Scott Schulte

Adults Only

Kevin Bacon on Sex, Movies and America's Double Standard

At the plate, on the red carpet, or in a national advertising campaign, Derek Jeter delivers.

Featured in Brentwood Magazine November 2005

Kevin Bacon speaks his mind. The father of two teenagers has been a familiar face since the 1970s, bringing us such classics as Animal House, Apollo 13, Footloose and Friday The 13th. He is a thinking man, unafraid to voice his opinions about issues that extend beyond the business of moviemaking: Family, morality, 9/11 and the war in Iraq are all fair game. Having just completed what might prove to be his most controversial film, the NC-17-rated Where the Truth Lies, Bacon has a lot to say.

Where the Truth Lies has displeased the Motion Picture of America Association. "Blatant and explicit sexual images" have earned the film the dreaded NC-17 rating, relegating it to the netherworld between an R and an X. "I don't get it," Bacon says, speaking from his home in New York City. "The sex in this movie to me feels very appropriate. It's not like it's a titillating movie." Indeed. While many NC-17 movies are stories about sex, "Where the Truth Lies" is a murder mystery based on the book by Rupert Homes. Bacon and Colin Firth play Lenny Morris and Vince Collins, a 1950s comedy duo whose careers nosedive when a young woman is found dead in their hotel suite. The movie then jumps ahead 20 years to the mid-1970s and follows up-and-coming writer Karen O'Connor, played by Alison Lohman, as she tries to piece together the story of the woman's death as part of a tell-all book project about the duo.

It's no secret that the scene raising the most eyebrows is a menage-a-trois with Bacon, Firth and Rachel Blanchard.

"I don't want to sound highbrowed about it," Bacon says, "but it's a piece of art, and the sex is done in a very specifically artistic way by a very interesting and unusual filmmaker." Bacon is referring to award-winner Atom Egoyan, who took the industry by storm with the critically acclaimed Next of Kin in 1984.

"This movie is not some sex romp or some horrible slasher movie," Bacon says.

To Bacon, sex and violence are frustrating topics for actors because society seems to accept violence but frowns upon sexuality. "It's the same old song that we always hear," Bacon says. "There's some pretty extreme violence that gets through the cracks with an R-rating but [the MPAA] get[s] flipped out over people being naked making love."

Bacon is no stranger to violence in film. In the original Friday The 13th, Bacon was murdered with an arrow that was driven through his throat after a sexual encounter with his onscreen girlfriend. But his frustration over the industry's double standard when it comes to violence is understandable. Several recent films depict extreme and gruesome violence. This summer's Rob Zombie movie, The Devil's Rejects, portrayed everything from point-blank-range shooting to throat slashing and rape. In last year's surprise hit Saw, Cary Elwes' character cuts through his own leg to free himself from a sadistic psychopath.

Bacon blames the uneven playing field between these subjects on the country's prevailing sexual mores.

"This country is still very puritanical," Bacon says. "I think there is a lot of confusion in this country over what is morally right and what is religiously correct."

He adds: "I consider myself to be a very moral person. I have a strict code of ethics that I try to follow as best as I can; however, I am not religious at all, and I think sometimes those two things get confused with people. I don't know about other people, but I don't usually make love with my clothes on."

Bacon acknowledges that Egoyan's work is a little off-beat compared to mainstream Hollywood movies, which he considers a blessing and a curse.

"Atom (Egoyan) is Canadian, and he has a certain naivete about his work in that he sees the world through his eyes and doesn't see sexuality as dirty or bad," Bacon says. "It's really quite refreshing, but with it we have a film that has some sexuality, and it's been hit with the NC-17."

The stigma of the NC-17 rating is not quite a death sentence, but it does create obstacles. "There are many theatres that won't carry an NC-17," Bacon explains, "and some newspapers that won't even allow for the advertisement of such films."

Despite the controversy surrounding Where the Truth Lies, Bacon adds, "I wouldn't want to make the film any other way than what Atom did. It's not only the right way to make the film - it's really the only way to have made such a movie."

