"Kevin Bacon"
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Listener, I got to tell you, I'm early for the session today, but it's fortunate because the light in the room that I record this in is just so delicious. There's a sunbeam just catching my mouth just perfectly right now. No other part of my face is lit except my mouth. Perfect, because that's all I'm going to be using for the next hour. I'm going to have to chase the sun a bit, so if my signal breaks up in the middle of this interview, you're going to know why. But my God, if you could see my mouth right

If it looks as good as it sounds, you're looking at it correctly. Is smart less? Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smart. Less.

I actually was on a flight once, and we started down the runway and started to speed up, speed up, speed up. And they had that thing. Remember these just sometimes put the camera on the front of the plane so you can see the runway? Yes. And it was like a, you know, whatever, big carrier.

Going down the road, and then slowed down and then peeled off. And it was like, whoa. And the pilot's like, well, we got a bit of an issue here. We're going to go back to the gate here and take a look. We sat on the plane for like 90 minutes. And he's like, we start to pull back from the gate. And he's like, okay, we think we got it taken care of here, so we're just going to give it another shot. And I'm like, give it another shot? Yeah, that's terrible. Isn't it strange how you never meet the pilot

I mean, it is, your life is 1000% in this person's hands. Yeah. When would you ever put your life and the life of your family in anyone's hands that you haven't met? And you're going to do that for a few hours. Hang on. Let me just think. When would I ever put my life or that of my family...

That was rhetorical. Oh, that was rhetorical. Yeah, kind of. Okay. Yeah, you know, that's so interesting. I have a little fear. We talked about that last time, about the turbulence and stuff like that. Yeah. A little bit of that. Yeah. It looks like you have a fear of waking up, too. What are you still? I mean, it's not early. It is early to me. Do you have a fear of hair product? I have no product in my hair. I just had a bagel with cream cheese. Yeah, it looks real flammable up there.

flammable yeah keep it away from flame how what are we at days wise from seeing skavo like from from the last one to the next one where are we at what's uh that's the guy who cuts his hair tracy yeah i just saw him last week yeah he's great you just saw us okay you saw him last week like on a bus bench or what you weren't in the salon and he had scissors uh no i was not in the salon no you weren't i thought a photo shoot you're on a bus oh you're on a photo shoot first of all let me just say it's 9 30 in the morning

It's 9.30 in the morning. This is one of the earlier records we've ever done. I kind of like it. And so far, I got to say we're feeling it. Yeah. It's kind of low energy. It's like breakfast energy. Now, listen, I would say this because, you know, I want to get to our guests, but Jay, you have a real, everybody's got a real relaxed vibe. You got a real relaxed hoodie on today with no tea underneath.

There's a T. Is this sleepwear? It's a limpy T. It's a limpy T. Oh, and it's also the same color. Look at that. You have me in my bed wear. Okay. But this is what I was going to say before. I started, I don't know why I thought of this. Scotty and I started doing this at night where we opened the door. Remind me who Scotty is again real quick. And tell me what you do at night.

We open the door, and even though it's kind of hot, we open the door and we put on the fan. It reminds me of being a kid when we didn't have AC. God, what a great story. And I make a bowl of ice cream and watch a movie. Hashtag relatable. Hey, man. Your very last episode, Sean. Sometimes we don't eat at night just so I can really relate to all the people who are starving in the world. No, no, and then I have a bowl of ice cream or something cool. But last night I had a whole box of Swedish fish, and it didn't stay inside me.

Didn't stay inside you. Let's do the math. But, you know, usually those things. Now, are you sure it wasn't the back end of the box you bought at Hollywood Bowl? No. You bought a second box? Yeah. You barfed last night? No, no, no. It came out the other way.

Well, then that's just natural. You don't need to tell me. I assume that all food you eat is going to come out the other, just for what it's worth. It didn't stay inside me very long. And doesn't it create a plug, those things, those gummy bears? Come on, why are we going? I'm not surprised you and Scotty did that last night because I know how you are. I know you always... He's always got a fan. You open the doors, you put the fan on. No, he loves a fan. He loves a fan. Yeah, it's so good. Always has time for a fan. Um...

Hey, listen, speaking of fans, I'm a fan of our guest today. Oh, nice. What a great segue. Thank you so much. I'm trying to win segue of the year. I think they're going to do it at the Webby's next year. I've been a fan of this person for a long time. And the reason is because this person has done so much in film and television as a director, director.

as a writer, but primarily we know him really for his incredible breadth of work. And this is-- and I don't want to embarrass this person, but this is-- this term you don't throw around very lightly. Uh-oh. This is an actor's actor.

This is somebody who's done it all. This is... Is this a storyteller? This person cannot be... This is a storyteller. Cannot be defined. He is a movie star and he is a character actor. He is all of these things combined. I swear to God, it is one of the most incredible...

