Conversations with Kevin Bacon

our website and again we greatly appreciate it and thank you for your support in advance and tonight we are going to get started with this fantastic Q&A so at this time please join me in welcoming our moderator Janelle Riley hi good evening everyone that's a nice lady told you my name is Janelle Riley I'm the film and TV editor of backstage I'm so thrilled to be here tonight for this SAG Foundation conversation with Kevin Bacon I knew this was a big one not just by the amount of people who tweeted me and emailed me but by the fact that my mom actually want to figure out how to work the livestream tonight she has never watched me on one of these people and she is tuning in tonight since his movie debut in National Lampoon's Animal House Kevin Bacon has become not only one of the best but the most prolific actors of his or any generation I literally do not have a time to list even a fraction of his credits but the sampling includes Footloose Mystic River Apollo 13 and now we get to watch him every week on Fox TV the following so I was going to say give him a warm hand you've already given him several but let's do one more for Kevin Bacon thank you so much for being here tonight congratulations on not only a critically heralded show but a hit in the ratings as well it's a very rare combination I don't worry reviews calling it a critical hit I don't know if that's true or not but yeah I mean I'm very happy at the other day my wife said to me so we should just take this moment to say it is it is what you wanted it to be you know and and well you know so often I think we're all looking for the next thing and you know it's like you're constantly trying to look look ahead and look forward and do better and all these goals and you said that it's not that often do you stop and go okay that was good that worked out you know that that's been a good year and you get to enjoy it in the middle of it like you're recognizing right now yeah well we just actually wrapped about five weeks ago I think something like that so it's it's it's nice I mean the last two episodes are on once on tonight once on next week but now I'm thinking I'm not in that headspace so much anymore so it's good and you're already picked up for a second season er yeah yeah wait a second if it's airing tonight why are you guys all here I know well you'll have time we picked this up everyone will have done depending on the traffic make it home by nine o'clock and since the season finale airs next week tell us everything that's going to happen I will you know I made the mistake like I guess a week ago or two weeks ago you know with a Twitter thing which I'm relatively new to and somebody just had seen the show and tweeted a nice compliment about a plot twist and I retweeted it but I hadn't thought about the people that were DVR and I hadn't thought about Europe and South America and boy did I catch it many people really pissed at me and so I learned I learned my lesson we are going to come back to the following but I actually want to start at the beginning of your career okay um since this is a sag audience I always like to ask how did you get your sag card my sag card was pure nepotism I'll tell you and and it's it's it's kind of strange because I don't come from a theatrical family nobody going back generations behind me was in any way involved with the theater but I did have one cousin that's all it takes folks my cousin Timothy had gone into theater and she was a director and she was directing a children's workshop in Springfield Massachusetts for the summer I had just moved to New York I guess I was probably 17 or 18 and now that I'm telling this story that was my Equity card this isn't this the equity Q&A it's alright cause right now I have no idea how I got my sag card uh I guess because I did Animal House I think Animal House was my sac card I had to me because I didn't that was the first thing I never done yeah so yeah but that's a better forget the last two minutes of your life no Animal House I was at circling the square I was at school there I moved from Philadelphia to you know I got in out of high school I was working at a warehouse for probably I don't know four or five months in Philly and I wanted to go to New York and just try to chase the dream and I literally was like suitcase and a dream on the train on the subway 72nd and Broadway got off anyway oh man Here I am you know this is the center of the universe and sleeping on my sister's couch I started at circling the square acting school and they the first year I was there they sent a casting director over to the school or he called up and said we're looking for you know like preppy freshman type college types they send me over and I got that getting and and that was I think that's what was my sag card how did your parents feel about you leaving home at 17 to move to New York well you know I'm the youngest of six and by the time I don't think they noticed I was gone I mean my parents were great and supportive and like incredibly supportive of what I did but there was no resistance whatsoever because I didn't even we didn't even talk about going to college that was not even in my I was not any discussion that I hadn't was there was no part of them that said you know plus they were very very just hands off from everything that I did I mean to a fault I think sometimes I'm a much more much much more involved with my children than my parents were with me so they said find my father gave me a little bit of money it was something like some that $4,000 sounds like the number and that's you know that nothing to you know sniff out and that was to pay for the acting school which I think was 2,000 maybe for the first year or something like that or something like that so I had that and I had my sister's couch and that that was the beginning and did you have to take survival jobs or did you just hit the ground yeah it was a waiter for yeah quite a long time yeah yeah I got awaiting my first gig was a busboy at Fiorella's Roman cafe on 63rd and Broadway I was I was a terrible busboy I mean I had real real disasters and and I they moved me up to waiter and I dropped I dropped a bottle a bottle of ketchup on two at broke and went all of this guy was wearing a white soon literally my first my first day as a waiter oh and and I thought to myself there were the two hamburgers on the plate and the bottle of ketchup you had to serve everything on on a tray that was the tray service that was their deal you know it's cuz it was a classier and the ketchup hit the floor hit the guy soon and I thought well I gotta put these two hamburgers down before I do so I just walked away from the guy but you know he went nuts he wasn't actually ballistic and the amazing thing was on her death is the guy Phil Scott I still remember the guys name he was the manager of the restaurant and he didn't say anything to me and I was like holy and he was a terrifying dude I mean it's like really a tough manager everybody was scared of announcing how come he's not saying anything this is real this is almost worse and he called me down to the to this little basement at the end of the day shift he said you know you're not ready to be a waiter right I said yeah you felt I know I know I know yeah and so he kind of cut my shift back or whatever but what but I ended up working actually a buddy mine is here that I went to acting school but he indirectly got me a job at a place called the Allstate cafe which was on 72nd between West End and Broadway and I ended up working there for I don't know often offer probably three years i every time i would make enough money that I thought I didn't have to have this waiting job anymore I'll leave and then oh it spend the money and I have to go back and ask my boss that's my boss for them again when Animal House came out I had to ask for the night off to go to the premiere you're kidding you had gone back to work there oh yeah yeah and many a couple years after an imposter well I have to ask about Animal House because it was filmed at my alma mater Oh University of Oregon what was the process like of landing well you know why I was there by the way was because it's supposed to be a East Coast kind of I think was based on my