MPM: On the flip side, do you think too much press attention is focused on actors' physical transformations?
Bacon: I think that, like anyone else, if someone does a huge physical transformation then that's always kind of interesting and fascinating to watch, and God knows it's something that people really respond to when it comes to Oscars and stuff like that. I also think that there's a lot of really interesting performances where, all of a sudden, somebody taps into something, and they just look and talk like you've seen them look and talk before but they just happen to be doing something that's just stunning in its simplicity and in its ability. Personally, I'm often amazed at what someone can do, sometimes, without a huge physical transformation. And then there are those people who try to attempt something and, basically, give us the same performance time and time again. Kyra and I always joke and say, "Same performance, different hair." MPM: When you were directing Loverboy, you created iPod playlists for the main characters to help them to find their characters. Do you make a playlist for yourself, also?
Bacon: Well, there [are] two things that I do. One is that I'll create a playlist that brings on a certain kind of mood for me. For Death Sentence, for this character as he transformed, it would be sort of from what I consider...sad and moody and young kind of stuff to, as the transformation happens, more kinda hardcore, edgy, put-you-on-edge sort of Metallica and stuff like that. And for the actual character, I think his taste is probably much blander; he kind of leans towards classic rock. MPM: What is it about music that makes it this common denominator?
Bacon: I think that it's inside all of us and it's, well... For me, I go through life and I go through my performances, and there's always some tune in my head and certainly some rhythm. And there's a lot of rhythm, I think, to the way that I approach my acting, and a lot of music in the way that I approach it. And I think that music becomes the bookmarks for our lives; it becomes the soundtrack that we can always kind of recall and it'll send us back to another time, another place. MPM: How is it different working on Death Sentence, where you and John Goodman are the most experienced guys on set, the teachers so to speak, as opposed to something like Mystic River or Sleepers, where you're acting with your peers?
Bacon: There's also the director. That's the other piece of it. I mean, James [Wan] directed two other movies, as opposed to working with someone like Clint, where he's got, whatever, thirty movies that he's directed. I don't ever come into an experience going, "Hey, okay, look out everybody; I know more about this than you do," because you look at someone like James Wan - I mean, he's a real artist and he's got really, really strong ideas visually, script-wise, story-wise, character-wise, clothing, everything. So it's not like I'm in a situation where I'm gonna take him to school. He knows what he wants and how he wants to get it, and that's what I want in a director, whether he's 18 years old or 80 years old. I do feel like, when I work with someone like that, it's really nice for it to feel like a collaboration. I really felt like we were a team on this. And I think when you sort of form a team above the line, that makes the young guys who were involved in the movie want to step up. They were extremely committed and extremely hardworking, really wanted to go to bat and also really wanted to learn more about the business and stuff like that. It's funny, because I only really enjoy that up to a certain point and then I'm kinda like, "Can't we just, like, all hang out? I think I'm dropping these pearls of wisdom that are probably gonna be no use to you anyway." MPM: Was there a particular mentor for you as you came through the ranks?
Bacon: A lot of people. I went from being on the stage a lot. I did play after play after play, sometimes regional theater and sometimes in New York, and I would look and listen and watch and absorb what I could. I had a lot of cockiness, too. I felt like by the time I was in my early 20s that I pretty much knew everything there was to know about acting and about the business and about life and about women and... You know what I mean? I was incredibly self-assured, and the truth is that I was learning then and I'm learning now. I didn't know as much as I thought I did. I remember having a great conversation once with Elliott Gould. He gave me a whole bunch of advice to take. I can't a hundred percent remember what it was, but I remember thinking, "Boy, this is great. I got a lot of great advice here." I remember having a good chat with William Hurt. He was a great influence of mine and he had some words of wisdom for me... I can't remember what they were. MPM: At what stage did you think this was going to be your career?
Bacon: Well, from the time I was 13... I said, "That's it. It's over. This is all I'm gonna do for the rest of my life." To me, that's the only way to go, though, in an acting career. I took a few classes. I was an apprentice at a theater - swept up the stage, literally, and that was it; I was hooked. I was set, and I was very pigheaded and dogged in my desire to do it, get it done: get outta high school as soon as possible; get to New York as soon as possible; get an agent; get a job, any job; work. Also, it wasn't about study. It wasn't about going to any kind of higher plane with my study. I felt it was really like I had a really strong desire to work and make a living at it. I never thought to myself, "I need something to fall back on." I never thought to myself, "I'm gonna try this for a while and see how it goes." I don't think you can do that if you want a career in the arts. I think there's too many people out there that are gonna shoot you down, kick your ass, send you back. MPM: Was there a point in time in your career where you felt comfortable that other people were going to allow you to do this for a long time?
Bacon: No; I'm waiting for that moment. I don't feel like I've ever really said, "Okay, now I'm cool. I've done it. I'm all right." I guess I went back and forth between waiting tables and working as an actor so many times that when I stopped waiting tables, that was a moment that felt pretty good. But you always feel like it's all gonna blow up in your face at any moment. MPM: Do you still feel that same desire and need to act, or can it be any creative field that gives you that fulfillment?
Bacon: I'd still like to act. I really love playing in my band. I really love writing and recording music. I love directing. I love it when you can get an idea and develop it and turn it into something, even if it doesn't become a piece of film or television; that whole process. But I don't think I'll ever stop acting because acting is very... It's very therapeutic. And just when I get frustrated with it and get frustrated with the business, and just when I think, "Oh, shit. I'm too old for doing this - having this kind of emasculating gig... Let me do something else. This is stupid," I'll read something and I'll say, "Yeah, now this is gonna be cool. I haven't done this before," or "I'm ready to get back in the saddle here." MPM: I know you've directed a couple of episodes of "The Closer," but why not direct more features?
