Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon has been in so many movies over the past 25 years that there's an entire game devoted to him.
It's called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," and the object is to link him to every actor in the business.
And you pretty much can. For example, Marilyn Monroe was in "The Misfits" with Eli Wallach, who was in "Mystic River" with Kevin Bacon.
Bacon's latest film, out next week, is already generating talk of his first Academy Award nomination. But as Correspondent Vicki Mabrey reports, it's a far cry from the role that first got him into the game.
If there's one enduring Kevin Bacon image, it's his scene from "Footloose," in which he danced his way into the public's imagination.
"People will come up to me and say, 'Oh, I loved you in Footloose,'" says Bacon, 46. And I say, 'Have you been to the movies in the last 25 years? Because I have done a couple since then.'"
Since then, Bacon has appeared in more than 40 films, but perhaps none that shatter that boyish, carefree image more than his latest movie, "The Woodsman." In the movie, he plays Walter, a recently paroled pedophile, desperately trying to overcome his dark impulses.
Was it a risk for him to play a child molester? "To me, it's a risk in terms of will I do a good job? Will we be able to pull the movie off," says Bacon. "Is it a risk, like people aren't going to like me, or it's going to hurt my personal persona? I mean, I couldn't give a s---."
Taking that kind of risk is what's made him one of Hollywood's most sought after character actors, and why he avoids living too much like a celebrity.
"I try not to put myself behind a big, electrified gate," he says. "I feel like you've gotta bump shoulders with the people that you're going to play. Otherwise, you're going to lose touch with what it is to portray a human being."
He lives as "normal a life as possible" in New York City. He takes the subway and walks around the city. He's lived in the same neighborhood since 1976 – even though it means he's far from Los Angeles, the heart of the film industry.
"L.A. is such a company town. It's such an industry town, that you're constantly reminded where you're at in terms of the hierarchy of the movie business," says Bacon.
And perhaps no one is more aware of the changing hierarchy of the movie business than he is. At 17, he moved from his home in Philadelphia to New York to study acting. He waited tables at the All State Caf? and got small roles on and off Broadway.
Even though he landed parts in "Animal House" and "Diner," he struggled until 1984, when he "kicked off his Sunday shoes" in "Footloose." It made him a pop star.
"I was a pop star, yeah. And that's not what I wanted to be," says Bacon. "You know, it was the last thing I wanted to be. I was in New York. I wanted to be a serious actor."
While he was struggling to define himself, he met actress Kyra Sedgwick on the set of "Lemon Sky" in 1987.
"Every time I looked up from my script, he was staring at me," recalls Sedgwick. "And I thought, 'What the hell is this guy's problem? I mean, I really thought, 'He thinks I'm really bad. He thinks I'm really bad.'"
"I fell in love with her like right away. I hadn't been dating for a long time before that. And I really was completely pathetic when it came to trying to pick her up," says Bacon. "I mean, I was doing all these sort of like, you know? I'd sort of say to people, 'Hey, anybody wanna go out to dinner tonight?' You know, amongst the whole cast. And she, took her a while to even realize that I was coming on to her."
Sedgwick finally did realize it and they married a year later. She soon got pregnant with the first of their two children. But after "Footloose," his career was disintegrating as movie after movie starring Bacon bombed.
"It was one of those times when everything is just kind of swirling around you. And I was also feeling like I was running out of money," says Bacon. "And that career-wise, I was going down and down and down."
He signed on to do a movie called "Tremors," a horror film in which he battles giant worms. "I remember being overwhelmed and just saying to my wife, 'I can't believe I'm doing a movie about underground worms,'" says Bacon. "I mean, what happened to me?"
What happened next was a re-evaluation. He went back to the kind of small, edgy parts he'd once played on and off Broadway. First up, the part of a gay hustler in prison in "JFK."
After that performance earned him the kind of critical praise he hadn't had for years, he carefully refashioned his career by taking on lots of other supporting but memorable roles – culminating last year with "Mystic River."
"I like this whole character thing. But there's also times when you go, 'You know, I wanna, whatever, kill the bad guy and get the girl. And, you know, kick ass,'" says Bacon.
His track record led three college students in 1994 to create the popular game in which any actor can be linked to Kevin Bacon through his 40 movies, including two he directed.
