Some would say success is doing what you want in life and much more than merely fame or fortune. What happens along the way happens, and for Kevin Bacon, following his own instincts has led him to great places.
Famously known as a prolific actor with a career spanning over four decades, Bacon’s resume is as diverse as they come. With roles in Comedy – She’s Having a Baby (1988), The Air Up There (1994), Drama – Footloose (1984), Apollo 13 (1995), and yes, Horror – Friday the 13th (1980), Stir of Echoes (1999), there is no limit to Bacon’s acting abilities. Also spending time as a singer-songwriter, as one half of the duo The Bacon Brothers with his brother Michael, diversity has been the name of the game.
Willing to accept challenges as an actor, and never turning away a good role, Bacon looks at his musical personality far differently. He states, “I think of myself a lot as a songwriter. I’ve never written a screenplay, but I’ve written countless amount of songs.” He also acknowledges that storytelling is vastly different for him as a musician, saying “You have to tell this story in a very short amount of time, so your palette is really limited. Certainly in Pop, Rock, and Soul music; your framework is pretty specific in terms of chord progressions and rhythms.” An interesting point to raise, for those who are singularly actors or performing musicians, Bacon explains the art of storytelling in song, stating, “It’s something that I think is really hard to do. I really admire when people sit down and write a great 3 1/2 minute song.”
Having released six studio albums with The Bacon Brothers since their formation in 1995, their most recent being 2018’s self-titled effort, Bacon continues to dedicate himself to crafting his songwriting chops as he has as an actor. However, portraying a character on screen is far different than putting himself out there with music. He says, “I think playing music live is akin to theater. You have this set, and you have these songs you have played before, but the audience is different and the experience is different; it’s never going to be the same way twice. You never know what’s going to happen – you could have a heckler, someone could break a string, cough, etc. The same thing with theater, someone’s cellphone could go off in the theater; there is always something that can happen.”
Having to adapt to those incidents in real time, he then expressed, “Working in a recording studio is much more akin to shooting a film or a television show. It’s a controlled situation and you’re trying to capture that ‘live’ kind of feeling. You are trying to make it feel immediate and electric – but you have take two, editing, as well as ways of adjusting things in post-production.” Extremely true, Bacon seems to have applied the different experiences to his work as an actor; never taking on the same type of role consecutively and always adjusting to the situation at hand.
For his part as Theo Conroy in You Should Have Left, he plays a man with a rocky past who finds it coming back to haunt him. A character, and not himself, says, “I look at film-making as me walking in someone else’s shoes and I’m trying my best to make you not think about me, but think about this other man.” Such is the complete opposite end of the spectrum from his music, which he goes on to say, “If anything, I would say when I sing and write songs, I don’t generally put a character between me and the audience. It is more my feelings, my voice, my clothes, and my hair.”
A compelling insight into an individual who has walked the line as both a character actor and a performing musician, if anything, it shows Bacon’s sincere approach to both forms of art. Music is real, it is about personal emotion and life. Film, in many ways, imitates real life, and that is hauntingly evident in the psychology of You Should Have Left. So, whether you dig Kevin Bacon’s music, movies, or maybe even both, it seems he will have plenty more to offer in both fields for years to come.
For more on Kevin Bacon: baconbros.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
For more on You Should Have Left: youshouldhaveleftmovie.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
