September 13, 1999

by Veronica Mixon

He is best known for such films as "Diner," "Footloose," "A Few Good Men," "Apollo 13," "Sleepers," "The River Wild" and "Wild Things." Bacon has carved out a unique career which includes leading man and character driving parts.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, 41-year-old Kevin Bacon work on stage in New York before making his first Hollywood film, the teen classic, "Animal House." His early work includes work on daytime TV shows like "Search for Tomorrow" and "Guiding Light." His appearance as the rebellious dancing teenager, Ren MacCormack in "Footloose" made him a star but stardom proved to be tricky. A series of big movie flops plagued the actor despite his participation in popular films like "Flatliners," "Tremors," "JFK" and "Murder in the First."

A few years ago, he formed a band with his brother and revived his enthusiasm for live performance. He also directed his first film, "Losing Chase" with Helen Mirren and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick. Today, Bacon is a much happier man. He and Sedgwick have two children, his musical career is flourishing and he's in the middle of finishing Paul Verhoven's "The Hollow Man" with Elizabeth Shue. "STIR OF ECHOES" is his latest film.

THE INTERVIEW

What was your first horror movie?
I was in the very first "Friday the 13th." I was one of the many teenage victims of that episode. "Flatliners" I guess, was in the same genre although maybe more supernatural. When I think of horror films, I think of the "Exorcist" and "The Shining," "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Hunger." Films that are very much character driven. The monsters, the demons - they're interesting but they aren't really at the heart of it. What's happening to the people are what is at the heart of it. And, I think that's what's happening in this film.

What attracted you to this role?
I thought that the place where the character was struggling with saying goodbye to his dream and struggling with the idea that he was becoming normal, you know, becoming his father was a pretty interesting thing to play. Then, you add on a story, a mystery that's what I was attracted to. Also, there's a great dichotomy just being a regular Joe who has this kind of an incredible experience. It's a very intense kind of thing he goes through.

Does this film say something to people who think the best is over when I hit 40?
I certainly think that's a good message, if that is the message. I think at any point in your life, something can open it up and you can go through a passage. Something can shake things up and open up doors. Sometimes, it's a birth, death, divorce - those kinds of experiences can turn things around. I also think [there] comes the moment where you can think I'm stuck. I'm not going anyway.

Did you ever feel stuck?
Ironically, people still have a hard time believe this, but I was feeling exactly the same way when I got the picture. And, when I played the sense in the kitchen talking to Katie [Erbe] in the movie, it was a very difficult scene for me to play. It was like reading from the pages of my life because that's the way it felt. Of course, from the outside, my life is nothing like that. And, yet, there is a common thread amongst people where you start to see certain dreams falling away. You start to find yourself entering into a certain stage in your life and you have certain responsibilities. You start to pine for those days when you didn't have them.

You're a successful actor. There's that game surrounding your name.
[Pauses] I don't know if that's a sign of success.

What things do you feel you haven't realized yet?
There's a weird kind of thing about an actor because you're never quite there. You always feel like you're chasing it. There's always someone that's doing better. There's always some list that you're not on. There's always some award that you haven't gotten or some price tag that you haven't reached. There's always some place to be. Some place else to go. I don't know, maybe, that's the way it is with everybody. I've never done anything else so I can't say.

Do you need to be in charge?
Well, there's also the strange kind of feeling that I think sometimes, as a guy and I'll just speak as a guy - and I'm not saying that this doesn't apply to women. But I think it definitely applies to guys - by the time you hit your forties, and usually in your thirties, if you've done well in almost any other business, then you're running the show. If you're a carpenter, then you're a contractor now and you've got the guys hammering the nails and you're coming in giving the bids. If you've been successful, then you're moving up and you're not still working for the man. You know.

You still have the insecurity of being an actor?
Yeah. As an actor, you're always still working for the man. I'm always sitting waiting for the telephone to ring. Going in, hoping that the guy is going to like me enough to give me the job. I've got make sure I'm doing a good job for him and the studio - make sure that they're happy. Then, a lot of times, the guys running the studios who are actually moving up are 25. [Laughs] You have people putting clothes on you, touching your hair and putting make up on you and stuff. It can be a strangely emasculating profession. So, I think those are some of the things that you kind of confront as an actor. That's why a lot of times, you see, actors starting to direct because they want to be running the show.

Would you like to go back to the stage like your early days?
I would like to go back to the stage. I'll tell you music has kind of taken the place of that in a strange kind of way because I realize that when we put the band together that one of the things that I was really missing was butterflies. I don't really get scared making movies. It's a very comfortable place for me to live because I spent most of my life on a movie set. There's a danger in doing a play because every night. It can go wrong. A house that likes you or it doesn't. There's a heckler. A sore throat. An actor's drunk. There's a lot of danger there which doesn't really exist in movies and I find that having some danger is a good thing for one's creative life. It keeps the creative juices flowing and it keeps them on edge.

What about singing?
That's what playing music has given me because there's nothing scarier than standing up, singing a song that you wrote about something that's happen to you and exposing yourself in that way. I would like to go back to theater. I've always believed that there's only one thing that keeps an actor from doing theater and that's fear. I mean, it's a place that really separates the men from the boys as far as I'm concerned. Being able to create a performance and get it up and get it out there and make it work eight times a week is an incredibly daunting kind of task but, I'd certainly like to put it there.

How do you keep film acting as spontaneous as you think it ought to be?
That's the job - you hit on the job of film acting - keeping it fresh. Keeping it spontaneous and conserving your energy for the moments when it really happens or when it's really going to work. Because [when] you get to a scene like the digging, you go in the morning to rehearse and see where the camera is going to be. But, for 12 hours, you're going to be walking back and stopping for an hour or so, waiting for the light, waiting for the clouds to clears, running back out, shooting it, there was an airplane so we've got to do it again. Trying to keep that intensity fresh and keep all that stuff - that's what hard about movie acting. I mean, I'm been working on this picture now and we'll get one shot before lunch and one after lunch. I'll say the same line thirty, forty, fifty times. It really is tough.

Is this the "Hollow Man?"
Yeah. We had to shut down all together for a couple of months because Elizabeth Shue ruptured her Achilles tendon. So, she's come back and kick my ass. It's a very cool part. I love working with Paul Verhoeven and Lisa Shue, and it's actually going to be a really cool picture.

Will that be difficult after so long? Yeah, it will be. But, you know it will be ok. It's a very difficult movie anyway because it's very heavy effects laden. I'm the invisible man and the process of shooting the invisibility is all new technology that we're trying out, and it's really going to be cool. It looks incredible. But, actually getting it done is very, very tedious. And, in terms of the acting, the acting takes a way backseat. In "STIR OF ECHOES," the effects are very simply but I think they are very effective.

Do you cope with down time as vacations?
I don't think of down time as vacations. I actually have learned to like vacations because we take very specific time and we call it a vacation. This down time in this movie has not been good because it's been a really drag. We had a lot of family plans. We're always trying to juggle my wife's career and my career, and the kids school time - and it was all going to work out ok. It was difficult to juggle. Oh, I sound like I'm complaining a lot. [Laughs] I'm very happy to have the gig. But, when I'm out of work, I use to try to think of it as vacation but its really not because you're in pursuit of other work. You're whole being is focused on trying to get a job or I'm trying to write songs or I'm in the studio or playing gigs or I'm reading things or I'm thinking of things to option. When we first got married, we carved out definite vacation time and we shut down.