The Real Kevin Bacon

(pudding.cool)

80 points | by xnx 3 days ago

12 comments

  • MattCruikshank 37 minutes ago
    Sure, but what's the Basis Set movie? If you only had one actor in a movie, and you wanted to have the most connectedness in it, you'd choose Sam Jackson right now. (The one from Pulp Fiction, not the one from Ted.)

    But what if you could have TWO actors in a movie? Would Sam Jackson (again, the one from Jurassic Park, not the lawyer) still be one of them? Or is it possible that in aggregate, there are two actors who would achieve a better connectedness than Sam Jackson (the one from The Long Kiss Goodnight, not the one who was in Veronica Mars) plus one of those actors?

    What if you could have THREE actors in a movie?

    Or what about, who is the perfect sidekick for Sam Jackson (stop asking, yes, of course I mean the one with the purple lightsaber, not the one from In Time)? Who, if you add them to a Sam Jackson (the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., not the Mean Girl) movie, gives them the most aggregate connectedness?

    Enquiring minds want to know!

    Also, who's the Kevin Bacon of Bollywood?

  • card_zero 1 hour ago
    Somehow it's a fun fact that you can reach any other actor in four moves, but a much less fun fact that you can probably-reach any other actor in 2.6 moves. "Connectedness", huh. Though it was interesting to see that Frank Welker used to be in fourth place. Never heard of him. Or I've only heard of him, he's a voice actor. He does cartoon animals, often without lines, lots of miaowing.
  • dec0dedab0de 46 minutes ago
    I hope Kevin bacon takes this as a personal attack and manages to get small roles in every upcoming film that has actors he hasn’t worked with yet.
  • geooff_ 31 minutes ago
    This is missing the fact that there's a temporal element to this. Over time, the corpus grows larger and larger meaning younger actors and actresses find connections easier through common ancestors.
  • kornork 1 hour ago
    This is cool! I liked the time machine the best, and was surprised to see names I didn't recognize at the top (although I did recognize a couple faces once I looked them up).
  • gbil 46 minutes ago
    John Candy #2 in 1993! Makes his loss hit hard even after all these years.
  • codingdave 32 minutes ago
    I'm not sure this presentation is complete if they don't even mention Eric Roberts: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000616/
  • harikb 59 minutes ago
    I would not have guessed Willem Dafoe up there :o
    • gste 6 minutes ago
      He's my favourite actor, so I know: he's in a very eclectic range of films in loads of genres with all kinds of actors.

      I think that your range as an actor helps you here. For example, Seth Rogan, while he's in loads of films, he is extremely typecast into stoner comedies. So he is more separated from actors in other genres.

    • fusslo 19 minutes ago
      I was surprised too, then I started thinking about his filmography

      Marvel Movies, John Wick, Robert Eggers films, To Live and Die In LA, Streets of Fire, American Psycho, The Last Temptation of Christ, he was unforgettable in The Life Aquatic, and Wild at Heart!

      The directors he's worked with: Robert Eggers, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, John Waters, William Friedkin, David Cronenberg, Sam Raimi... who am i forgetting?

      edit: Yorgos Lanthimos!

      What an incredible career; I think he spends a lot of time in Italy when he's not filming now

      • ginko 10 minutes ago
        You forgot Lars von Trier
    • ginko 27 minutes ago
      Why not? He's been hugely active over a wide range of genres. He's the exact kind of actor I'd expect to be high up.
  • BeetleB 46 minutes ago
    Ha! I correctly guessed Samuel Jackson. Over a decade ago I read he was the number 1 actor for gross receipts of all the movies any actor had made (don't know if it's still true). I somehow felt that stat would be connected to this one.

    Would never have guessed Nicole Kidman for women, though.

    • settsu 3 minutes ago
      I'd never heard that stat about Samuel L. Jackson and find it interesting because I don't think of him as a particularly versatile or prolific actor, though good in his roles and typically well cast. The stat is believable (apart from verifying it) given the massive franchises and singular hits he's landed.
  • ginko 37 minutes ago
    I guess this is mainly about alive actors? Because for instance I'd expect Christopher Lee to be up there but he's not even in the list.
  • readthenotes1 1 hour ago
    Only has 2 text blobs and a few actors? Not really worth a "tap to continue" a. If the continue doesn't have any value
    • dec0dedab0de 44 minutes ago
      I liked the presentation, and thought it was worth it.
    • goodcanadian 27 minutes ago
      You have to keep tapping . . . I agree that it was not obvious.
    • xnx 1 hour ago
      I saw 19 screens of content.
  • quickthrowman 1 hour ago
    This does not work on iOS Safari, I get stuck in a loop. I haven’t installed the latest iOS update FWIW