Is he very good at the game? "Let me tell you, I am amazing at this game. We play almost every night in my house," says Bacon. "Before breakfast, even. The kids, I get them up, bleary eyed. I say, 'Kids, do you think we have time for just one round of 'Six Degrees of Dad?' No, I can't play the game. I can't play it at all. I'm terrible at it."
It's easier for others to play the game as his list of credits grows. He's just finished shooting "Where the Truth Lies," to be released next year. He plays a comedian whose life is changed by an unsolved murder. It's just the kind of dark role he's drawn to, as in his new movie, "The Woodsman," which also stars his wife.
For a guy who seems so normal, Bacon takes on some very dark roles. Is he really a tortured guy?
"I think we all have our demons. You know? I have my demons; he has his demons," says Sedgwick. "I think he's interested in playing complicated characters. And perhaps he is working something out."
"I think all of us as human beings, we have a kind of, you know, darkness, anger, violence, sometimes extreme, you know, sexuality that we don't tap into everyday because we can't," says Bacon. "That, for me, to get a chance to exercise those things, is a great thing, you know?"
Is it a release? "It's a release, yeah, to cry, to beat somebody up," he says.
But he's not all about darkness and battling demons. He still takes to the stage, as a musician and songwriter. He and his brother Michael, an award-winning composer, tour the country with their band, "The Bacon Brothers."
"When I was a kid, my heroes were all standing on stage playing guitar," says Bacon.
"Kevin used to make amazing drawings of rock bands with these giant bell- bottom pants," says his brother, Michael. "And I never saw him draw a movie star, I have to say."
Does he ever think about giving up his day job, acting, and playing music full time?
"Let's put it this way. I wish that we had put the band together when I was 19 years old, or 17 years old," says Bacon. "I wish that there had been more time to really focus on it, so that maybe, you know, my path in life might have possibly gone a different way."
He may not have become a rock star, but he has become what he always wanted – an actor who's considered so versatile, he can play almost anything.
"You have to say to yourself, 'Are you in it for the long haul? And at the end of the day, will you do whatever it takes to just make a living as an actor,'" says Bacon. "Even if that means saying, OK, I'll work for less money. I'll do small parts or I'll do small movies. Those things are all fine with me. I gotta go where the work is."
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. It's called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," and the object is to link him to every actor in the business.
And you pretty much can. For example, Marilyn Monroe was in "The Misfits" with Eli Wallach, who was in "Mystic River" with Kevin Bacon.
Bacon's latest film, out next week, is already generating talk of his first Academy Award nomination. But as Correspondent Vicki Mabrey reports, it's a far cry from the role that first got him into the game.
If there's one enduring Kevin Bacon image, it's his scene from "Footloose," in which he danced his way into the public's imagination.
"People will come up to me and say, 'Oh, I loved you in Footloose,'" says Bacon, 46. And I say, 'Have you been to the movies in the last 25 years? Because I have done a couple since then.'"
Since then, Bacon has appeared in more than 40 films, but perhaps none that shatter that boyish, carefree image more than his latest movie, "The Woodsman." In the movie, he plays Walter, a recently paroled pedophile, desperately trying to overcome his dark impulses.
Was it a risk for him to play a child molester? "To me, it's a risk in terms of will I do a good job? Will we be able to pull the movie off," says Bacon. "Is it a risk, like people aren't going to like me, or it's going to hurt my personal persona? I mean, I couldn't give a s---."
Taking that kind of risk is what's made him one of Hollywood's most sought after character actors, and why he avoids living too much like a celebrity.
"I try not to put myself behind a big, electrified gate," he says. "I feel like you've gotta bump shoulders with the people that you're going to play. Otherwise, you're going to lose touch with what it is to portray a human being."
He lives as "normal a life as possible" in New York City. He takes the subway and walks around the city. He's lived in the same neighborhood since 1976 – even though it means he's far from Los Angeles, the heart of the film industry.
"L.A. is such a company town. It's such an industry town, that you're constantly reminded where you're at in terms of the hierarchy of the movie business," says Bacon.
And perhaps no one is more aware of the changing hierarchy of the movie business than he is. At 17, he moved from his home in Philadelphia to New York to study acting. He waited tables at the All State Caf? and got small roles on and off Broadway.
Even though he landed parts in "Animal House" and "Diner," he struggled until 1984, when he "kicked off his Sunday shoes" in "Footloose." It made him a pop star.
