LOS ANGELES (TNA) – Kevin Bacon hasn’t cut loose, footloose, for more than 23 years, but the actor says he’s ready to cut a rug, a la John Travolta in “Hairspray,” in the very near future.

Bacon says he’d love to take on a “cool musical” or comedy, and break away from the “intense Kevin Bacon” roles he’s been pigeonholed into for the last decade.

“I’m open to anything,” Bacon says. “I mean, it would have to be something cool, especially a musical. With John, it was just the perfect combination of things, and he pulled it off. I thought about doing a musical this year – a sort of gothic thing – but we’ll see what happens.

Kevin Bacon guns for gang members in 'Death Sentence.'

“Hollywood isn’t very imaginative, and it’s hard for people to picture me as anyone else,” he explains. “I really can do something lighter…like dancing ... I’m not an intense kind of guy.”

He chalks up the lack of lighthearted roles on his resume to studios failing to think outside the Bacon box. But he’s quick to admit his latest film, “Death Sentence,” which co-stars Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston, doesn’t help squelch his intense image.

In the movie, which opens in theaters Friday (Aug. 31), Bacon plays Nick Hume, a father who takes the law into his own hands and seeks revenge on the gang members who brutally murdered his teenage son – not exactly fun-for-the-whole-family entertainment.

“It’s dark,” he admits. “I had dark dreams and dark thoughts. People say it must be so hard to take [the character] home, and that is true, but there’s the fact that you think about having to go back down into that place on Monday.

“On Friday, it’s like I can’t quite shake the feeling 100 [percent] because I know I have to go back,” he says.

Despite the fact that he would love to do something less edgy, Bacon says the role in “Sentence” was a perfect fit, mainly because he got to become a “bad-ass” – something he really hasn’t had the chance to do in previous movies.

“Every once in a while you put something out there and it comes back to you,” he says. “You say, ‘This is what I want to do – I want to kick some ass!’ And the script just matches.”

Working with young director James Wan, the mastermind behind the “Saw” franchise, also drew him to the project.

“I’m a huge horror fan, and [Wan] took a small amount of money and literally spun it into gold,” he laughs. “I was also pleasantly surprised when I read this script and saw how much emotional content there was in it.

“I’m not the guy who is good at saying little one-liners – that’s totally not my thing or my skill,” he admits. “I need a little more emotion to it. I read this movie and it was very emotional, yet still had this ass-kicking element to it.”

While the subject matter was serious, Bacon claims the vibe off-camera was very different – particularly among the younger guys.

“The set was a lot of fun,” he says. “I think for me you kind of have to get in that head and stay in that head. You have to stay focused on the horror. I mean, there’s only one happy day that I have in the whole movie.”

But he dug the fact that the entire cast and crew stayed in the same hotel during filming in Columbia, S.C., allowing everyone to bond and hang out after a long day of shooting.

And though he stays focused on his character during filming, Bacon says he has no problem unwinding once the work is done.

“I say goodbye very easily,” he emphasizes. “It doesn’t really come up again until I do press and have to talk about it.

“I use myself then lose myself,” he continues. “I have to use things like my kids and how I would react to something like this and how it would relate to him. At the same time I have to lose myself to the character…but once we wrap and it’s over, that guy is gone.”

However, he says his role in the 2004 flick “The Woodsman” did stay with him long after shooting ended.

[“The Woodsman”] was really difficult – to be a molester and to go into that head space is a really dark space to be,” he says.

Another movie that stuck with him was 1995’s “Murder In The First,” but not for its emotional content.

“‘Murder In The First’ was so much physical unpleasantness,” he explains. “I was very skinny, and we went through an earthquake during filming, which was really terrifying. We were only a mile away from the epicenter, and the set fell down around us and there was like thousands of aftershocks, and I was covered in bugs and dirt. It was really hard.”

Despite the handful of drawbacks, Bacon doesn’t regret any of his career choices. Although actually getting him to sit down and view his body of work could prove challenging.

“I’ve watched them all once,” he says with a chuckle. “But I don’t go back and watch them over and over – I’m kind of a forward-thinking person.

“Plus, it can be difficult to watch yourself. It’s like the first time you leave your outgoing message on your voicemail and you play it back to yourself and just go, ‘Oh man, that’s bad!’ Now times that by a thousand – it’s not just your voice, but your face and body and actions!”

So would he consider revisiting “Footloose,” especially now that there’s a rumored remake on the horizon starring teen heartthrob Zac Efron?

“I think the only role that I would fit into is the John Lithgow part,” he laughs, “but I might even be too old for that!

“[But] career planning is an oxymoron to me,” he adds. “I read something and that’s the thing that’s right to do at that time, so you never know.

For now, his dancing shoes remain firmly planted in the closet, as he’s currently filming a TV movie titled “Taking Chance,” where he plays – what else – an intense lieutenant colonel who must return the remains of an Iraq War soldier home to his family.

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