This person has had so many different stages to his career and done so many amazing things. And I don't really know him that well. We met a couple times. And you're not saying like what movie or anything because we'll get it right away. Well, yeah. Well, here, once I start going. And the list is so long that it's got its own page on Wikipedia for his filmography. No way. Yeah. His first film was Animal House. Then I'm going to jump a little bit just to try to throw you off. Jamie Widows? JFK. JFK.

A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Sleepers. Is this Mr. Bacon? Patriot Day. Then I'm going to go back to a bunch of, but the thing that really shot him to superstardom was a film that we all still love and adore. Footloose. Footloose. Cut Footloose is Mr. Kevin Bacon. Wow.

The incredible Kevin Bacon. I'm trying to unsee Sean's bowl full of Swedish fish. All the fish swimming out of his colon. Oh, so is Scotty. Scotty's in the corner crying somewhere. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, it's so cool to see you. Hey man, welcome. I haven't seen you since Will and Grace. I know, I know, I know. How have you been? And I've been good, and I can't tell you how many times...

I'll do that walking through the airport thing, Sean, and people will come up to me and say, do you know what the best thing you ever did was? And it'll be Will and Grace. And it doesn't necessarily pop into my head as that was one of the options. I mean, I had a great time doing it, don't get me wrong. Of course.

But yes, that really made an impression on people. You're going to have to narrow it down because my filmography is like a thousand credits. So let me tell you what I think the best. Hey, you know what's so funny? I was just talking about Footloose the other day. And is it true that Tom Cruise was...

almost up for that part or up for that part and you got it or something like that? Probably. Yeah, probably. I mean, I think, you know, all the young dudes were, you know, up for it. Going at it. It was just one of those things, you know? Yeah. So here I am on Smart List, bucket list. So cool. All I can think, my wife said, clearly they have run out of important celebrities. No, sir. They've made their way.

They've made their way down to you after, how much has it been? 1,035 episodes or something like that? No, no, first of all... Which, by the way, I've listened to every single one of them. I listen to every single fucking episode. Oh, my God. Yes. That's not true. It's absolutely true. Kevin, that speaks less to the quality of our show and more to your profound boredom, I think. So, Kevin, I've had the good fortune of bumping into you just a couple of times, and I'm always just like...

kind of buzzing after I finished saying hi to you and your wife. And you guys are just always so kind and nice to me and pleasant to even the person you were talking to before you talked to me and the person afterwards. And where do you think that, like, were you always like that? Or does this come as a result of you both being

in this business for so long and have such a well-earned appreciation for your longevity. And, you know, is that why you're so kind to everybody? I love being an actor. And I feel just a tremendous amount of gratitude to be able to do what I do. And when it comes to being kind to people, I know I kind of feel like...

That really is like... I think my mother was very much, you know, like influential in terms of that kind of stuff. I think my dad...

was somebody who was very driven and I kind of got the success thing from him, you know, the drive. Sean's dad was driven. Yeah, my dad. Sorry, that was such a softball. Thanks, pal. I don't let those go by. I was not planning on tossing that one, too. My dad was the driver. He wasn't driven. We do have to get a screeching tire sound effect on this podcast. He was driven away in a Mazda.

Now, you know that I've listened to the show when I didn't even question what you were talking about. I know. Okay. That's true. Clearly, I knew exactly. Good test. All you had to say was, Sean's dad was, and I knew where it was going. But you know what? We should have known something was up when he bought an MG. Remember those cars, the MG's? Yeah. He did.

He did. He really did. Oh, boy. Yeah, what is that? And we're all like, can't eat. And he's like, I bought an MG. Nice car. That's cool. Should have known when he bought new luggage. So your mom said a good example. Dad was a little bit more driven. Yeah.

Yeah, my mom set a good example for compassion and being kind to people and stuff like that. That's nice. And, you know, listen, I love, like, to meet people that do what we do and to say hi and connect. And, you know, I have a certain kind of separation in a funny kind of way from our industry, this weird kind of, like, I've never...

felt 100% sort of in it, in the community in a weird kind of way. And, you know, so when I listen to you guys, I'm like, geez, I want to be, you know, baking cookies with Jennifer Aniston or, you know, playing pickleball with Brian Reynolds or whatever it is, you know. It's like I listen and I go, shit.

That sounds like fun. But, you know, being like in, stay in New York and stuff like that. So when I do run into someone like any one of you guys, you know, I'm genuinely excited. It's like, it's not something that I do in a normal course. Well, Jason's very interested. Jason's interested. He asked you that because he's like, how, that's so interesting to be nice to people. Like, how do you...