Dartmouth or you know whatever nobody would touch it on the East Coast nobody would let you know anybody and they were like and I only found out this out later you know they were kind of going around a table you know where we shoot this movie because it's like we can't we need like IV walls of a campus you know but it's all about you know whatever you know tits and ass and and they ended up writing a different version of the script I think and they took all the objectionable stuff out and finally got the University of Oregon to be suckered in to letting the movie shoot up there so yeah it was nuts man I mean I was nuts I mean I I didn't know it I didn't have an agent I didn't have any kind of real idea about the business at all and I went for this first audition there wasn't that much to say I mean I don't have that lines in the movie so I guess I said what I said was it thank you sir may I have another I don't know if I might say yeah exactly yeah that was like my only line and the guy the guy said John Landis was a director and he said so look smarmy like meg Meg meg like smarmy hey and I honestly I had no idea what that word meant it wasn't in my vocabulary but I figured it was having a little bit of an onomatopoeic kind of thing so I kind of made it you know face it I thought sounded for me smart so Becca the next time I went back he did the same thing just make that face again you know and and and then the guy called me up literally and said you got the movie and I said okay that's an awesome man and he goes uh you're getting scaled and I was like great now I'm looking I not know what's what how much scale was I didn't know what it meant I thought he meant there'll be a scale in your room I really I had no idea and then I knew that there was a plan if I remember correct this is a long time ago so I mean I'll try to been a lot of road between me and this story I think that I was planning on leaving on a Monday and they called me up maybe on a Thursday or something like that and said as it turns out we're gonna shoot your scene earlier than we thought and we need you out here as soon as possible you have to get on a plane like tomorrow morning and I said I can't I got a date I and and by the way I just dropped my laundry office he's still in it's still in the longer mentha got that it's it then definitely not gonna have to fluff and fold and they won't have it I mean I remember that part of it and he's like no truck you don't understand well you have to be at the airport and on this plane so I said oh okay okay so I didn't get my laundry back they left it there I packed what other the other stuff that I had I went to the airport I got on the planes the first time I'd ever flown first class hey can I tell you the idea that the alcohol was free that blew my mind boom my mind oh uh really yes I don't have to pay for this I was only 18 that's gonna say I could not believe that I didn't have to pay for it so started drinking I was going to spend the night in San Francisco because I had to get up to Oregon and I guess there was no flight or I was going to have to spend the night in a hotel in San Francisco and then flied first thing in the morning to Oregon to be on the set that day that next day to shoot the scene and the more I drank the more I thought the fact that I was a movie star probably meant that the flight attendant would be spending the night with me and so I started flashing my script you know just pathetic you know hitting on like 30 year olds flight attendant flashing my screen it had not you know and I finally you know I I said you know listen I'm in or I'm in San Francisco just for the night nice try and she said to me back in those days this is hard to remember but in first class a lot of times that this has happened to me subsequently as you were leaving the plane if you'd been really nice they would actually give you a bottle of whatever they had left me yeah so I ended up towards the end of my meal this is back when they would also serve after-dinner drinks I thought that a sophisticated after-dinner drink would be amaretto I think I'd probably seen the commercial for it or something like that it's the most disgusting to this day I can't even look at a bottle of him and she gave me the rest of the bottle of him to take me so I put my tail between my legs took my script and went to this you know hotel and spent the night and then crackin off dawn with a hangover you know got up went to Oregon they rush me I had really long hair by the way and really yeah and and they rushed me into the makeup hair thing it's Geno cut my hair how and then tried to get me fitted for my costume my wardrobe and they had called me to ask me what my sizes were I didn't know my sizes I mean I did that wasn't something that the I knew I would just like put on my clothes I didn't know what my weight because my inseam that's me I had no idea so nothing fit and I remember the wardrobe designer being like furious at me you know and we're gonna remake everything entails you as was all pissed off me uh and then I sat there in whatever kind of dressing room it was maybe like a little you know like a honey wagon and didn't work that day and then I didn't work for I don't know a week or something and it was such a great education because it was like I know that you've all been in that situation where you get so ant up for that moment you know your hair and you're on a set here it comes and you know blah blah that's like it doesn't happen and you feel like you just shot your wad you know ed and I it was a great lesson i sat there in the rain was brain die you know and I sat there in a hotel you know for a week alone in Oregon in orchid and rape was raining too long it was a great experience did you think that it would open doors for you were you kind of surprised to tried to go back to waiting tables I don't think I thought that it would and it did you know I mean I I thought it would I thought sure I did yeah I mean I don't know yeah did you how did you get an agent off of it at least um no I got an agent off of a a workshop that I did I went back to New York I I went to the equity lounge they had an equity lounge in the equity lounge was a billboard that had open calls for showcases and a lot of times you were come on man let's showcase I don't know people would say to me don't do it she'll case it's worthless and I did a showcase and you know an agent zambian got an agent none of that and did that did you find other roles started coming your way once you have representation it got better yeah it got better I was doing a lot of theater I was doing I did a couple of little things where like a movie would come into town and they'd need a players you know so I did a couple of little like one day or two day things and and and then eventually I got on to soap operas right which I know you did I believe I know you did One Life to Live that search for tomorrow I did search for tomorrow and the guy One Life to Live I was working as an extra yeah now I've heard from so many actors that that is a great training ground for being in front of the camera was that your experience it was a great training ground for professionalism you know but I don't think that I was really lacking in that but in terms of like being there on time getting a schedule making that your priority learning your lines all that kind of stuff yeah great training ground in terms of the actual work honestly I felt like it was the material was so awful that that it was was constantly a struggle to try to infuse it with some kind of you know I was so serious Americans and and and I was surrounded by people who had been doing you know such sort of crap for so long that they were they didn't give a yeah and and to me I'm not saying for everybody to me that was toxic you know is that what you got out or did you did another opportunity presented said no no no there was no opportunity know when I when I know I left after a year I'd done searching tomorrow for nine weeks I dig dying life for a year after a year I had I had not you know again you know this was just youth you know I had no concept of saving my money you know and and even though my overhead was like nothing I had a way of going through whatever money I would make