Kevin Bacon: “I don’t think I suffer from the disease of specialness”

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Aw, I love some Kevin Bacon. I’ve been so focused on Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy during the promotion of X-Men: First Class, and I’ve been ignoring The Bacon. He was interviewed in the new issue of Details, and… I just like the guy. He seems like he would be fun to hang with. He seems grounded – he and Kyra both. In this Details piece (full interview here), he talks mostly about his first comic book-adaptation gig, but he also gives some quotes about his 20-year marriage (amazing!) and Bernie Madoff.

DETAILS: You’ve played a lot of bad guys, most recently in the comic-book satire Super and the latest X-Men movie. What’s so great about going to the dark side?
Kevin Bacon: I never go, “Oh, I want to do it because he’s the bad guy.” I can’t stand badly written bad guys or guys who are just miserable pricks. The character in Super is just such a sociopath, I found it amusing. And Jean-Claude Van Damme had been offered the part. To pick up Jean-Claude Van Damme’s rejects was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

DETAILS: How did X-Men come to you?
Kevin Bacon: Totally out of the f-cking blue. I didn’t even know they were making the movie. I was in L.A. and they called me up: “Drive over to the Fox lot. You’re going to have to sit in the office and read. And you can’t take it with you. If you want it, it’s yours.” It was the office of one of the executives on the movie, and his secretary was there. She handed me the script. After I read it, she said, “Whatdja think?” [Laughs]

DETAILS: Was a comic-book franchise something you’d always wanted to do?
Kevin Bacon: I don’t either seek out a genre, nor do I limit myself to a genre. If someone came to me today and said, “It’s a horror movie, but it’s a really f-ckin’ good horror movie and it’s a great part,” I’d be there. I’ve done horror movies. The only thing that I’d done that came close to being a comic book was Hollow Man, in that it was an effects-driven movie.

DETAILS: You’ve lived in New York City your entire career. Has that helped or hurt you?
Kevin Bacon: I couldn’t have done it any other way. I got here at 17—suitcase and a dream—and thought, “Okay, now I feel at peace.” When you live in a place that’s so industry-driven like L.A., your own self-worth sometimes will be determined by the factors that are always in your face—the posters, the waiter with the script to give you. It’s been nice to have a buffer. I was a real pussy about L.A. for a long time. I was like, “I’m afraid. I don’t know how to get anywhere. I don’t like to drive.” And I can still fall into that. The downside is when someone says, “You’ve got 10 minutes to get over to the studio because they want to meet you.” Not living in L.A. is a dumbass move from a career standpoint.

DETAILS: You’ve made a lot of unpredictable career moves, like poking fun of yourself as the world’s biggest Kevin Bacon fan in the current Logitech campaign. Is there a plan?
Kevin Bacon: People come up with these rules. “You can only do commercials that run in Japan and Europe.” F-ck you! Who made that law? After Footloose I was on a sort of downslide, and my people were recommending that I only do movies when my name was above the title. But I had an agent who said, “Let’s do JFK,” and that’s what we did. Four days of work. Was not even close to being my movie.

DETAILS: Is there one of your movies that you like best?
Keving Bacon: I don’t know if this is a cheeseball thing to say, but I don’t watch my movies. So they become personal bookmarks for other things. When I think of Tremors, in a very short amount of time I’ve gotten engaged, gotten married, my mother’s gotten cancer, my career is in the sh-tter, my wife is nine months pregnant with our first child, and I am terrified. That’s Tremors.

DETAILS: You once said that it’s easy to get laid when you’re famous. Is it harder to stay married to the same woman—Kyra Sedgwick—for more than two decades?
Kevin Bacon: It’s hard to explain, other than to say I like being married to her. I like spending time with her. We have found the right person to be with. I do think that, as a guy, if you never get a chance to experience more than one partner, that’s going to be a really tough road. Luckily, I did.

DETAILS: The two of you lost a lot of money in the Madoff scandal. What was that experience like?
Kevin Bacon: I’m not going to say it didn’t have its emotional downsides. But we’re both young, and we both had the ability to work and roll up our sleeves and start putting the pieces back together. The truth is that we went through it together.

DETAILS: Did it have any impact on your professional decisions?
Kevin Bacon: Yeah, I think so. While I try to have integrity about the work that I do and the choices I make, I’ve also said from a very young age that I need to work. I don’t think I suffer from the disease of specialness.

[From Details]

I can’t even describe how much I love that quote – “I don’t think I suffer from the disease of specialness.” That should be the anthem, the motto of every working actor. I love him so much. And you know what? Tremors is totally an enjoyable movie! It’s so cheesy and wonderful and delightfully low-budget.

Sigh… MORE BACON.

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Photos courtesy of WENN and Details Magazine.

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51 Responses to “Kevin Bacon: “I don’t think I suffer from the disease of specialness””

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  1. Eve says:

    “You have to keep the fights clean and the sex dirty”.

