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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
On the cusp of another nasty role in Paul Verhoeven's thriller, Kevin Bacon defends his rogues' gallery of bad cops, child rapists and male whores.
Aug 1, 2000 | Nothing can poison an actor's reputation like stardom. Before he played Ren MacCormack, a dancing James Dean who taught an entire town how to boogie in "Footloose" (1984), before the film became a monster hit and made him a teen heartthrob, Kevin Bacon was a respected character actor known for taking risks.
The Philadelphia-born actor's first serious role was playing a hustler-junkie who tried to earn drug money by selling a kid to a middle-aged sicko in Alan Brown's late '70s off-Broadway play, "Forty Deuce." And when Bacon moved on to feature films, he continued playing flawed, unsympathetic assholes. Director John Landis says on the DVD version of "Animal House" that he hired the unknown to play the cocky, repellent frat boy Chip Diller because no other actor looked as "smarmy." For Bacon's breakthrough performance, in Barry Levinson's 1982 ensemble classic, "Diner," he played Fenwick, a smug, alcoholic hothead who, in the movie's funniest scene, drunkenly trashes Jesus' manger in the middle of downtown Baltimore.
But after "Footloose," Bacon struggled in the '80s. He continued to work, even though his teen idol status prevented him from playing unlikable jerks. He ended up stuck leading horrible movies like "Quicksilver" or being overlooked in sadly ignored indie films like "The Big Picture." Typecast and frustrated, the actor almost gave up his craft until Oliver Stone resuscitated his career. The director gave him a tiny part in "J.F.K." and essentially returned Bacon to his roots playing scumbags in ensemble pictures. As the frightening, cunning male prostitute Willie O'Keefe -- only appearing during a five-minute scene with Kevin Costner -- Bacon stole the rest of the three-hour opus away from every other big-name star in the film.
From there, Bacon went on to juggle acclaimed supporting roles in blockbusters like "Apollo 13" and "A Few Good Men," and occasional, underappreciated lead roles in smaller pictures like "Murder in the First" and "Wild Things." Since 1996, Bacon has split time between acting and playing and touring with the Bacon Brothers, a blues act led by him and his brother Michael. He returns to the screen on Friday with another risky role in "Hollow Man," a psychosexual take on "The Invisible Man" tale directed by Paul Verhoeven ("RoboCop," "Total Recall," "Starship Troopers"). In it, Bacon plays Sebastian Caine, a scientist whose creepiest desires manifest after he takes an experimental serum that makes him invisible. The role fits perfectly among the other damaged characters that populate Bacon's risumi.
Bacon took time out from a recent tour to discuss his roller-coaster career over the phone.
So, what is the film that inspired you to start acting?
"Midnight Cowboy" was certainly the most inspirational. I was really never much of a film buff as a kid, but it came to Philly and I went. There was something about what Dustin [Hoffman] and Jon [Voight] were doing that inspired me. I knew that those guys weren't really those guys -- Jon wasn't a hustler from Texas, and Dustin wasn't really homeless -- but they were so transformational with those characterizations that I thought to myself, Well, now, that's acting.
How old were you at the time?
I was 12. It had an effect because I started taking acting classes when I was about 13.
When looking over such a long career, is there a performance that you're most proud of giving, and why?
I think "Murder in the First," because of the same things that made me so in awe of Dustin and Jon. It was a role that was so far from myself, at least in terms of the external kinds of stuff. For whatever reason, I was able to tap into something ... that was so dark and emotional ... But, of course, nobody saw it. That's my lot in life, I guess: The things I'm most proud of are things that no one ever sees.
It seems like so many of your best performances are in films that go unnoticed. "The Big Picture" immediately comes to mind ...
Yeah, "The Big Picture" was a movie that I had a great time making. I was very proud, but it got caught in a life-imitating-art situation where the guy who green-lit the picture was fired by the studio while we were shooting it. A new regime came in, who actually couldn't stand it. They dumped it, you know ... opened it in two theaters with no advertising.
Do you look back on films like "The Big Picture" and "Murder in the First" and think, How wasn't this a hit? Is there maybe one that really stands out?
[Laughs] Well, you know, I got a lot of those. Most of 'em! "Murder in the First" was dumped in January, and really, with a tragic, difficult film like that, you're not going to get any recognition unless it's released in the fall. I lobbied hard for that, but was told, "Shut up, kid. We're Warner Bros. and we know how to market films." "Stir of Echoes" was another one that disappointed me in terms of how it was released. I thought it was a good movie, but that was a question of them jockeying for position with "The Sixth Sense." They decided to put it out after "The Sixth Sense." Bad move.