from from this out and so the contract was up and they offer me a you know an extension I think they wanted two more years or something like that and I had nothing I had no auditions I had really nothing to go to I just my instinct just said I gotta I gotta say goodbye to this this particular thing this world now and I'd leave shortly thereafter you won your first Obie Award I say first because I assume there are others on the way for the slab boys opposite Sean Penn hmm which you've gone on to work with Sean since then but at that time I mean could you tell that he was this iconic actor in the making it was great it was great he was you know it was fantastic we had a great time doing the shows it was a show that I had done actually at actress ear of Louisville earlier which was a great it was the first time that it had been done in the States came from Scotland and somebody had picked it up to move it that was actually Broadway I don't know that I I don't know if the OB was actually for that for that because that I think I have a feeling that slab boys was on problem but I could be wrong anyway we yeah Val Kilmer was in the show Jackie girl Haley and Brian Ben then it was great it was it was a it was great and Shawn was fantastic we just so we're clear you're not sure which would show you when your Obie Award for no I'm really not but I I don't think it was slap boys Pacifica's I think's lab boys was tech Toby's like a off-broadway award and I think that's lab boys I think I think oh they might have been a play they called forty deuce which was about a gay hustler kind of junkie hustler I think you're right actually and also around this time you booked what really became your big breakthrough role I think in diner directed by Barry Levinson that had every young great actor in the cast you and Daniel Stern and Ellen Barkin and Steve Guttenberg I'm curious about the casting process and also was it always the role of Timothy that you went after no diner was was one of those things that came around and and you know how it is when something sort of happens and you start to hear about it and you start to know that the people that you're being a sort of well your colleagues that are around the same age and everybody's kind of up for they start talking about it and they did a really look like pretty extensive search to put that cast together and there was no thinking at all amongst Barry and and and Mark Johnson the producer about finding names you know so often boy these days and I guess it was still true to a certain extent back there but but it's all about the names you know it's all about putting together names and have one is somebody mean you know overseas and all that kind of stuff but when in the case the diner was really like okay let's just find them let's put together the best like five or six guys that we could find so they they were testing guys in LA and they were testing guys in New York or auditioning and I guess I read the whole script and I went well I think the best part is either a part that Tim Daly played because he was kind of romantic and was getting the girls and I liked that part of it and or the part that Mickey played because he was kind of cool and tough and you know whatever you know whatever Mickey did with it and I didn't really see the part of Fenwick on the page as being something that either I would be good at or or really was all that interested in and so I went in and our audition for both of those other parts because you get to choose that's what it was yeah you got to choose if you made you if you made it to the audition you got to choose which ones which guy you wanted to take a shot at so I took a shot at those two and Barry's gonna fenwick try the Ben so I went back out I really like not even really knowing I hadn't worked on fanwork I hadn't thought about family really all that much because I was so sure that it was I was more right for the other to came back in and then got a call back and and the call back was like a real full-on screen test I mean they had a diner set they had real cameras and not video cameras like you know like 35 millimeter cameras full crew all these guys 20 30 guys that they were going to mix and match and put into different groups and sort of you know put them all play them all together and I had unbelievable flu I mean 104 literally on the day that I went to that audition I was so sick and part of what you know serendipitously that character at least was based I was just going you know I mean and and they liked it Wow so yes did you have to get method and give yourself the flu for the whole show I don't know how you do that did you find diner change things for you were you able to quit the waiting job I did yeah I mean but my time diner came out I stopped waiting tables I don't remember the exact moment when I was able to stop or when I felt like I was you know I had enough money in the back to stop but but yeah it I I stopped waiting tables but I but it didn't really it didn't really change things that much it didn't seem like that big a deal I'll tell you why because diner was this unbelievable kind of critical success but it wasn't like a big move I mean it's it's it's found its life you know through the years on on you know people watching it on on well back then it was VHS but you know laserdisc but you know it wasn't like a baboon well here comes you know I remember going to the premiere of diner and I was really disappointed I had heard that it was good but the first time I saw it was the premiere I was like wow it's so dark and like can you really tell the difference between any of the characters I mean I really it was a great lesson in in how my own perception of things that I'm in is yes is just totally totally skewed and I thought the diner was positioned as like Porky's like that's the way that it was sold to the studio Animal House right but a couple years after so I thought it was going to be this giant giant kind of commercial you know and it would make a lot of money you know what I mean and then I saw this like really intense kind of dark funny quirky sort of movie which of course in now I love I think it's a I think it's amazing movie but at the time it's not what I had sort of signed up for yeah and and I remember I'll never forget I'm I go to the bathroom after after the screening and I'm standing at the urinal and sorry nice space working instant reflection and this guy goes hey you were in that movie right Gallegos it was a sleeper I slept oh I said okay this is the way people you know be responding yeah and luckily critics kind of got behind it and nurtured it and it you know found its own life but did it change my life no in fact what I found was that I was auditioning now but I was auditioning for the quirky wee your next-door neighbor or friend you know you know the sir dick in a weird way it was like I was auditioning for character parts which is what I had been doing on the stage and slab boys and forty deuce in other plays that I'd done it but always kind of like character part but I really wanted to be a leading man and that diner didn't didn't push that you know for me but you followed that with Footloose where you got to be a leading man you got to get the girl uh-huh I have to imagine and then I was like I want to be a leading man I wanna be character I don't know I'm confused did you know when when you got the script for Footloose that you were onto something special or what did you just think I mean I remember when I heard the plot for it I was like that's silly a town where dancing is outlawed and then you see it and it's it's I mean I don't use this word lightly but it's a classic thank you um I know I didn't know I was onto something I mean for one thing I had no indication from the script that it was a dance movie it didn't the title didn't know they didn't really indicate that I mean honestly it said uh you know whatever the guy goes in and he's pissed off and he takes a sip of a beer and then he dances but you know didn't say like hey I'll be swinging from the rafters and you know me there was nothing yeah there was no indication of that I didn't and I remember talking that I remember talking to them and saying you know they said something about a choreographer