"I was a pop star, yeah. And that's not what I wanted to be," says Bacon. "You know, it was the last thing I wanted to be. I was in New York. I wanted to be a serious actor."
While he was struggling to define himself, he met actress Kyra Sedgwick on the set of "Lemon Sky" in 1987.
"Every time I looked up from my script, he was staring at me," recalls Sedgwick. "And I thought, 'What the hell is this guy's problem? I mean, I really thought, 'He thinks I'm really bad. He thinks I'm really bad.'"
"I fell in love with her like right away. I hadn't been dating for a long time before that. And I really was completely pathetic when it came to trying to pick her up," says Bacon. "I mean, I was doing all these sort of like, you know? I'd sort of say to people, 'Hey, anybody wanna go out to dinner tonight?' You know, amongst the whole cast. And she, took her a while to even realize that I was coming on to her."
Sedgwick finally did realize it and they married a year later. She soon got pregnant with the first of their two children. But after "Footloose," his career was disintegrating as movie after movie starring Bacon bombed.
"It was one of those times when everything is just kind of swirling around you. And I was also feeling like I was running out of money," says Bacon. "And that career-wise, I was going down and down and down."
He signed on to do a movie called "Tremors," a horror film in which he battles giant worms. "I remember being overwhelmed and just saying to my wife, 'I can't believe I'm doing a movie about underground worms,'" says Bacon. "I mean, what happened to me?"
What happened next was a re-evaluation. He went back to the kind of small, edgy parts he'd once played on and off Broadway. First up, the part of a gay hustler in prison in "JFK."
After that performance earned him the kind of critical praise he hadn't had for years, he carefully refashioned his career by taking on lots of other supporting but memorable roles – culminating last year with "Mystic River."
"I like this whole character thing. But there's also times when you go, 'You know, I wanna, whatever, kill the bad guy and get the girl. And, you know, kick ass,'" says Bacon.
His track record led three college students in 1994 to create the popular game in which any actor can be linked to Kevin Bacon through his 40 movies, including two he directed.
Is he very good at the game? "Let me tell you, I am amazing at this game. We play almost every night in my house," says Bacon. "Before breakfast, even. The kids, I get them up, bleary eyed. I say, 'Kids, do you think we have time for just one round of 'Six Degrees of Dad?' No, I can't play the game. I can't play it at all. I'm terrible at it."
It's easier for others to play the game as his list of credits grows. He's just finished shooting "Where the Truth Lies," to be released next year. He plays a comedian whose life is changed by an unsolved murder. It's just the kind of dark role he's drawn to, as in his new movie, "The Woodsman," which also stars his wife.
For a guy who seems so normal, Bacon takes on some very dark roles. Is he really a tortured guy?
"I think we all have our demons. You know? I have my demons; he has his demons," says Sedgwick. "I think he's interested in playing complicated characters. And perhaps he is working something out."
"I think all of us as human beings, we have a kind of, you know, darkness, anger, violence, sometimes extreme, you know, sexuality that we don't tap into everyday because we can't," says Bacon. "That, for me, to get a chance to exercise those things, is a great thing, you know?"
Is it a release? "It's a release, yeah, to cry, to beat somebody up," he says.
But he's not all about darkness and battling demons. He still takes to the stage, as a musician and songwriter. He and his brother Michael, an award-winning composer, tour the country with their band, "The Bacon Brothers."
"When I was a kid, my heroes were all standing on stage playing guitar," says Bacon.
"Kevin used to make amazing drawings of rock bands with these giant bell- bottom pants," says his brother, Michael. "And I never saw him draw a movie star, I have to say."
Does he ever think about giving up his day job, acting, and playing music full time?
"Let's put it this way. I wish that we had put the band together when I was 19 years old, or 17 years old," says Bacon. "I wish that there had been more time to really focus on it, so that maybe, you know, my path in life might have possibly gone a different way."
He may not have become a rock star, but he has become what he always wanted – an actor who's considered so versatile, he can play almost anything.
"You have to say to yourself, 'Are you in it for the long haul? And at the end of the day, will you do whatever it takes to just make a living as an actor,'" says Bacon. "Even if that means saying, OK, I'll work for less money. I'll do small parts or I'll do small movies. Those things are all fine with me. I gotta go where the work is."