    He said when asked about what makes his relationship with Sedgwick work.

    Gotta love him.

  2. mia girl says:

    That statement alone makes him very special. 🙂

  3. Crash2GO2 says:

    I LOVE Tremors! And Kevin. Another great Kevin must see ‘Stir Of Echos’.

  4. Lala11_7 says:

    I have loved that man since he played Phillip on the “Guiding Light” and I adore him still…

    He truly and really ROCKS!!!

  5. MikeyAngel says:

    Love him.

  6. aenflex says:

    tremors rocked!

  7. LunaT says:

    Love him.

  8. kiko says:

    its true you don’t suffer from the disease of specialness.what you do suffer from is the disease of HOTness!!!

  9. The Other Katherine says:

    His bit part in JFK is great.

  10. RHONYC says:

    @ Eve ditto.

    @ Crash2GO2 ditto on ‘Stir of Echoes’…so scary!

    move over Brangelina…Kevin & Kyra are my new hot celeb couple crush. i mean can you believe he is FIFTY-THREE?!

    also loved: “It’s hard to explain, other than to say I like being married to her. I like spending time with her. We have found the right person to be with. I do think that, as a guy, if you never get a chance to experience more than one partner, that’s going to be a really tough road. Luckily, I did.”

    altogether now ladies…S-W-O-O-N.

    love Kevin Bacon…anyone with Sirius should check out his recent interview on Howard…he’s such a down-to-earth dude, my fiancé and i really, really enjoyed listening to him.

    also, the way he travels to Kyra’s set when she’s away working on ‘The Closer’ is so romantic. i love their relationship. Kyra is still gorgeous…betcha the sex is smokin’ hooot! 😆

  11. lilred says:

    Love La Bacon always have.

  12. Lucy says:

    Great actor!

  13. Solveig says:

    I love reading interviews of grounded and talented actors like him. There’s no faux modesty, no “see how good I am”, no “I’m going to stop acting sooner or later”, or “I only work with this or that”. It’s refreshing to see people who do their job letting all the HW crazyness aside.

  14. brin says:

    He is so talented and terrific!

  15. lucy2 says:

    I really like him, he seems down to earth, and has a sense of humor about it all. Plus I really like him and Kyra together, they seem real and solid.

  16. original kate says:

    love him.

  17. GeekChic says:

    “To pick up Jean-Claude Van Damme’s rejects was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

    I literally laughed aloud when I read that quote. This was a great interview; thanks for posting it.

  18. Ginger says:

    YUM!

  19. K-MAC says:

    I love this guy! seriously, what a great f*cking head on his shoulders!!! EVERY actor ought to learn about that quote!

  20. MightyMidget says:

    He is one of the few actors that I truly adore!

  21. Rhiley says:

    I like KB too. I have never really seen his more serious movies but all of his cheeseball movies are my favorites: Of course Flashdance, White Water Summer, She’s Having My Baby, Tremors, Wild Things, Beauty Shop. KB has been in some really crappy movies, but a perfect Saturday afternoon is cold, wet, and lazy, flipping through the boobtube and finding The River Wild on Lifetime.

  22. RocketMerry says:

    Bacon is always good. Yum Yum!

  23. Eve says:

    @ Rhiley:

    I’m not correcting you or trying to be a “know all”. But it’s “Footloose” (Flashdance is another film about dancing, with Jennifer Beals).

    Side note: I still wonder if he and his wife recovered from that Madoff scheme. Apparently they lost a lot of money.

    EDIT: I scrolled up again and read that part of the interview.

  24. mogul says:

    His one of my favorite actors and ditto for his wife too.

  25. someone says:

    Kevin will always be special to me!!!!

  26. Bubbling says:

    first of all, he is mad sexy, those eyes!!He is an excellent actor, that quote is awesome, and I have to borrow it, lastly being married for 20 years makes him even more cute. Go Kevin!

  27. apsutter says:

    That is a great photo and the bacon is always awesome! Who the hell tells Kevin Bacon he has 10 minutes to get to a studio or they are passing? Guys been around forever…I think people should know what he can do

  28. Rhiley says:

    @Eve: Typo on my part. I’ve actually never seen Flashdance. I like to think I was too young when it came out and then never had the desire to watch it as an adult (though I heart Jennifer Beals).

  29. apsutter says:

    @Rhiley: OMG I heart River Wild too! I love when he plays a villian. Stir of Echoes is also a great friggin movie

  30. Penguen says:

    About 10 or 11 years ago I saw his band, the Bacon Brothers in Boston. They were actually not bad. But the best part was that they played Footloose for the last song.

  31. Eve says:

    @ Rhiley:

    I got that. Sometimes I mix up the films’s titles as well — or when I happen to translate back into English the ridiculous titles they get when they’re released here in Brazil. Like “Million dollar baby”, I once talked about it as if it was called “Golden Girl” (“Menina de Ouro” here). To be fair, Million dollar baby, translated literally, wouldn’t make much sense to us.