How would I get there? Like, he wants to be as well. So he's, right, Jay? It's aspirational for you. Yes, I just can't crack it. You know, no. Is it hard for you to keep that pleasantness up just walking the streets there in New York? Because I would imagine... Hard to keep it up. I know what Jay's saying. Let me finish the sentence. Because he's so recognizable. He's been, as you said, in everything. And that is...

an incredible uh accomplishment that his longevity is stunning so i'd imagine you can't walk into a room a restaurant a subway car anything without someone wanting to talk to you especially if you're if you have this big flashing green light up of like a smile and like hey i'm approachable come on up and take a picture like does that get tough for you because you're so known

I don't walk around honestly with the approachable smile on my face. I have the opposite. I walk around with the opposite smile. Consciously? Yeah. I mean, well, just over years of doing it. And this is what I think. First of all, you've been famous for 40 years. I mean, you know what I mean? Yeah. Right. So you got to get used to it eventually. And I have no one to blame but myself.

And 99% of being famous is good. Fuck, people give you shit. They say, they tell you, people stop you and say, I love you. It's like to be told that you're, somebody loves you. Yeah. Yeah.

That's like gold, you know? Yeah, I would imagine you get that a lot. Like, you're a very, very, very well-known actor, very famous actor, but you're not a celebrity, you know? Like, I feel like the celebrities are the ones that when they're walking down the street, people take a picture because it's like an animal escaped the zoo. Like, I gotta get a shot of this. I think he's walking down the street. I imagine people that come up and talk to you are like, hey, Kevin, I loved you on Will & Grace. Hey, keep it going, you know? Exactly. And then off you go, and you don't really get hassled that much. Yeah, so...

It does get a little bit much, but like I say, it's all my fault. And I just have to know that when I leave the house, that's going to be a thing. I'll tell you the one thing that definitely has changed, though, is that when I became famous, out of 1,000 people, one person had a camera.

And now out of a thousand people, a thousand people have a camera. Only one person actually knows how to use it. So it slows things down, you know, just in life. No more autographs. Yeah, nobody gives a shit about autographs anymore, except for those guys that I call...

the blue men, you know, who are the guys that, um, they always, they always have you sign with a blue Sharpie and they have just stacks of stuff. Right, don't personalize it so they can sell it. At the airports and stuff like that. Sean knows a bunch of blue men, but it's a different... David Cross knows a bunch of blue men, too. That's true. But you know what? I feel bad, Kevin, because now we've blown up your spot, like, like you're walking around with a scowl, but people now know that underneath you are such a nice guy, so they're like, oh, that's just his walk-around face. I'll go up and say hi to him. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, the thing is that I don't want to stop being able to move. Yeah. That's why I love New York partly is because I really – it's a city where if I stay out of the neighborhoods that are super touristy –

people just don't fuck with you because they're too busy. They'll say, "How you doing?" But that's it. I've always got to say, over the years, I've seen so many-- Again, you've been just part of our cultural fabric for a long time. And any photo-- I have to admit this to you.

I think you've got, this is crazy, I think you've got great style and I've always thought nobody rocks a fucking jean jacket like Kevin Bacon. That's right. I've thought this for years, man. I was going to wear my jean jacket and I forgot. I love the jean jacket and nobody does it better than you, dude.

Ever. And you still look 17, too. I know, it's amazing. Yeah, what's your deal? Why do you look so fucking young? Well, you know, he's not eating fucking chin-chin every night, Sean. Speaking of, we went Scottish. Swedish fish. Yeah, he's not bleeding Swedish fish out of his ass. Jesus Christ. And they were ready. Give yourself a break. Let's get a message from our sponsor, Swedish Fish. My wife is sick.

I still eat them knowing that's what they do to me. And now, a word from our sponsor. And now, back to the show. Hey, Kev, can I ask you something? Yes. No, no, hey, whoa, whoa. I don't think it's Kev. I'm sorry. I'm not sure it's Kev, Sean. No, you can Kev me. You can Kev me. My brother's name is Kev. I don't actually like Kev. Listen, I'm going to tell you, this is the truth. I can't stand the name Kevin.

- Really? - I didn't like it when I was young. I don't like it now. Kevin, if you read, look at movies and scripts, and even in the UK, they use it as an insult. "Hey, is that Kevin?" You know, it's like a-- - It's like a Karen. - Is that the male Karen? - Yeah, it's like a Karen. It's like a Karen, exactly. - It's like a Karen, but it's also like, "My name's Keith, and his name's Kevin, and I'm a plasterer, and he's a plumber." You know, it's like that kind of thing, too, I think. - What? - Yeah.

It's like real sort of taught to me. Kevin, my brother's name is Kevin. That's why I default of Kev. My point is that I do like the name Kev. You do like Kev. Yeah, okay. So you're allowed to Kev. You can Kev me all you want. What about K, like KB? No? KB. KB is great. Sure.