in fact there was a choreographer and part of the first part of the audition was that we had to go and have like a you know choreography dance thing I remember saying to them hey I mean Allah happy to do it yeah but you know just say you know I mean I can dance I go out dancing all the time just not that big a thing really me right and I got to California where we were going to rehearse the thing for I don't know two weeks or three weeks at rehearsal first said that blew my mind I was like really I'm is like a long time for us and we're gonna go to Oregon young not already another state no I know it was a Utah we shot in Utah in Provo Utah and and I walked onto it was at Paramount I walked on to the this soundstage and I was all by myself in this choreographer and there was a tire wall of mirrors and a dance bar and rings and mats and vaulting equipment and I look around I went oh this is I know I did I had no idea that that's what they were going through how so was it strange for you when they remade Footloose a couple years ago did you see the movie yeah I saw it uh no it wasn't strange I liked it I thought it was cool yeah I enjoyed it I went I was I was shooting up in Boston I'm shooting a movie called RIPD up in Boston it came out and I you know walked up the street and so on and I thought that they did a really good job I think that the I really liked the director of the movie I didn't want to work with him I think the the biggest difference that I saw in the two movies speaking of which was that the actors that they cast in in the the remake were fantastic dancers none of us were dancers in that sense of the and and and and and as a result I had to be doubled you know quite a bit I mean a lot of the stuff I did but I was off I was doubled through a lot of it Chris Chris Penn not a dancer a great great actor wonderful guy you know fantastic in the movie and and the process of watching him you know I don't start the dance is one of the most brilliant things in it it was was him you know but not but not a dancer and and that that that I think was what was different so like when to see the Reid Megan was it was amazing because I was like did they hit you a video cameo or anything they did but that didn't interest you were uh I didn't family they interested me but I it didn't I felt like it was going to not it wasn't gonna help the movie and it wasn't that great apart and that's really what it was I bet just it was a cameo but it was it's not a good part yeah I have to imagine that the success of Footloose coupled with the critical success of diner really puts you on Hollywood's radar at that point and I'm imagining that you sort of had your choice of roles how did you make your choices what how did you decide which roles you would take I don't know I mean I think that that I look at that time afterwards as sort of like a quite a few years of sort of a slide down the mountain because Footloose was really you know like such a success and everything from that point on in terms of the leads that I was doing were just not working and I think there was a part of me honestly that wasn't quite ready or comfortable or whatever with with the amount of celebrity and fame and as much as it was what I always dreamed of as a child because it really was I mean I really really want when I was a little boy I really wanted to be famous you know and I was gonna get it you know but when I got it I don't know I didn't it just didn't quite feel right the guy I think because I I had an I had my my my energy had shifted from you know being like a superstar you know like David Cassidy or Bobby Sherman ders my energy has shifted to being like a serious actor and when footless came out I was such a pop star so now I thought to myself how can I get how can I take this and turn it into being a serious actor and the choices that I made from that point on were you know just not good for somebody's in there down yeah well I mean good and you know good mood doing good movies and doing the difference between good movies and movies people see you know those those are no they don't always line up you know well she's having a baby is one of my favorite she's not very proud of that movie they'll be one no honestly that really yeah I'm very very proud of the movie in fact that's a that's an interesting story because John Hughes a fantastic director I loved his films and was you know fought really hard to to get that movie and I remember the process of going through getting it was long and so arduous and when I finally got it we we went in and had this just incredible lining up of the where my life was at and his life was at and and this kind of symbiosis because I was really playing him and and and and I really spent a tremendous amount of time with him and and his family and our lives just got completely you know kind of intertwine and he loved the movie and I loved the movie and what happened was he had been so hugely successful like everything that he did was just a giant giant success and I think the people were kind of gunning for him and that weird thing that happens in Bob right now you know yeah yeah it was like it was time for him to fail and you know the movie came out nobody went he was absolutely heartbroken because it was the the most personal thing that he had done yeah and and we actually do planes trains and automobiles afterwards which there's a great movie but wasn't quite all as much you know he used a lot of himself and his work all the time but but it was a little bit more about those guys anyway so anyway it was you know another you know like I said I'm not I'm not it wasn't question of whether or not the work was any good or the films were good sometimes they were bad but but it was just a time when things weren't working wasn't Flatliners a big hit uh I guess Flatliners did okay I don't I'm not sure I think it did okay I love that movie I think they're supposed to be be remaking it they're remaking all my movies need to give her deaf hopefully they'll get to the D soon what about JFK does that count yeah you good men it does seem like by the early 90s you were taking more character-driven roles or maybe I should say supporting roles and character-driven stories like JFK murder in the first river wild was that a conscious choice on your part or was it just the roles that interested you it was a you know rarely do you look I buy I think of careers as you know that's kind of having you know they just sort of roll along as opposed to well it was at that moment that I did the enos very rare that you have those kinds of thinking about them a lot of books but I think a lot of it's I mean I think it just kind of you know you just kind of go day after day you try to put one foot in front of the other and it's all baby steps really you know but that particular thing JFK was a definite moment it was a real fork in the road and it was a it was an agent that I had who said I think I see a different way for you to go I remember our name is Paul Wagner oh well said I remember that when I would look at your work in the late 70s in New York on the stage it was more character it was edgy er it was you know just these sort of I don't know just off left-of-centre sort of parts that you were playing I think we need to try to go there we need to forget about the size of your parked and we need to forget about the size of your salary and we need to just kind of try something new and she also represented all of her stuff and and so she sent me an on on JFK and honestly that was a really that really was a turning point mm-hmm that was a real fork in the road had she been your agent for a while or did you just yeah she had been for for some time yeah and you were in period all these ensembles and around this time I guess it was 1994 was when for college students created the game six degrees of Kevin Bacon I like does it baffle you how huge this thing has become I mean there's a board game there's a book right yeah I mean I guess what baffles music is the hang time that's had you know yeah I wish that I had you know more interesting answer to it I created six degrees org you know that's been that's been a really positive thing that's come out of it for me it's it's a charitable website we've