Kevin Bacon

Interview By: Stephen Snart

StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com

Ever since he charmed audiences with his energetic dancing and rebellious charisma in 1984′s Footloose, Kevin Bacon has been a marquee name. Not being one to rest on his laurels, he has constantly challenged himself by taking controversial roles in unconventional movies. Whether he’s playing a sadistic warden in Sleepers, a maniacal scientist in Hollow Man, a hardened detective in Mystic River or even a pedophile in The Woodsman, Bacon has been able to play these difficult roles with surprising empathy. While most actors would do everything possible to steer clear of these kinds of roles, Bacon decided early on that he wasn’t going to simply conform to the Hollywood standard. “I believe that I make my own rules,” he states firmly. “There’s also a rule that you’re not supposed to have a rock band if you’re an actor,” he adds with a scoff. The band he refers to is The Bacon Brothers, comprised of him and his brother Michael Bacon, who also provides the musical score for his latest directorial effort, Loverboy.

As you might expect, Bacon‘s new film pushes the envelope in a number of ways. The film is adapted from the popular novel by Victoria Redel and stars Bacon‘s wife, Kyra Sedgwick as Emily Stoll, a mentally unbalanced Mother with an unhealthy obsession for her son Paul (Dominic Kay Scott). The novel first came to Sedgwick‘s attention, who soon passed it on to her husband. Bacon was immediately interested in directing. “She gave it to me and said what do you think about it? I said ‘I think you should play it. I think you’re perfect for it. And I think I’d like to direct it.’”

Due to the fragmented style of the novel, one might not be quick to envision it as a film. This type of challenge immediately excited Bacon, “The part of it, that to me, made it interesting as a movie, is the

nonlinear nature of it. If I could make something where instead of starting with the first scene and going to the last, we kind of bounce all over the place and start to get the pieces of the puzzle unraveled, that would be interesting to me. I know as a moviegoer, I love popcorn movies, you know, straight-ahead comedy, fantasy, action… I’m the first one in line for those kinds of things. But I also like to see independents as a place where experimental films are made – films that experimental with the form and telling the story in a nonlinear way.”

Staying true to his principals, he approaches the lead character of Emily as a human, instilling vibrancy and sympathy into a role that could have easily been turned into a Mommie Dearest-type caricature. Careful not to fall victim to romanticizing Emily, he regards her condition with realistic resign. “I do think she’s psychiatrically disturbed. I don’t think anyone who ends up doing what she’s doing qualifies as anything other than that. What I wanted to do was have the realities of that unfold slowly. I wanted you to go, ‘She’s fun, she’s cool, she’s sexy, she’s unique, she’s magical… and she is all those things.” Bacon pauses resolutely before continuing, “But she’s incredibly misguided, incredibly sad and unbalanced. That lack of balance is something I wanted to sneak up.” He finds his sympathy for Emily though the universality of her fears, “What this movie is partly addressing is one of the hardest issues of parenthood: How tightly do you hold on? And how strongly do you push them out the door? That’s a balance that people are always trying to find and often times either trying to emulate from their parents or correct.”

Bacon‘s second directorial outing boasts an array of remarkable performances from a number of familiar faces. Considering the film’s bargain-bin budget and risqué material, it’s surprising to see household names like Matt

Kevin Bacon

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Dillon, Marisa Tomei, Oliver Platt, Campbell Scott and Sandra Bullock appearing in supporting roles. “The impression was that I called up all my friends and said, ‘Hey ya gotta help me out!’ But the truth is that while I do have some friends in the movie, we sat down and talked about who would be the best person to play all of these little parts. When I reached out to these people, I said very specifically, ‘I’d like you to do a part here but I don’t want you to do it as a favor.’ Because I don’t want to be in that position myself as an actor. So I said to all of them, ‘If you dig it, do it for that reason. But if you don’t, no harm no foul. You don’t owe me anything and I don’t owe you anything.’” As it turned out, due to the film’s short shooting period, the roles did not constitute a major scheduling commitment for the actors. “Oliver, Campbell, Sandy and Marisa… they were all a day or two. It’s kind of like, ‘Yeah that sounds like fun, I’ll come hang out.’”

While those big name celebrities may have spent abbreviated time on the set, there was one other actor in the cast who worked almost as frequently as Sedgwick – child prodigy Dominic Scott Kay. Due to the nature of the material, directing an eight-year-old boy can be quite a difficult undertaking and Bacon admits he couldn’t have done it without his wife, “I would say, probably 85% of Dominic is directed by Kyra. She had a very, very close relationship with him. She would be in there with him on his close-ups. ‘Do it again Dominic, try this, try that.’ She was really, really helpful.”

Even so, she can’t take all the credit because the young actor possessed unbelievable professionalism for his age. “The interesting thing about Dominic is… his amazing understanding of the material

for somebody who’s that age. I’ve worked with a lot of kids before and sometimes with child actors it’s about getting a look and then cutting around it. What I really wanted was to have scenes where there were two people in the frame, actually talking and relating to each other. To find a kid who could do that was quite a challenge. But he’s the type of kid you go up to and say ‘OK, do it again, but quieter.’ He goes, ‘Now I’m quieter because there’s someone else in the room and I’m hoping they don’t hear me? Or am I quieter because it’s making me sad?’ It’s an amazing analytical kind of mind. I realized I’d really have to have a good answer for him!”

Apparently, Dominic isn’t content with just conquering the acting world. He has already directed a short digital film, using a camera given to him as a gift by Bacon and Sedgwick to commemorate the last day of shooting. Bacon explains, “It’s about a little boy who finds a dog on the side of the road. He eventually can’t keep the dog and gives it to a fireman. It’s a very simple story but he’s the man.” In a charming bit of Hollywood reciprocity, Bacon even appears in the short film. When asked if Dominic gave him the same ‘no harm, no foul’ option, the amiable star responds with a warm laugh, “No he didn’t. He was calling in a favor.”