All right, so my question is, and Kevin, we can totally cut this, but I'm only asking because... Here it comes, hard-hitting. No, because when I saw it in the news, I was like, oh, my heart went out to you, so we can cut this if you want. But the Bernie Madoff thing, when that happened to you, and I know it was years ago, but...

I can't imagine what that was like going through that. Like, because I saw it, I was like, wait, Kevin Bacon's affected? I really did feel so badly. I'm the dummy who doesn't know that story. Yeah, me neither. Oh, that is the story. Just lost a bunch of money in Madoff, yeah. That's the story, yeah. We had most of our money in Madoff. No way. No way.

Yeah, there's obvious life lessons there. You know, if something is too good to be true, it's too good to be true. Right, right. And when something like that happens, you know, you look at each other and you go, well, that sucks. And let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. You know, we've made it this far. Our kids are healthy. Yeah.

We're healthy. Yeah. You know, let's look at the, you know, what we have that's good. We can still both work. And, yeah, I mean, certainly, you know, you get angry and stuff. But I have to say that, you know, that dude, there were a lot of people who were much worse off than we were. You know, old people, people whose retirement funds were completely, you know,

Yeah. So there's always going to be somebody that's going to have it a lot worse than you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, whatever. The cliché is all, you know, work. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And, you know, we just rolled up our sleeves. Right. There was also a story, I remember reading this thing, that a lot of people were made whole by that in the end. Did you guys recoup any of that? Again, we can cut it, but were you guys...

get anything back or was it? Yeah, it's very, it's a complicated thing to explain, which would just be too, I'll be happy to tell you about it someday, but it'd just be too deep in the weeds. But basically, yes, we got sort of like a, you know, a portion of some money back and there was also, you know, a lawsuit and stuff like that. But, you know, the thing about it is, is that

It looks like a certain amount of money, right? There's the money that you put in to something, and then there's the money that you've, in theory, gotten accrued with interest over the years. But that's just not real. That's just a number that was on a piece of paper, right? Because it was not a real thing. So you have to really just kind of switch your whole idea about matrix and stuff like this. I think people will be...

I'm not happy to hear me whining about money. No, but I will say this. Just listening to the way you talk about it, and it makes no— I read a great article in anticipation of us talking today from talking about you and having—reaching like a different—having a second wind and stuff, and the article was from 1994.

which was almost 30 years ago. And I thought to me, it sort of reinforced this idea that I have that you're a guy who's able to kind of move on and adapt and change. Again, you came out, you were in the

You were in Footloose, you were in the cover of People magazine, and you did a bunch of big studio movies, and then all of a sudden you're like, "I'm gonna start doing interesting roles, 'cause I wanna work with directors who matter to me." And reading that from 30 years ago, and you've continued to do it, and you've gone like, "You know what? I'm gonna do a TV series. I'm gonna do a broadcast series." And now you're doing this cable series, Sitting on the Hill. You've consistently done stuff

I guess, challenge yourself. And people say also reinvent yourself. But I don't know. That term is misleading. It's like reinvent to them. To you, you're just growing, I would imagine. What is that thing inside you that makes you just kind of wake up every day and go, now I'm going to go this way. Now I'm going to go that way.

I guess it's, I don't know, you know, I'd love to tell you that it was a grand scheme, but it really is just a question of throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks. And also just kind of, you know, when I started out, there was no plan B.

So I was just like, "Okay, this is what I'm gonna do." I moved to New York. And it's what you love to do. It's what I love to do. I love it. I love acting. I don't tire of it at all.

the time between action and cut to me is still just the best. - I love that. - The rest of it, I've lost patience for. I have to admit, you know, the things that sort of have to go along with it. But the actual time where I'm on that set, the cameras are rolling, I'm with other actors,

tossing the ball back. I still love it. And I think that, you know, you like to say that, you know, there's no secret to longevity. Longevity is a secret. If you just, you know, just fucking hang in there, you know? And, and if you suck when you begin, you're going to get better eventually, you know? Right. Right. What was the first paycheck you got for act for an acting gig? Yeah. I'll tell you. I was about, uh,

15 or 16. I was still in Philly. I moved to New York when I was 17, when I got out of high school. But I was still in high school. And so I heard about from a friend of a friend or something that there was this job, a kid in a, it was like a ROTC recruitment video. And it was going to pay, I think, $1,000.

$450 or something like that. I was like freaking out. I was like, this is the greatest thing. Now, my mother was a serious anti-war activist and civil rights activist.

took me down to DC when I was a kid, you know, marching on Washington and, and, uh, and I've clearly, um, um, this was after the Vietnam war had ended, but it wasn't so far on the heels of, of Vietnam. And she was super anti-military.