raised a lot of money and but you know it's I guess if I I would be irritated by it if there was another actor you know it's like every time I had to hear about six degrees of Kevin Costner Kevin Spacey kid yeah Kevin quad you don't mean I think it would start to bug me but I you know that now it doesn't bug me at well and you've sort of embraced it I mean you did the commercial the one of my favorite commercials of all time where you were you play on the the six degrees just brilliant um but yeah it must be strange and you have people who like when they work with you they're excited because their bacon number has decreased I think well I mean here to your one good actually I don't know that he was really cop to that you know first day at work yeah nice to meet you you know so glad about it school yeah you know look it's it's it's great I I think that you know I like to think about the idea that if you take me out of it it really is a true concept and that is that we are all connected it's not just you know obviously it's not just me but you know there's connections that happen in in our world of actors of you know how often do you go and either be at an audition or on the set or someplace and you run into somebody that knows somebody that worked with somebody that you knew I mean that's like that that's what makes us feel when we have such a competitive business you know to find ways that we can feel up you know like a family you know that I think that that's a great feeling as it has very little do with me but just just that that connection and also you know globally just the idea that the things that people do on the other side of the world affect things that we do in our neighborhoods and vice versa that we're all kind of riding on this rock you know and and we need to know think about what we do and take care of each other basically and that's to me also in the 1990s you stepped behind the camera first I believe was a losing chase yeah was the first movie you directed was this something you'd always wanted to do and why did you take the leap with that particular project well I think that you get to a certain point where you well I'm not you've been working for the man for so long you've been putting yourself into the hands of people who we'll shoot it the way they want and edit it the way they want to put the words in your mouth put the clothes on your face put the makeup on your you know it no put the clothes on your body to the maker you know what I'm a don't say it so you do that for so long and then you kind of well maybe I could be the guy that's that's you know telling that story and that's really what it's about is it story time so so this thing kind of fell into our laps we did it for Showtime cure was in it was something that she had connected to and it found and produced in Helen Mirren was in it Helen Mirren got a globe Golden Globe for it I was very happy and very proud of her and it was a great experience I mean I'll never forget that you know you it was a night shoot and it was four o'clock in the morning Sun was coming up and we'd wrapped and I've been in this situation a bazillion times before as an actor and here comes the Sun and we finally got it and we wrapped and I go into I didn't have a dressing room obviously I go in the Cure's dresser and she wasn't in the shot and take off my shoes and then I take off my shirt I take off my pants and I realized wait a second these are my own clothes I don't have to change I'm the director it was the real it was a great moment sokurah starred in that and you've also directed her and I think four episodes four episodes of closer yeah and then we also did a film called a loverboy so next time I direct she's got to not be in it that's all well what's it like to get to boss your significant other around in the workplace well that's assuming that that's the relationship between this particular actors director it's not necessarily the case I mean especially not the closer I mean you know if in series television you know the it's a machine that's already operating and the director that comes in to that to that already operating machine really has to fit within that framework Kira's voice on that show is way more important than any director that would come in so it really is not a question of bossing her around and I don't really look at directing you know or at least my process of being a director as one of bossing around I mean I think that you know the one thing that I've learned being on the other on that side of camera as an actor is that actors actors for the most part do their at home and they come in and they have ideas and oftentimes they're good their instincts are right they've spent so much more time focusing on those three lines then then a director could ever do with all the other that's on your plate you know between like the budget and the cameras and you know kind of gear you're going to use and and schedule and all those kinds of things you haven't really been thinking with that kind of you know focus on those three lines so the best thing you can do as a directors is trust that you know probably if you've cast that part right they're going to come in with something that's going to be a value and rarely have I been in a situation where I thought to myself I had to you know boss somebody around you've been in big budget blockbusters you've been in small independent films are there any films you wish had reached a wider audience you know I don't go into it hoping that only members of my immediate family go like that's never been that's never been high on my wish list so and but and at the point where where I commit I'm in all the way and I want desperately for it to be seen that's not always the case I think probably I would say the film that you know I think probably the woodsman murder in the first those were two that were that I wished had sort of founded a bigger audience you know on one hand on the other hand lucky and I wanted as a guy locked up and you know that beaten beaten and Alcatraz the others a pedophile what am I thinking you know it's like it's not you know it's it's not I think of a successful but it's not Star Wars you know it's you know it's you can't you can't really expect that it was that kind of subject matter one that I actually think is an excellent movie is stir of echoes and I actually think it would have done better had it not come out after the sixth sense but that is a fantastic movie it feels like it's found a second life on DVD I have to imagine people must bring that one up all the time they do they do they always have a hard time with the title because I think it was not a good title I mean but I think that yeah we were really proud of that movie I and we were aware of The Sixth Sense and really begged the distributor to put put it out before the sixth sense because there was a good buzz around a sixth sense and was a real sense that since there was a real feeling that it was going to be big and I am absolutely certain that it would have been huge regardless of whether stir of echoes it came up come out first or not but for whatever reason it's like one of those kind of things with marketing and placement and in general you know people that have those kinds of you know gigs at studios or distributors or whatever they don't they usually are not really interested in the opinion of actor boy and so yeah so six cents came out it was a massive hit stir of echoes came out it was like clowns it's kind of like Six Senses you know there's such different movies though that's the strange they are but you know a little kid says I see dead people he says that in our movie and you mentioned the woodsman which is an excellent movie which you play a pedophile it gets out of prison after I think 12 years very brave subject matter especially at the time because I think it came out about 10 years ago were you at all worried about taking on that role mmm no I wasn't uh I mean I wasn't worried to the extent that I thought wow it's gonna kill my career you know I mean I mean I had already done a movie sleepers where I was abusing young boys in a pretty serious kind of way and I don't I don't have fear of of portraying any piece of the human condition there's nothing that scares me