CELEBRITY, FAMILY AND WAR

Interestingly, the controversy surrounding Where the Truth Lies might just be getting started. The movie portrays the special treatment accorded to Hollywood's elite, and some in the industry might find that it hits to close to home. The film examines the way in which the two main characters are shielded after the woman is found dead in their suite. The audience learns early in the film that the suspicion surrounding the woman's death leads to the demise of the characters' careers, but they also see the way Lenny and Vince are protected - a privilege enjoyed only by the rich and famous.

"There is quite a difference between how the world is [now] compared to the 1950s," Bacon says. "Back then, if you were famous there was a certain amount of privacy the press would give you. Today it's completely different in that everyone wants to be the first to break the story."

He adds: "There [are] also so many more press outlets today fighting for the hot new story or that one big angle that no one else has. There is no way of catching a break from the media." To Bacon, neither the press nor the fans are solely responsible for the frenzy of media scrutiny. He believes that many people in Hollywood suffer from an addiction-like need to be in the limelight. "I've always said there are two kinds of actors: ones who love the attention, and liars," Bacon says. "Being watched, being seen, being loved, being stroked, being applauded ... that's at the core of what makes someone a performer, and if you have it and it goes away, it's like losing part of your identity."

Bacon believes that some stars who have watched their celebrity fade will do nearly anything to regain that attention.

"Whether they're conscience of it or not, when I see someone who hasn't been famous for a while, and then they are in the newspaper or on television for a DUI, shoplifting, going into rehab, I say to myself, 'There's a celebrity who is afraid that they are being forgotten, and come hell or high water, they are going to jump start their careers and be remembered.'"

Fortunately for Bacon, he has not suffered the major downfall of many stars, but the extenuating circumstances of fame are always present. "Does it get bothersome in public when we're out for a private night? Yes. Do we get special treatment? Yes," he says. "Do I apologize for that? No."

His children often ask why they are taken to the front of a line or given a table at a restaurant ahead of others, and even express embarrassment over such treatment. Bacon tells them that without such special treatment, a 10-minute wait becomes three hours due to the public who wants, expects and deserves an autograph or picture."

"It's a weird world," Bacon said. "I've been living this life for more than half my life, and it still seems weird. I've told my kids we have to move fast in public situations because people get to know stars on-screen and actually believe they know us through our work. If we didn't get the extra attention, we would never be able to go out in public, because I'm not going to tell a fan 'No' if they ask for an autograph."

Fame, Bacon believes, makes it imperative that celebrities have other things in their lives to keep them grounded - things to hold on to so that if their star flickers or dies, the universe will keep on turning. For this star, it's about family and reality - not just motion pictures, but the big picture.

"I have a very tight family unit with my wife and two kids," Bacon says, "then I have my extended family, my siblings and their families, my wife's family, New York City and the people who live here. It's what I'm about more so than the last movie I made."

Being a father raises some serious concerns for Bacon as the war in Iraq rages on and the memory of 9/11 remains fresh in his mind.

"As a kid, my mother used to take me to anti-war rallies during Vietnam, and as a kid, I didn't completely understand what was going on," Bacon says. "Who would have thought that we'd be here 30 years later, right in the same circumstances with Iraq as the country was with Vietnam."

Bacon opposes the war in Iraq, which he regards as unjust and unwarranted, but unlike many of his Hollywood colleagues, he views the post-9/11 invasion of Afghanistan as not only justified, but as unfinished.

"I don't like war of any kind," Bacon says. "But when we had terrorists attacking our country, it was this country's responsibility to seek those responsible parties out and I supported that. I also believe we failed and stopped looking way too soon."

"But as far as this mess in Iraq," Bacon says. "No - it's wrong, and I believe it's wrong, and we need to get out of there."

The U.S. might continue on this course for some time, a nation divided and at war, or we might pull out of Iraq and watch the aftermath from afar. Either way, if a movie avails Bacon of the opportunity to tell the story of this generation's lost innocence, he will step forward to tell the tale, letting judgment fall where it may.

Michael Logan, the lottery's director of information services, lived in a split-level Colonial in a modern development whose backyards are dotted with swing sets, basketball hoops, and plastic toys.

He was married and the father of two children, a neighbor said. "A good father and a good husband," was how she described him. "He loved his family."