So I got this gig and I said, I'm taking it. And she didn't speak to me for like a week. Oh, wow. Yeah, she was furious. She was furious. Yeah. But at that moment, you know, at that moment, I did that thing.

that I think it's Robert Bly talks about, you know, in Iron John where you steal the key underneath the queen's bed. It's a rite of passage of a young man to walk away from his mother, which we all hopefully do eventually. I was around the same age. I got my ear pierced. My mom didn't talk to me for like a week.

And then... And that's your moment, right? And you go, no, I want this. That was his moment. I mean, there was a nipple piercing. I think a nipple piercing really sealed it. And your dad put it in drive, and that was that. I'm surprised she could hear you over the erasure music that was playing.

Wait, Kev, go ahead. Sorry, Kevin. Yeah, so that was it. That was the first gig. And I went and I did it. And it was awesome. How do you and Kira have... You maintain such an incredible success story as far as marriage goes. You guys have been together so long with two very vibrant careers, never working in the same city. I'm sure there's tons of overlap with your schedules. Yeah.

It's got to be an effort. I mean, to the extent you're comfortable talking, you know, details and strategies, what's the secret there? It's a difficult thing to do, I'm sure.

Well, you know as well as I do that over the years you learn the power of no. And that's the question that I am trying not to answer. So I will respectfully decline to answer that. But I'm also going to tell you why I won't answer it. And the reason is that what happens is

you say something like, "Well, she's my best friend," or, you know, "We just--" whatever the fuck it is. You know, just some fucking quote. And then people use that quote, and you take, what, 34 years of marriage, and it gets reduced to something that either comes out of my-- whether it comes out of my mouth or not. I love that. It's a great answer, though, man. I totally, totally, totally agree, especially now more than ever.

I've had instances where like stuff's happened in my life and then it goes like, it just becomes like a click link. You're like, my life is now a fucking click link? Like what the hell? Yeah, yeah. I'm just curious about that whole sort of distance makes relationships difficult. You know, military families, professional athletes, anybody that's got to... Astronauts.

Astrid, great point, Will. Because the distance couldn't be greater. Yeah, exactly. Really far away. Super far. But because you guys don't work together a ton, right? You have worked together for sure, no? We have. We have, yeah. I've directed her. She's directed me. And we've done a little bit of acting together. But, you know...

You know, I think that you're making the point, it's true, people think that because of the distance, and distance is hard, and because you have two actors, I think in a lot of people's minds they think, well, they're two actors, so the first thing their mind goes to is like sex scenes or love scenes or kissing other people or all those kinds of things. Right, yeah, yeah. And so that's what goes in people's minds. And then they think, well...

most Hollywood relations break up. And here's the thing, most marriages break up. Marriage sucks. Marriage doesn't work. Let's face it. The statistics are absolutely terrible. That's our clickbait. I don't care. We got it. Thanks, Kevin. You can't. Right, exactly. There you go. I'm fine going on the record with that because these are just numbers. You know, you can't, but you can't, you can't prove to me that, you know, two dentists

have more successful marriages than two actors. I don't know that that statistic really, you know. Right. That being said, I will say that we do plane strains in automobiles

to try to get to each other as often as is physically possible. Yeah. With the emphasis on physical. Yeah. And with the kids growing up, I'm sure the kids put in another element of complication and challenge and that's tough to do as well, right? I mean, all this is just projection, but it's a...

again, for the military families and the professional athletes and all that distance, that vagabond... The astronauts. Sorry, the astronauts. You guys know, you guys know, you've been married a long time. Yeah. The kids. This is what I think. I have not. Yeah, I mean, my... Yeah, I know. My kids, well, they were raised in New York and they...

I think that there's challenges to having two, you know, famous people as parents that are just inherent. And I wish that wasn't true. In a funny kind of way, you think to yourself, well...

Kira and I have no one to blame but ourselves for being famous, but the kids, it was kind of thrust upon them in a way, right? They didn't ask for this. And there is a weird moment where they start to, you know, for the first time, they start to go. You're holding a kid's hand, and someone comes up and wants to take a picture or an autograph. You have to let that kid's hand go. Right. Right.

Yeah. You know? Yeah. And the kid's like, what the fuck? I don't even know this guy. Like, who is this? Why is this stranger? You know, stranger danger. By the way, you've taught them all stranger. Yeah, but that's the moment. It's an important lesson for them to learn when you let their hand go, which is what you're saying is...

My celebrity is more important to me than you. And they need to know that. Just take a break. Daddy's got to do something. You know what's funny? I just got back to where I was on the East Coast all summer. We're out on Long Island, deep in Long Island, and it makes Jason crazy. It's so blue-collar. No, thanks, man. You just running the bowling alley out there? Yeah. I work on diesel engines. I work on diesel engines. Good for you.