when it comes to the acting part of it you know to me it's like to to try to build an image of Who I am off screen or what I'm I think that's shift kind of sailed a long time ago so I don't I don't I don't think about that I was I was I wasn't I guess I was afraid that I was going to I was afraid of actually what sort of happened and that was that I was going to go into this place and I knew there would be difficult and I knew that it would be challenging and then there wasn't it was not going to find a you know find a life and find a an audience and I think that I probably to a certain extent underestimated how really truly difficult that being a subject matter is and a lot of people have said to me especially parents you know dude I heard that movie was good but I just couldn't push play you know I I just you know let alone go to the theater to see you know and I get it what would you say has been your most difficult girl uh well you know did things are difficult in different different kinds of ways I mean certainly the woodsman was hard murder the first was very very difficult role for a lot of reasons physically and all kinds of stuff Holloman was very very hard because I was for so much of the movie I was painted green because I was the green screen yeah and I wore these giant green contacts and green teeth and it was hours and hours in the makeup trailer which I really don't do well I actually kicked the door off the trailer one day and I'm embarrassed to say and you know other stuff I mean they want it for a lot of the movie I had this latex mask that had to be glued on to my face and I can only drink out of straw when I'm wearing the world smaller it also went on and on yeah and so it was it was it was physically like really really challenging um talking about directing episodes of The Closer in recent years you've started dabbling in television I know you played yourself or a version of yourself on Will & Grace and in 2009 you start in the very acclaimed TV movie taking chance that's right which you won and a Screen Actors Guild Award I believe did this what attracted you to that project and the experience make you interested in trying more television I didn't really look at it as trying television in a strange kind of way because it was a looked at it more as a film was an HBO film and and it kind of looked like a film and read like a film a shot like a film so it wasn't exactly like trying television that that one I just was blown away by that that script and that story and I just said well I had no idea that for those who don't know it's but about that when when soldiers are killed overseas there's a process of returning the remains they arrived at in Dover Air Force Base the returning the remains to the to their final resting place and it was a real marine who volunteered for this what they call escort service and then just wrote this kind of report about it and it got picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle and turned into this this really beautiful script very very simple kind of story but really a story about sacrifice and about the military and and and and and the loss of life and all those kinds of things it just really moved me when I when I read it and I just went like just I just didn't know that this went on and that's really been the response that a lot of people had to it so so yeah I did it but it wasn't really my my way into television I think my way in the television had a little bit more to do with the closer and with seeing Kyra's experience and you know experiencing that for seven years really second hand going into directing those episodes and and also simultaneously I became this like real crazy like television consumer I said it went from zero to 60 in terms of that because I used to really only watch 60 minutes in basketball that was pretty much for my television I just I didn't watch it and all of a sudden I found myself you know binge watching all of the wire going back into the Sopranos you know and and then the you know starting to watch Dexter Breaking Bad and and and all these like shows that were just Brotherhood and you know and I was like wow television is and and so I began this process of trying to see if there was something for me to do and honestly the the first call that I made I remember the room that I made it in to my representation to say I want to be look at a TV show which is probably like at least three or four years ago was a really really hard call for me to make really because I started at a time when it was like the graveyard or or there was such a dividing line you know in the 70s and early 80s between being a television actor being a movie actor you know it was like then the rarely did those two things cross and he was kind of like and thrown in the towel you know that's that's the way that's every every fiber of my being as I picked up that phone was like mile dude you're thrown in the towel you know you've given up on the movie thing and then I read these scripts I was like oh my god that's good that's like so much better than so many of the movie scripts that I that I've read recently and just one after another you know just fantastic pilots and I started to realize you know this is a bit of a cliche now but that writers you know really were being drawn into this world because they knew that for one thing that got a chance to kind of breathe a little bit a number of episodes but also they were given more power and or control and more of what they said and I had had weight and had value in in the world of television because they're the ones that run the show were you looking specifically for a drama reopened a comedy anything I was open to comedy I was developing two comedies at HBO and I was looking at all kinds of stuff and even you know half hours and stuff like that the one thing I definitely was not looking at was a network television show really definitely not so how did you end up with the network show you know it was like I had that you know this is a this is a process you know like like kind of peeling back the layers are snobby this and I had right starting with television general then I was like well it's just gonna be HBO or Showtime you know and then it was just gonna be a you know cable they you know whatever basics okay you don't mean it's like you know and then I think I think part of it was that I I started to focus on my reading things and responding to things and thinking a lot about you you have a deal one of the giant pieces of television is that you have to think about where things are going to go you know can't just be that pilot you know the movie that's it as the movie you know you read it that's it that's what some version of that is going to be on on the screen with a table show you gotta go all right that's just the beginning well is this going to house this roll out is this a concept that is sustainable you know is there going to be a place that's got to do I do I believe in the in the in the people that are involved with the show that they have ideas about where it's you know going to roll out and I also found myself both in the things that I was watching and the things that I was reading drawn to life and death kind of situations I wanted something that was high-stakes you know like high really high stakes and uh and I wanted to be the hero I didn't want to be bad guy I was gonna ask about that because when you got the script for the following had anyone been cast though were you at all interested in the role Joe no I mean we talked about it but I didn't want to do it so what attracted you to the role of Ryan because he was a hero but he was just up the best kind of hero yeah I mean he was a mess and and and you know that's that's really what I was interested uh the following is obviously known for its surprise twists and turns I mean I can't even count how many there are in the pilot episode do you know ahead of time what's happening to your character how far in advance and are you able to plan out your character arc or are you just as surprised as we are I am I'm often just as surprised as you are I definitely every time I get a script I'm excited to see where it's going we Kevin Williamson who created the show and I have have have through this