by
Paul Fischer
Kevin Bacon says that he thrives on being a chameleon as he does so
effortlessly as both 
the cop in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River and a peculiar
ex-boyfriend in Jane Campion's In the Cut. A busy working actor, more than
a
movie star, Bacon always remains an interesting presence, on and off the
screen. Talking to Paul Fischer in a New York hotel, Bacon discusses the
differences between working with Eastwood and Campion, not to mention that
age old question: Would he appear in the remake of Footloose, the movie that
started it all?
CrankyCritic: How do you make a character like this in Mystic River interesting?
Even the novelist said he was boring.
Kevin Bacon: That's funny. I can't believe he thought the character
was boring. Look, I
mean, the thing about that character is that he's not a guy that talks about
his feelings too much, so what you have to try to do is have the feeling be
there underneath and between the words. Really, most of the talking that I
do in the film is about the case. It's about me and Fishburne are kind of
like the guide for the audience in terms of what's going on and who the
suspect is and what's happening. But at the same time, I think he's got a
tremendous amount of sadness and his life is falling apart basically. He's
living alone and kind of living like an island.
CrankyCritic: Compare working with Jane Campion versus Clint
Eastwood?
Kevin Bacon: It's really different. Jane really wants to talk a lot about character. We had
very, very long talks and she talks a lot about what's about to happen. She's
very poetic and she's very philosophical and she's got a real- - she's like an
artist. You see that movie is kind of like a painting in a way. Every shot is
painted. And Clint, the only thing he ever told me was to talk
faster.
CrankyCritic: Is that seriously it?
Kevin Bacon: No, that's about it. One time I asked him, when we get to the end, what am
I supposed to be playing there? He said, "That's for the audience to decide." And
I said, "Okay, great." And you know what? It's better for me. Not that
Jane's not a great director and I had fun working on that film. But, what you
see in that movie is the character that I brought, that guy. I brought him ready
to go, ready to play. That's what I do. I go, I read the script, and I go away.
If I have questions, I'll ask, but then I do my work. I do it on my own and I'll
bring it. I'm ready to go. If you don't have it in 10 takes, you're not going
to have it. My best work is going to be in the first three takes almost inevitably.
CrankyCritic: Is there a Kevin Bacon typecast?
Kevin Bacon: I mean, that's what I've been trying to fight my whole life. It's difficult
but this week I have Mystic River and In the Cut. I've got a small part in
In the Cut and it's pretty different than Mystic River. I just try to do
something different.
CrankyCritic: Has the typecast changed since the '80s?
Kevin Bacon: Well, in the '80s- - look, whatever you've just done and if it was successful,
that's what people want you to do every time from that time out. So after Diner,
although the movie wasn't hugely successful, it was the most successful thing
that I'd been in to date, I was seen as the drunken friend, so I'd get scripts
and it was like the drunken friend. Footloose, it was teen get the girl and whatever
thing.
CrankyCritic: Do uncredited cameos help?
Kevin Bacon: It helps. To me, the way you get not typecast is if you don't do movies
based on the size of the role or the size of the budget.
CrankyCritic: Why uncredited?
Kevin Bacon: I kind of felt like this is a movie that's about Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo.
I kind of felt like that's the way the film should be marketed. What would
happen- - let's say I only have three scenes in the movie. What if one of
them was taken out? Or two of them were taken out? Then all of a sudden it's
Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Kevin Bacon. I'm going to look like an asshole.
So I wanted to protect myself. As it is, there was a scene that was taken
out.
CrankyCritic: Do fans come up with really weird trivia?
Kevin Bacon: Well, sometimes what happens is they come up
and they say things, like lines from movies and I have no idea what they're
talking about. Someone will come
up and say some line as though- - I don't look at the movies. I see the movie
for the premiere or whatever, and then I don't see it.
CrankyCritic: Do you get annoyed by the Six Degrees bit?
Kevin Bacon: No, that's fine.
CrankyCritic: Has the status of your career changed much
since Stir of Echoes?
Kevin Bacon: Nah, not really.
CrankyCritic: No
more roles?
Kevin Bacon: I don't know. I don't think it seems like it's all that much different than
it was. But this is a movie that I'm so proud to be in. I waited so long.
I mean, I heard about the movie and it was kind of on the wind that maybe
Clint was thinking about me for something down the line, not even necessarily
this movie, but just something someday. And that was probably like three
years ago. I knew that Mystic River was kind of on his radar even
before he started shooting Blood Work. So that was a long wait for the phone
call, but when it came, it was pretty sweet.
CrankyCritic: Would you do a cameo in the Footloose remake?
Kevin Bacon: I don't know. I think it'd have to be a pretty big price tag.
CrankyCritic: Do
you still dance?
Kevin Bacon: No.
CrankyCritic: If The Bacon Brothers hit big, would you balance acting?
Kevin Bacon: It's hard. But I love it, so we're just going to keep going on the way we are.
CrankyCritic: Do you have ambitions to be mainstream, or are you happy on the club circuit?
Kevin Bacon: I'm happy on the circuit it is, but by the same token, you always wish that
you could get some radio play. It's like anything else you do. You do it
so that people will hear it. So it would be great to have it take off a little
bit, but that's not- - I don't consume myself with that much. I try to bring
up the level of the playing in the band, I try to keep bringing up the level
of the singing and the song writing and just doing it like that.
CrankyCritic: Is music an extension of acting?
Kevin Bacon: Well, you know, I was actually a songwriter before I even took my first acting
class. Music is just something that's kind of inside me. I can say that my
best performances of a song, whether it be in a studio or live are those
performances when I feel connected to them as an actor emotionally. I remember
what the story is that I'm trying to tell. You play a song again and again and again, it's sort of like theatre. You get to that point where
you're just kind of doing it by rote. You have a night where you go, "It's
a Tuesday night. I'll just walk through this." It's the same thing with
song and you have to get back to what it was that you wrote it about and what
it is you're trying to talk about, so they are connected in that way.