Maybe I already told you this, but I was in the car... He's a lobster fisherman. Yeah. Checking my pots every day out there. So anyway, so I'm getting in the car with the kids in town, and this guy comes up and blah, blah, blah, and wants to talk to his wife and wants to take a picture and saying, hey, man, they...

By the way, the best part is now people come up and they're like, hey, tell Bateman blah, blah, blah. And Sean and Scotty, I'm like, hey, you don't know them, so shut the fuck up. But they go, the guy says all this stuff. So then I get in the car and my son, who's just turned 12, he's behind me. And I pull out of the parking spot in town and he's kind of quiet in the car and he just goes, hey, Will, you're a legend, man. And I go, hey, man. And he starts...

He starts hassling me from the back, mocking me from the backseat. You're the greatest, man. Like this. And I'm like, dude, I know. It's weird. I didn't. I'm sorry. They keep you real. And they keep me real. And I was like, but I was also happy that he had that kind of great kind of perspective on it. You know what I mean? Like it was kind of.

And you made fun of me, which is great. Oh, yeah. They get a really serious bullshit meter very, very early on because they can see it, you know, from the people that are surrounding their lives. Yeah. And the other thing is, you know, I feel like to a certain extent, you can't beat yourself up too much about it because that's what you do. Yeah, exactly. That's what we do. So other people have other challenges. Yeah. We will be right back. And now back to the show.

So Kevin, how was the summer? Did you do anything super exciting this summer? Or was it nice and chill and relaxed and just played that guitar in your shot there? I was spending a lot of time. We have a farm. And so I was spending a lot of time with the animals and riding pretty much every day. And I was out with my brother touring. I have a band with my brother. Yeah, I was going to ask about that. Tell us about that. On the road now.

So we've been playing. We were on one little run, and I got the vid, so we had to shut down. And then we picked those up. How was your time with that? Easy? Yeah, it wasn't great. It wasn't great, but it was not... You know, I didn't go to the hospital or anything. So that was great. And then now we're out doing a little bit more playing. I did a movie recently.

Yeah, a movie, maybe a couple of them. I can't remember. I know, this is amazing. Like, of course he did. I like the way he's like, I did a movie. Yeah, of course. Maybe I did two. I know, maybe I did two. I can't even remember. It's just a three-month period recovering here. What was the thing for you? Who are the people that you kind of...

looked up to, like, creatively? Who were the guys, like, when you were a teenager, you were like, I like this shit or I like that stuff. Like, who was the man? Directors or actors? Who was the Kevin Bacon? Yeah, who was your Kevin Bacon? Yeah, sure. Well, you know, for me, it was, okay, so I moved to New York, which is kind of when I think of my career as starting, around 1976,

Did you do a lot of theater there? I did a lot of theater, yeah. A lot of theater. There he comes. And Animal House, I think I started in 1978, something like that. Was that your first film, Animal House? That was my first movie, yeah. Wow. But I can tell you that the people at that point, to me it was the movies and the people surrounding Sidney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola,

Michael Cimino. So, you know, De Niro and Pacino and Meryl Streep and Raul Julia and John Casale and all of those gritty kind of like Dustin Hoffman. I mean, really, when I, one of the most influential things. Yeah, yeah. For me was

I saw back to back, we had a dollar, in Philly we had a dollar second run theater. You could see films for a dollar. And back to back,

they had The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy. - Wow. - And when I saw Dustin in that, I looked at Midnight Cowboy first. That was the first one that I saw 'cause they were both in second run. And I went, "Wow, where'd they get that homeless guy to be in the movie?" And a cowboy, where'd they get a cowboy and a homeless guy? How did they get them to actually do this?

- And then right after that-- - Cut to the preppy guy. Cut to the preppy guy, and I went, "Holy shit, that's what acting is." And that's the thing. Did you have a group of friends, though, at that time in high school who were in that same mindset as you? Or were you, like, alone in this old, like, your own thing? I was alone in my own head about that, yeah. Yeah, the only thing is I had this one kid who I was friends with.

who was wealthy, and his father had something that was unheard of, which was a giant home video system. And I think it couldn't have been VHS. It must have been some other, like, really, really early... Or, like, LaserDisc. Remember LaserDisc? No, this was before that. That was way before LaserDisc. Oh, okay. Yeah, it was the 70s, yeah. And he was... Wrecked chemistry. He turned me on...

He turned me on to he was obsessed with Brando and Clifton Dean and the and the switch in the style of acting that that existed there. So so he was the only he wasn't an actor, but he was he was a strange kind of movie buff. So I kind of got started into that stuff. But but yeah, those were my those were my people.

With all of that, and these guys will make fun of me because I ask this question all the time, but with all of that experience, that set experience, all the hundreds and hundreds of directors you've worked with. Have you thought about directing? No, he has directed. And my question is, do you not like it as much as acting? Given all that you've absorbed, do you not find it that it demands all those things that you've absorbed beyond just the acting?

