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Another Notch In Bacon's Belt

From "Footloose," to "Apollo 13," to "Mystic River," Kevin Bacon has been showing his diverse acting skills for close to three decades. Now we see a more dangerous side of him in the new thriller "Death Sentence"

Bacon plays Nick Hume, a happily married man with two teenage sons. He sees his oldest son killed in front of him and decides to take the law into his own hands and exact revenge on the gang responsible.

"(That) kind of starts this cycle of violence that I'm unable to stop," Bacon told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

The movie is based on the novel "Death Wish" which was made into a movie of the same name in 1974 starring Charles Bronson. In the earlier film, Bronson seemed to be unleashing vigilante justice on New York City, while Bacon's character is trying to get revenge on the gang who hurt his family.

"One of the things - you know, it's an action movie, it's a thriller, but it's also a pretty complicated movie in terms of how this family deals with this tragedy," Bacon said. "I've got these two kids. You know if you feel like maybe for a second you love one more and that's the one that dies and how's it affect your relationship with your other son."

In real life, Bacon, who is married to "The Closer" star, Kyra Sedgwick, has two children. Making the movie sent him to a "dark place" at times.

"Sometimes you kind of break down…and you say, this will be an easy day, fun day," he said. "And I'm having coffee on this day, whatever. I'm only happy for about five minutes."

Going home and connecting with his children helps put him at ease, but at night, Bacon says he dreams about the movie he's making.

"At the end of the movie, it's easy to leave it behind," he said. "When you're in the middle of it, it's hard on a Friday night because you know Monday you'll get down into it."

Meanwhile, Sedgwick is doing extremely well with her show. This year she won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Drama Series.

"I'm so happy for her," Bacon said. "She's sacrificed so much for her family and for me and, you know, the kids, and to see some good stuff coming her way is just fantastic."

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