BACON. “You have to approach the idea of getting older as an opportunity rather than a burden.”
RUBEN V. NEPALES
LOS ANGELES—“I’ve lived my whole life with egg jokes,” said Kevin Bacon when we asked him if people tell him egg puns, since he recently became a spokesperson for the US egg industry. He appears in ads touting eggs. “If you grow up with the last name Bacon, the jokes start from the time you walk out of the house,” he added.
Kevin put down his sunglasses and coffee in a paper cup for this chat at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York. He stars in Warner Bros. Television’s “The Following,” where he plays Ryan Hardy, an FBI agent whose life unravels when Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), the notorious serial killer he put on death row, escapes. Hardy and his team hunt down Carroll, who had amassed a secret cult of killers. Now on its third season, “The Following” offers new twists and higher stakes.
Excerpts of our interview with Kevin, whose marriage to actress Kyra Sedgwick is one of the enduring unions in showbiz:
Is there a chance that we’ll see Kyra in “The Following”?
The problem with us working together is that we have such an association with the two of us being married that you don’t want to pull people out of the show. If it’s a comedy, it’s a lot more organic that it would happen. But, in a drama, I want people, while they’re watching “The Following,” to forget about Kevin Bacon. If Kyra Sedgwick shows up, that’s a wink-wink situation.
What I do want Kyra to do is direct. I’ve been pounding the table on that, because I know Kyra would be an excellent director. She’s so perceptive when it comes to performance. It’s hard for her to keep her mouth shut when she watches me act. Kyra always has something to say.
Made in heaven
You seem to have a marriage made in heaven.
Did you say, “Made in Kevin?” (Laughs)
What do you attribute your successful marriage to?
I wish I knew the answer to that. The only thing that comes up for me is that we truly enjoy each other’s company.
Do you agree on everything?
Oh my gosh, no. On the fundamental things, we agree. We’re open to each other’s opinions. My opinions about things have certainly been shaped, changed and molded by her. She would say the same thing about me.
You and Kyra have lived in New York for many years. Can you talk about that decision?
It’s hard to know what my career and hers would have been (if we didn’t live in New York). She was born and raised in New York. I was so hell-bent on being a New Yorker and a New York actor, to do stage stuff. Also, back then, I was terrified of Los Angeles in a way that I’m not anymore.
I suppose it would have been a different life (if we lived elsewhere). You change one piece of the equation, and everything else changes. Maybe we never would have met each other, etc., etc. There were years when we defined ourselves as LA haters. Now, we’ve gotten to the point where we absolutely love LA. For the first time a couple of years ago, we got a small house in LA so we don’t have to stay in hotels.
Our daughter (actress Sosie Bacon; they also have a son, Travis Bacon) lives in LA, and we spend a lot of time there. In fact, I wonder if I can ever get Kyra back to New York. I’m having a hard time in New York. But, I’m on a television show that shoots six months of the year here (in New York). I just wanted to clarify that—so, at this point, we’re truly bicoastal.
Your character, Ryan, tries to move on, but he can’t. In real life, how good are you at letting go of the past?
I’m pretty good at that. If I had to pick one thing I’m good at, it’s looking down the road. I really don’t look in the rear-view mirror. I don’t even look at my old movies. I think about the future. I like to feel like the best of times are ahead of me—and that there are places to go that I can still get better at.
People ask, “What is your greatest regret?” As in things that maybe you’ve turned down or didn’t get from a career standpoint. I never think about that. I have to be a forward-thinking person, because I have a lousy memory. My kids tease me about it all the time.
Any particular dream that you see down the road?
I’d love to do more directing. I would like to explore characters I haven’t done before. You have to approach the idea of getting older as an opportunity rather than a burden, because now, there’s an opportunity to play men who are at different and sometimes more interesting points in their lives.
There’s a party scene in the series where Ryan is dragged into the dance floor, and he says that he can’t dance—but, he still has the moves. It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to “Footloose.”
I didn’t write that line, but it was great. I didn’t want to stretch out the dancing too much, because I thought it would be really silly. But, I tried to think, does this guy, based on who he is, necessarily have to be a terrible dancer? I felt like, let’s give him a bit of a sense of rhythm. I thought it was going to play a little better with me and this beautiful woman.
E-mail rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at twitter.com/nepalesruben.