Well, someday I want to, you know, really sit you down and sound you on, you know, on your great work as a director, but also in your great work as directing yourself, which is something that I find really kind of incredibly. I've done it a little bit. I direct the city on a hill, but but.

You know, I find that really kind of mind-blowing that people can do that well. But you're aware of how you're performing while you're performing, right? You're sort of self-directing the whole time, aren't you? When you do your thing? Yeah. I am.

I think it's less about knowing if I got it or not and more about just the overwhelming consumptive thing that happens to you when you have to direct and you have to answer questions from dawn to dusk and then beyond. Gotcha, yeah.

just having all that kind of responsibility and then also being able to a hundred percent throw yourself into, into the role. I would like to direct more. It's, it's, it's, but as you know, when it comes to a film, you know, that's a easy year of your life done. Right. So, so I keep getting these acting gigs that I go, Oh man, but that's like, I haven't, I haven't been that guy yet. So I, I really, I keep going back to, to, to acting, but,

You know, it'll happen again. Do you ever develop, forgive me, because I think I should know this answer. Kevin, I don't know if I can forgive you until I hear what it is. Oh, you're asking Kevin, okay. I've forgotten his name. Mr. Bacon, do you develop stuff for yourself, do you develop your own thing for yourself, like roles for yourself, and do you enjoy doing that, or is that like a big headache?

I love that. I love that. I really do. Yeah, I do. I'm always looking for books, stories, ideas. We have something that we're working on now.

Kira and I are both involved in it. It's a little bit of a secret, but we're... Yeah, I really do. I like the development process. I mean, it can be a little, you know, it can be a little frustrating, as you all know, when you put a lot of time into something and you go out, you take it around town, it gets passed on all over town, which, you know, happens. But we still try to keep it going. Okay, so now you've done so many different...

types of characters, whatever, and I'm going to ask you the most basic question. Good guys or bad guys? What do you like playing more? Because you do them both so fucking well. Yeah. I don't care. I mean, I don't care. If the character is a well-written, complicated, interesting character, if he's a good guy or a bad guy, I don't care. The thing that I don't do is worry about

what the character does and how it's going to reflect on me as a person. Like, I don't care at all what people think of me image-wise. I really just want to be known for the work. It's a little bit of a hassle in this career, as I've come to learn, is that there is this other thing outside of the work that I almost wish didn't even exist. You know, if I could just go...

And present company excluded, if I could just go and just say the lines and hit the marks and not have to do any of the rest of it, I would. But when it comes to...

taking on things that are people that do horrible shit or are, you know, I've done a lot of terrible, terrible things in the characters I've played. That doesn't scare me at all. So it's not so much that the character's good or bad as it is, you know, are they complex? Are they different than the guy that I just played?

play, you know, is there just good shit to play? I mean, you know, you guys know. Do you ever get close to thinking about, yeah, you know what, I've done enough of this, what about full-time music now? Yeah, Bacon Brothers. You ever get close to that?

No, I still really love being an actor. But the music you love, love doing, right? I love the music. I love the music. And we've just put out new music. I've been doing a lot of writing. I continue to write. It's one of those things where...

What really keeps driving the band is not so much the desire to, I mean, people would find this hard to believe, but it's not really that I want to be a rock star fantasy. Definitely that was in there when I was a kid, for sure. All my heroes had guitars. That was the deal when I was like in my early teens.

But, you know, you write a song and then, you know, you play your song for your wife and then you play a song for your brother and then you want to put it out in front of people and then you want to cut it. So if the songwriting keeps coming, you know, that's just really what drives it. Yeah, I love that. And it's you and your brother Michael, right? Is that...

Yeah, me and my brother Mike, yeah. We put the band together probably in 1995. He's about nine years older than me, and he's a musician. He's a composer. He can arrange. He's got awards. He's like a classically trained musician. I'm just a plunker. I love that. Yeah. Wait a minute. How many kids in your family? Six.

Six, I'm the youngest of six. I'm the youngest of five. I have a brother named Kevin and Michael. Who are your other siblings? Uh-oh. Wow. We have four sisters. Yeah, four sisters. My sister Karen, my sister Eleanor, Hilda, and Kira, who's, she changed her name to Kira, spelled slightly differently than my wife because my parents were terrible name givers and they named her Prudence.

And she was like probably about, I don't know, 18 or 19. She was like, "Fuck this, Prudence, are you kidding me?" I wasn't going to say that your parents are terrible name-givers. I was going to say, though, I remarked that both you and your brother, you go Kev. You like Kevin, he likes Mike instead of Michael and Kevin. So that's no-- No, they were not good. They were not good with the names. They were not good with the names. What were their names?