Bacon: The only problem with directing features is you have to really find a story that you are 100 percent committed to telling. It just takes years to develop the material, find the money, pre-production, post-production. So when it comes to features, I will do it again, but it's... It's carving out the time. I think that some of the stuff that's coming up now in the digital video world is interesting, because I sometimes like trying to create something with less of a palette. The last episode that I did of "The Closer," I started to use a little bit of digital video, and I'm finding it to be really kind of interesting and incredibly light and quick and flexible. MPM: Any particular directors whose style you feel like you've adopted?
Bacon: Well, the person that I would most aspire to direct like is Clint [Eastwood], because he's incredibly efficient, incredibly fast. He just doesn't f-ck around and doesn't waste time, and tells great stories - meaningful stories, deep stories - and does them with just an incredible facility to get it done. And I think that one of the frustrating things, especially as you get older as an actor, is just the amount of wasted time on a movie set - an insane amount of bullshit that goes on that just doesn't have to - and when you work with someone like that who knows exactly what he wants because he's so clear about what he's gonna do in the editing room, it's just incredibly refreshing. MPM: Was it weird being directed by Clint's daughter, Allison, on the upcoming Rails & Ties? Does she have a similar sort of style, or...?
Bacon: I really didn't think about him when I was working with her. I really tried to give her the respect and just approach her as her own being. Is her style similar? I guess in some ways, maybe. I mean, she's much younger, obviously, and just has just a different approach. It's different just based on the fact that she is directing for the first time. MPM: And you've been cast in Frost/Nixon. It reunites you with director Ron Howard, who you worked with on Apollo 13. There are only a couple of other directors you've worked with more than once: John Hughes (Planes, Trains & Automobiles; She's Having a Baby) and Barry Levinson (Diner; Sleepers).
Bacon: Yeah, I know. They don't seem to hire me more than once very often. It's a weird thing. I'm not sure why that is. It's gonna be great to work with Ron again. It's been a long time, so I'm looking forward to it. MPM: Do you use a different approach to working on a character based on fact rather than fiction?
Bacon: Well, I'll tell you what's interesting is that I've hardly ever done it. I'm just about to start a thing for HBO called "Taking Chance," which is based on a real guy, Lt. Col. Mike Strobl, and we've been spending some time together. And it's a funny kind of moment when you sit down with someone, and they look at you, and you look at them and say, "I'm gonna be you." It's an interesting dynamic. But the thing is with both of these guys, Jack Brennan and Mike Strobl, it's not like playing Ray Charles. I have to find the essence of them as opposed to convince everyone that I am the person whom they've seen their whole lives. That's something that I've never had to do but I think must be quite a challenge. That's like Guy Pearce, recently, as Warhol - he was just absolutely amazing. I just so believed him as Andy Warhol. I'd met Warhol, and I just... It was uncanny. MPM: Do you think that not living in L.A. has also been a factor in your career?
Bacon: I think that [New York] gives me something as an artist. I think that it fills me up every day. I don't know if L.A. would be the same. It's hard for me to say, but it definitely... I mean, I'm constantly asked to portray real people; and I walk every day; I ride the subway every day; I surround myself, just by nature of where I live, with real people. My friends aren't all movie stars and celebrities, and that's not who I play. I play celebrities rarely, so that's one thing that's been great about a life in New York. MPM: How active is your website, SixDegrees.org?
Bacon: It's been great. I mean, it's beyond my wildest dreams in terms of what's taken off since the launch [in January]. I guess we've raised up to $700,000, or something like that. We're looking to really keep moving it up and beyond. The truth is that people say, "Oh, you've done so much for me." It's been a really kinda easy thing. It was really the concept - with some money - and it was finding and working and continuing to work with a great group of people that really understand the world of philanthropy, which is something that's kinda new to me. But we...I mean I... kinda check in a couple of times a week and talk about what our next move is and [about] working with various corporate sponsors and trying to kind of improve the functionality of the site so that it continues to work and interface with as many other Web pages, et cetera, as possible. It seems to be going really well. MPM: You launched SixDegrees.org at Sundance, and The Air I Breathe screened at Tribeca. What do you think about the relationship between film distribution and film festivals now?
Bacon: I think that some have become markets and some have not, and that you have to kind of look at your film and see where you want it in terms of that. Everybody talks about it in terms of Sundance, and last year I was there with SixDegrees, using the media coverage - the media zoo that it's become - to launch something that was not a film but more of a product. It happens to be a charitable product, but it is still a product that's being launched based on the fact all this media was there. I think that these things are cyclical and that there also are a lot of great films that are coming out of, and that will continue to come out of, film festivals. I don't think that's gonna change - there needs to be places where people can launch independent films. Otherwise, you're out on a Friday with a $50,000 ad and a wish and a prayer, and it's kinda tough. There's gonna be a lot of good films that are gonna be made and won't be seen, and you have to at least try to work the festival thing so you can get them out there. MPM: "Mixed Breed," your production company - why that name?
Bacon: Oh, gosh. It's a really old name, and it's basically kind of the idea of just being a mutt, that there's nothing purebred or thoroughbred about the company...and the fact that the dogs that I've had have all been mutts. -MPM Click for companion article, "James Wan's Death Sentence: Directing Bacon." |