season had to you know develop lines of communication about about that and no I don't always I don't always know we talk about things he's he is he's very very open to discussing it with me which she wasn't always you know I think that it was an adjustment for him I don't think he's used to having actors that were as you know pushy about that stuff as mean I just don't think that that was something that he had ever really dealt with before so that was a bit of an adjustment it was adjustment for me to to you know be in that kind of a relationship with with someone who was a creator but I also think that the show has a certain kind of fluidity you know I don't think that he knows every single moment because you know you put something out there and that storyline starts to take shape and it starts to work and and and then you sort of lift that part of it up that being said you know I wrote a big backstory for the character based on something that he said to me he said this is a guy whose life has been surrounded by death and that was it I took that and just you know created this whole backstory some of which either serendipitously I happened to you know hit on or he actually liked and has used so it is a it's a fluid kind of thing between us in terms of that I also I also think that if you really think about you talk about an arc you need to know where things are going to play the scene that you're in mm-hmm you really don't because it because I were here in this moment right now and I'm not thinking I don't need to know what happens as I walk out of here you know to me that's not important to this moment what's important is what happened back there when we first met and you know when we were pulling up then all that kind of stuff that's the stuff that that makes sense of those are the things you really need to focus on sometimes it's a surprise when I see something a flashback that I haven't really thought yeah then I go oh if I'd known that but but that's but but that's the thing that surprises me not not that's the thing that I'm sometimes throws in the office to see things I didn't know about is there anything you would have played differently had you known do you know honestly it's such it's such a whirlwind then to do these 15 episodes and the amount of pages that we do and I don't know I don't know I think that I think that it's one of the great things about television is that you know with a movie you get it he at least have some time to kind of prepare to think about it and and the performance that you that you do is whether or not it gets cut out or not it is contained in this you know in this two-hour kind of thing you know and man with the with the television thing it's just all got to be instinct because you know it comes in so fast and there's so many pages you don't have time to - you know what you have to do is you have to really figure out who your guy is and our woman is and and really really like really get clear about that to the point where if they throw something at you at the last minute you can say well here's the thing this is what I would do this is what Ryan would do I can just walk in those shoes because I know those shoes so well along those lines is it a hard character to shake at the end of the day because he goes through so much turmoil from yes a week it is it is I say very it's a very dark place to go I don't think that I I mean I certainly have felt that with other dark films that I've done but they but they don't last as long you know and you know yeah it is it's a it's a dark it's a dark place to go and you spend the good news is that you spend a lot of your day acting and then I started thinking about how well you know you in a year of doing movies you know there's a lot of like waiting around and then waiting for them to edit it and promoting it and traveling to this place or whatever talking about it but the amount of time you actually act you know the time between action it cut and that's what we want to do right I mean we just want to act we just want to have that you know we don't want to do anything present company excluded other other than just act you know just say lines and hit marks and and feel things and say things and look at your actors you don't need that and and on on on on the series Wow we do some acting them just we you know 16 hours you turn around like 10 pages are just fun and you like really one scene after another and that's exhilarating but it also in our case so much of that day is somebody is in jeopardy drunk I'm killing someone someone's trying to kill me you know you know it's like a lot of like it's a lot of blood and gore all over the floor so it is it is a dark place to go I joked about it earlier but can you tell us at all what's in store for your character for the next season Oh next season uh well I think you know I I think that our discussions have all been sort of philosophical but I think that we're going to be at a place where we can kind of start fresh and I think it's going to be a really interesting thing because uh you know he's been such a tortured guy and maybe we can sort of see another side of him you know I don't know I mean I think that the one thing I begged and asked you know Kevin time and time again is just since whatever happens because he know our shows is serialized so it's very it's very plot you know I'm gonna say plot heavy but it but it's implied is very important you got a lot of balls in the air and a lot of characters and a lot of stories that you have to juggle I always want him to go go back and look at an episode and say have we learned anything new a about this character I don't give NMS and that's not really true or be have I gotten a chance to show another color to him that the audience hasn't gotten a chance to see you know and I'll never forget I mean we had an episode you know I've been you know really kind of tortured and and you know whatever she's dressed and beaten up and drinking and the whole thing and then all of a sudden he put me in this house in this chair and I was complete wiseass my hands were tied it was nothing physical that I could do it for you know probably two acts of the show because I'm basically tied to a chair and the whole show became him just being his kind of fearless wiseass punk yeah I was like that's so great because I haven't done that for you know five episodes or something like that it was it was a lot of fun I can't wait to see what happens next week I want take some questions from the audience and we have a lot of people from around the world forgive me in advance by butcher anyone's name I think it's silky from Germany wants to know if there's a particular role that got away a role you really wanted but wasn't cast in oh man so many I mean so many and and I kind of trying to think of one specific raisi thing about it is that there's been so many roles and there still are you know just so we're absolutely clear about that I still read things and you know know saying yeah you're uh you're right up there the top you know right the top of the list and I'm like right well you're near the top you're in the lower third and then you know I don't get it you know and so that still happens but my theory is once it's over I really don't hold on to it I really don't I keep looking down the road I don't look in the rearview mirror so I don't I don't remember I don't remember marina from Rio de Janeiro wants to know what's the difference between acting on a movie and TV show is there a difference uh I mean I think that the I don't well I think that the preparation should be exactly the same you know I think that you should you know take your work as seriously as you possibly can and commit to it and do your homework and and and and do whatever that is that whatever that process is that you need to do to go in and do your work but you have to be ready for the fast fact that it's fast and furious and there has to be a lot of instinct about what you're going to do and it's not it's not a place I don't think the movie set necessarily is a place to discover the character some people look at it that way I look at it you figure out your character and then you come in and you do it that's kind of the Eastwood sort of style which is a little