Their names were Edmund and Ruth. Our kids are named Travis and Sosie, and you'll get a kick out of this. Both names came off of crew lists when Kira was pregnant. Oh, really? Yeah, she was shooting something pregnant, and we found out she's pregnant. We just go down to the crew list and pick a name. Perfect.

No way. Sosie. Jason, you can relate to that, right, buddy? Sosie, S-O-S-I-E. Sosie, yeah. I know, and she's a great actress. She's amazing. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, she's doing great. Yeah, I love her. I'm a big fan of hers. Thank you. But that's so awesome that you and your brother have this connection with something that you both love and that you get to do together. I love that idea that you guys have been sort of

Doing it for a long time. Yeah. I want to see you guys play. I know. Speaking of music, Sean, I can't wait to hear your, see your show. Is it coming into New York? Oh, thanks. Yeah, that's very nice of you. Yeah, Good Night Oscar. It opens at, it's at the Belasco Theater and we open April 7th. The Belasco Theater. Go to belasco.com right now and get your tickets for Good Night Oscar. Is that what she said, Sean? Opening at the Belasco Theater. April 7th, 2023, I think.

Listen, Kevin. Thank you, Kevin. Kev, what about if you and Mike write a musical for Sean? That would be something, right? There you go. Come on. You'd have to be in it. How do you feel about a rock musical? Yes. Do you like singing rock? Yeah, I mean, it's kind of what I'm known for. Sing some rock, Sean, real quick for us. Bacon in the morning, bacon in the evening, bacon all summer night.

It's funny, you're singing about bacon, but it seems like your brain is full of scrambled eggs because that was terrible. Hey, uh...

Listen, Kev, we have... Horrible. That was horrible. It was horrible. We've monopolized your time. I feel like we could talk to you for about three hours. You're just such a good dude. You're the greatest. I wish we'd crossed paths more, but hopefully we will in the future, man. You're a good dude, and you're so good at what you do. Thank you, guys. Thank you for doing this, Kevin. Kev, thank you. We love you so much. What a blast. Bye, pal. Okay, talk to you soon. Okay, pal. Peace. All right, man. Bye, Kev. Bye.

He's something else, huh? Yeah. Old Kay Bakes. Love him. Kay Bakes. Can we start that? Yeah, we're starting Kay Bakes right now. By the way, if you happen to see Kev on the street, old Kay Bakes, just go up to him and say, hey, Kay Bakes, you know, feel free. We have got to start that. If you see Kevin Bacon on the street, hey, Kay Bakes. What up, Kay Bakes? It's like cupcakes. Yeah. We need to bake cupcakes with his face on it.

man how many so how many films has he done will you said a whole page yeah i wonder it's i wonder if he's hit he's probably hit 100 he has to i'm gonna say 100 movies so that would mean so he's been in the business since he was 15 what do you think he is now it won't listen i mean if i'm 53 do you think he's 60 yet

What's his birthday? I know how old he is, and you try to guess because he looks incredible. Well, if I'm 53, then he might not yet be 60, but he's older than I am. Sean, what do you think? I was going to say late 50s. You ready for this? I'm ready. 64. Wow. Yeah. All right, so then he's been doing it for 50 years.

He's been doing it since 1970. What did he say? 1976 was his first acting gig. 1976 when he did that ROTC. Right. So we're coming up on 50 years. Yeah. Right? That's amazing. So that's two films a year. He's probably done 100 films. I love when he was like, I think I did two films last year. I know. He can't answer.

I think that's like a baseball player, you know, 3,000 hits or something. I think if you do 100 movies, that is a real award for lunch. And also television. And he's done series in there too. And the movies. I mean, he's worked with everybody. Barry Levinson. There's a reason it's Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? Yeah. I don't think you can do that about anybody else. You know what? I was really happy that we didn't bring that up.

I was too. I was very proud of us. Can you imagine how exhausted he is hearing about that? Yeah, but don't you kind of want to talk about it? I think he made up for it with the Footloose references. Yeah, I know. Sean went straight away with the Footloose. I know. I mean, what are you doing? Hey, man. Did you lose a bunch of dough? Hey, this is a subject I'm sure you want to talk about. Yeah, in minute five. Yeah.

I was just curious. Hey, Ken, what was your biggest disappointment? Way to warm up the guest. What are you doing, Sean? I thought I was actually genuinely interested. I'm sure there's other people that are genuinely interested. Did Skeva, when he got on the air, did he clip part of the brain out? What happened? Have you got a leak back there? What happened? The only leak is my Swedish fish leak. Yeah. No, get a clamp on that.

Oh, gosh. Everybody thinking about a bye? Here comes Will. Yeah, I was just going to say. It's this game. It's got something to do with Swedish. If you have all that Swedish fish and it builds up in the back there into a big lump, you might want to get it. Bye. Bye. Bye, everyone. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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