number of that person, it’ll also tell you how it worked out that number.
As a test, I typed in the names of some this ere blog’s favourite actors. Here are their Bacon numbers according to Google – turns out they’re all twos, apart from Audrey Fleurot:
- Ali Larter: 2
Ali Larter and Bruce McGill appeared in Obsessed
Bruce McGill and Kevin Bacon appeared in National Lampoon’s Animal House
- Joanna Page: 2
Joanna Page and January Jones appeared in Love Actually
January Jones and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class
- David Tennant: 2
David Tennant and James McAvoy appeared in Bright Young Things
James McAvoy and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class.
- Richard Armitage: 2
Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood appeared in The Hobbit: Part 1
Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon appeared in Beyond All Boundaries.
- Amber Heard: 2
Amber Heard and Emma Stone appeared in Zombieland
Emma Stone and Kevin Bacon appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
- Scarlett Johansson: 2
Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray appeared in Lost in Translation
Bill Murray and Kevin Bacon appeared in Wild Things.
- Audrey Fleurot: 3
Audrey Fleurot and Omar Sy appeared in Intouchables
Omar Sy and Robert De Niro appeared in Micmacs
Robert De Niro and Kevin Bacon appeared in Sleepers.
Give it a try with some of your favourites and let us know the answers below.