bit more my my my way of approaching it but a television series definitely is get ready to go and one take two take especially on our show and I'm like we do two takes now and the direction that we're gonna go god I'm like do you tell me why is there a really good reason why we're shooting this again because we got a lot of work today and uh you know so that would be the biggest difference I think just speed and instinct a victor wants to know if you weren't an actor what else do you think you would have done well I play music I write songs and I suppose that probably I would have you know done that I also like architecture and design and furniture and interior design and structure and stuff so maybe that but you know I it was a prude I was pretty young when I said this is the thing and I'm not I'm not in partway I'm in all the way there were never moments where you thought of quitting a question from Napoleon to valet the princess right who and or what has been your inspiration who do you look up to an admirer both in your personal life and in the business well uh I suppose you know I was thinking about this the other day and I I had this kind of moment where I shifted from the United before fame and money and girls - oh you know acting is like a serious thing that you can actually learn and study in and get good at and I had this friend whose name was Michael that I met we only friends for a really short amount of time I think I was probably a like a junior or a senior as a senior in high school and he had transferred to the school and he was wealthy and he had this VCR and I think it was a VCR but it was some kind of a tape machine and nobody had I mean nobody had a home tape machine at all and on it he somehow had collected the movies of James Dean and and Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando and I really didn't care about movies that much and I started to watch them and I went boy these guys are just unbelievable and and and that was the first sort of glimpse into what anime like a real America my idea about American actors and and then I went to the dollar movie theater and I saw Midnight Cowboy and and I could not believe that that wasn't a homeless guy that they had just found an account mr. Kaplan I mean if anybody hasn't seen it you just see that movie I'm out I was like that's but that's acting that's like that's a guy a it's different than than stardom it's it's being you know transformational transcendental to step into you know a really brilliant do another person's shoes so so that kind of acting you know from Dustin De Niro it and I would say number one in that in that list would be Meryl Streep to me because I she's not here she's not gonna watch this you don't notice that plenty of applause but you know Marilyn means it's just it's like it's not it's not it's like it's like a different person man you're just like wow that be that's just that's not that person is not that other person that I just saw will you admire someone like that so much is it hard to terrorize them in the river wild well you know I tell you uh the thing is is that you when you get a chance to be in the same room or being the same scene or rub shoulders with people that are that sort of iconic to you yeah that's that's a little bit of a challenge but but generally what I found I can't let I can't honestly I don't know if I can think of an that I've worked with you know um you know generally people and Meryl being probably the number one in terms of this you walk in she rolls up her sleeves you sit down you start working you know and it's like like within a couple of minutes it's like well we're all we're in the same movie and you know the thing is is also that that you know the people like her that come from the stage really had the idea that you need to play the play you don't just play your moment the worst thing that that film and television actors trap that they fall into is that they they only play their close up you know that's the thing you know the rest of it's all and to get to how do you know and then a and they don't even want to have anybody standing there playing the scene with the Marie and I just put an X on my box that's fine you know I find that so you know with stage actors understand that that we're all in service of the story and the story is only as good as all the parts of you know to me and you have to you have to all be in the same scene together and you have to be listening to the people you're with speaking of we have actually quite a few questions one you know when the last time you are on stage was and if you're looking to go back soon well I'm onstage all the time with the band and in a strange sort of way that kind of took the place of a stage career that was very important to me and very certainly very influential and an incredible training round you know you asked me about the soaps and the the flipside of that was I found that my work on the staging very very important in terms of getting good training the last time I was on the stage was 2012 I did a one-man no it would be 2002 actually I did a one-man show on on Broadway and it was it was great and yeah I'd like to go back I will see how that would fit into my life but I would like to do it did you do eight last year yeah did that stage reading yeah yeah um and I have a question from Gina Evangelista wants to know if you still fit well actually do it what was the last time you auditioned this morning no I I don't know wants to know if you still feel like you can give bad auditions and what's your worst audition story I'm sure I could give I'm sure I could give a very bad audition at this point was I'm very out of practice with auditioning I think one of my worst audition stories was going up I loved studio 54 used to try to go to the studio 54 and get in to studio 54 when I was not famous I mean I was just a you know a punk and and I'd go by myself once in a while ago with the friend and dance by myself you know it was like a weird thing I had with it but I loved it and and you know and then right as studio 54 was about to close they they opened up a day they were going to do a play called got to go disco and I auditioned for the gotta go disco my agent I had age at the time to call me up he said I know you don't do musicals but you know I know you like to go dis going and this is a show about a kid who likes to go dis going and so all you got to do is sing a disco song so I sang Alisha bridges I love the nightlife and I didn't know anything about sheet music and key and any of that stuff so I just bought the record and sang it an octave above her as I practiced practiced it but I think that the sheet music was in a completely different key so I bought the sheet music but the piano start player start playing and I was was way above my range and it was a disaster I scream and the guy who used to be the guy that let you into studio 54 was also one of the producers so I felt like I was back trying to get into fifth weird they were like I was envisioning the red rope and I fell to the ground I said I shouldn't be here disaster that was pretty bad so I'm giving if she didn't get the part I didn't get the part no oh God and I I mean the show you're familiar with the show I've got to go disco massive massive hit I know I thought I don't think it was I think it closed like after a day or so it looks like things worked out it we actually well I want to thank you so much for being here tonight congratulations let's uh thank you sir you you

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 52,980

Rating: 4.875 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, Conversations, Kevin Bacon, Actors, Career, SAG-AFTRA (Organization), Tremors (Film), Apollo 13 (Film), Footloose (Film), Mystic River (Film), Sleepers (Film), X-Men: First Class (Film), The Air I Breathe (Film), Hollow Man (Film), Stir Of Echoes (Film), The Following, The River Wild (Film), Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon (Game), Taking Chance (Film), Frost/Nixon (Film), Murder In The First (Film), SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Q&A, Retrospective, Conversations Online

Id: jku5KEUZjiE

Length: 83min 27sec (5007 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2013