Kevin Bacon talked to Insider about making his new movie, "You Should Have Left ."- Though the movie is based on a book, Bacon said that his wife,
Kyra Sedgwick , inspired him to do a thriller based on a marriage. - Bacon also explained how he stayed in a spooky cabin during filming to keep him in the mood of the character he was playing.
- "You Should Have Left" is available On Demand on Thursday.
Over his 42 year career, Kevin Bacon has starred in pretty much any kind of movie you can think of. But the horror genre is one where he's done some unique choices.
There's his gruesome exit in the first "Friday the 13th" movie, running away from underground monsters in "Tremors," sharing the screen with fellow 1990 heartthrobs Kiefer Sutherland and Julia Roberts in "Flatliners," and messing with our minds in "Stir of Echoes."
Once more Bacon is going to the dark side with his "Stir of Echoes" director David Koepp with the latest trippy thriller from Blumhouse, "You Should Have Left" (On Demand beginning Thursday).
Loosely based on the novella of the same name, Bacon plays Theo Conroy, a wealthy businessman who is married to a young actress (played by Amanda Seyfried) and have a young daughter together. They decide to take a vacation to a remote house in Wales to get away from it all. But when the house begins to play tricks on Theo, his insecurities and troubled past both come to the surface and lead to a shocking ending.
The movie adds to Bacon's already highly eclectic filmography with him delivering a twisted performance.
We had a Zoom chat with Bacon, who is also a producer on the movie, to talk about the origins of the project. Bacon said actress Kyra Sedgwick, who he's married to, helped inspire him doing the movie and come up with key elements for the Theo character. Bacon also talked about the things he puts himself through to get in the mood he needs to be in to make a thriller like this. In the case of this movie, it included sleeping in a secluded cabin.
Kyra Sedgwick suggested the movie be about marriage troubles, and things she suggested he do in real life are in the movie
Jason Guerrasio: Is it true that Kyra was the one who suggested to you and David that you guys do the movie around a troubled marriage?
Kevin Bacon: David and I had done "Stir of Echos" 20 years ago and I had really been just bugging him to try to do something with me again. We had been bouncing different ideas around and Kyra had mentioned that if you are going to make a contained horror movie it might be fun to investigate a marriage.
David and I were still talking about ideas and I just threw that out and I could see the wheels kind of turning in his mind.
Guerrasio: Did Kyra inspire anything else?
Bacon: I mean my wife has bought me countless journals that are all kind of scattered around the house that I have really never taken to writing in. A journal is a big thing in the movie. And she has encouraged me to meditate. To use those meditation apps. That I actually do just like my character. And David does, too. So there were things that were ripped from our personal lives that filtered into the script.
Guerrasio: How did Blumhouse get involved?
Bacon: It was pretty fast. It only took a year. We were far along in the process and I read "You Should Have Left." I was like, "Holy s---, this is really close to what we were already conceiving." Eventually, I got David to read it and he agreed it's great and we should get the rights to it. David put out a first draft and we sent it to [producer] Jason Blum and right away he said, "Don't make this with anybody else but me."
Guerrasio: You have a long history of making horrors and thrillers. For you is it just the genre? Or do you need the story or character to be right?
Bacon: It's never just the genre. It's not like I pick a job because it's like, "Let's see, time for a romantic comedy." It's all character-based. But I'm someone who does appreciate the genre. I am more drawn to the psychological thriller. "Get Out," "Hereditary," "Midsommar," "The Shining," "Rosemary's Baby." I did one slasher movie. I guess you can make a great one, but they are a little more simplistic to me. I like psychological thrillers because they are projects that have real high stakes. Life or death. And they are very challenging from an acting standpoint. There were all these layers that were put in very specifically by David so when we got Theo to the house he would be dealing with this paranoia.
Guerrasio: A big one being that he's married to an actress and has insecurities about her spending her days doing love scenes.
Bacon: 100%. And she's way too young for him. He is on the backside of his prime and he's not working. He's wealthy but feels irrelevant at this point in his life. So it's these nagging doubts.
Bacon said he stayed in a spooky cabin during filming to keep him in the mood
Guerrasio: Was Theo hard to shake once you were done playing him?
Bacon: I'm really good when they say wrap. Like at the very end of the movie I'm able to let things go. When I'm doing it, not so much. I kind of have to keep my head in the game over the course of shooting. I mean, no one is walking around saying my character name.
Guerrasio: Someone says, "Hey, Kevin." And you go, "No, it's Theo."
Bacon: [Laughs.] No. I don't play that game. But the character does work its way into your dreams and you have some dark thoughts. In Wales, the villages didn't have many hotels and there were cabins near the house that were being used for dressing rooms and production offices. So one night I decided I would stay in a cabin. It was very quiet. Pitch black. No noise at all. It was great.
Guerrasio: Wow. If that doesn't get you into character I don't know what will.
Bacon: Oh Yeah.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.