    Although I only watched Flashdance on VHS (by saying that I’m already admitting I’m not that young, hee!!!) long after its original release, I like to believe I’m too young to remember certain films and songs as well…it’s just that I have a freaking good memory when it comes to them.

  32. Mary Jane says:

    Mmmmm… Bacon for breakfast!!!
    ALWAYS a favourite!!!

  33. rkintn says:

    I just recently introduced my kids to Mr.Bacon via “Tremors”..needless to say they loved it and him! I was sad to see Netflix doesn’t stream “Footloose”:( The Bacon is AWESOME!

  34. Bill Hicks is God says:

    I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned his performance in ‘Murder in the First.’ Not everybody likes prison movies, particularly when the prison is Alcatraz, I understand that.

  35. JM says:

    I adore Kevin Bacon. He’s a fine actor. Animal House, Friday the 13th (the original), A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Flatliners, Murder in the First…on top of those already mentioned, and the list goes on and on. I’m looking forward to his new HBO movie Taking Chance. It sucks he was a victem of Bernie Madoff but at least he has the mindset that everything’s gonna be ok.

    Kudos to him & Kyra for staying married in the cesspool known as Hollywood. I think living in New York has allowed them to have some semblence of a normal life. And as someone who’s been happily married almost as long as they have, the quote about having clean fights & dirty sex is spot on!

  36. Eve says:

    @ Bil Hicks is God:

    Indeed, he’s amazing in Murder In The First.

  37. sandy#1 says:

    oh, i always loved bacon, kinda grew up watching all his movies, and van dam should be getting bacon left overs since bacon is the better actor and have been around much longer, also love the wifey and their long term marriage. he is so modest, gotta love him.

  38. Nancy says:

    @Lala11_7

    Kevin Bacon didn’t play Phillip on Guiding Light. He played teenage alcoholic Tim “T.J.” Werner from 1980 to 1981 in Guiding Light.

  39. Madison says:

    If only there were more actors like him in Hollywood, he’s made so many really great movies and on top of that he has such a great attitude to a lot of things. This made me laugh:

    “To pick up Jean-Claude Van Damme’s rejects was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”

  40. Shoe_Lover says:

    I love the Bacon. And i love Tremors- such a fun movie.

  41. elly says:

    He’s darling.

  42. anon says:

    Love Kevin Bacon! Love the honesty! He should have won an Academy Award a long time ago.

  43. Bill Hicks is God says:

    @Eve: ‘Mystic River’ too. And I agree ‘Stir of Echoes’ was a superior film to ‘The Sixth Sense’ but had the misfortune to be released at the same time.

  44. Nikki says:

    I am so glad that no one on this site is slamming My Bacon! I love, love, love Kevin Bacon. As per prior post, he and his brother Michael have a band called the Bacon Brothers. I have 4 of their CDs already. If you think you like KB now, check out his music and you will appreciate him even more! He is Uber talented, their songs are creatively written and worded. Some will make you chuckle, others make you cry. (TMI and When You Decide You
    ve Stayed Too Long). The latter is my favorite song.

    There is a whole other dimension to Kevin Bacon by way of his music. Check it out:
    http://baconbros.com/

  45. Chris says:

    “I don’t think I suffer from the disease of specialness.”

    The most important thing in life is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made. I’m a bit dubious about actors who have mastered the art of coming across like they’re “keeping it real.” Are they really? Or is that just the image they’re trying to project?

  46. jemshoes says:

    I love a good interview like this. I’ll be reading more Kevin Bacon posts from now on! 🙂

  47. Zoya says:

    Kevin & Kyra are always genuine in interviews without being classless and exploitative of their private lives. I really respect them for making that choice, and yes, it is a choice *cough Brangelina cough*.

  48. Cherry says:

    Based on there public personae, I like him but her…I don’t know. She always looks uptight and nervous to me. I think they’re probably one of those couples that balance each other out. He’s laid back, she not so much.

  49. TQB says:

    When I lived in NYC, my friends lived in KB’s neighborhood and frequented the same coffeeshop. We’d be sitting in there and he would walk in, give them a wave and a “what’s up, guys?” and just carry on. He is absolutely that grounded and nice in real life.

  50. Eve says:

    @ Bill Hicks is God:

    @Eve: ‘Mystic River’ too. And I agree ‘Stir of Echoes’ was a superior film to ‘The Sixth Sense’ but had the misfortune to be released at the same time.

    I have to agree with that. Plus, I think The Sixth Sense is an entertaining film, mostly because of Halley Joel Osment (I wish all child actors were that good) but not that original. There are many films prior to The Sixth Sense with that kind of premise (ghosts who don’t realize they’re ghosts). Angel Heart (not a ghost but he isn’t aware of his true “spirit”), The Others (the original idea is from a British TV show like The Twilight Zone, in the 1970s) and Jacobb’s Ladder (with Tim Robbins).

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