Kevin Bacon told Insider that it was his wifeKyra Sedgwick who suggested he do a horror movie about a marriage.- It led to Bacon and director David Koepp adapting the book "
You Should Have Left " into a movie. - Bacon said certain elements of the character he plays in the movie is taken from his relationship with Sedgwick.
- She encourages Bacon to write in a journal and do meditation — two things Bacon's character does in the movie.
Before Kevin Bacon came across a novella titled "You Should Have Left" and bought the rights to make it into a scary movie, he was already developing one thanks to his wife, Kyra Sedgwick.
Bacon told Insider that for years he and writer-director David Koepp had been trying to figure out a movie to do. The two worked previously on the 1999 thriller "Stir of Echoes."
"I had really just been bugging him to try to do something with me," Bacon said of Koepp.
The two knew they wanted to do another psychological thriller, but hadn't landed on a good idea. Then Sedgwick had one.
"Kyra had mentioned that if we are going to make a contained horror movie it might be fun to investigate a marriage," Bacon recalled. "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."
Things really lined up when Bacon happened across a review of "You Should Have Left," a 2017 novella written by Daniel Kehlmann. Getting the rights and then producing it with Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions ("Get Out," "The Invisible Man"), Bacon and Koepp put their own spin on a story about a guy with marriage problems. Setting it in a creepy rental house in Wales, Bacon stars opposite Amanda Seyfried and the movie follows all the strange things that go on at the house.
Sedgwick also played a part in some of the movie's elements. Bacon's character, Theo, writes in a journal and often listens to meditation, which are two things Bacon says he does in real life thanks to Sedgwick.
"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," Bacon said. "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."
Bacon and Sedgwick have been married for 32 years. They met on the set of a 1988 PBS version of the play "Lemon Sky." They have starred together in numerous
"You Should Have Left" is now available On Demand. You can read our review here.