Kevin Bacon, 66, Still Doesn’t Think He’s Made It

The ubiquitous actor riffs on humility, marriage (‘it doesn’t work’) and the double-edged sword of his 'Six Degrees' fame

Chris Nashawaty,

AARP

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Published January 24, 2025

Kevin Bacon has been one of Hollywood’s finest — and hardest-to-pin-down — actors since he made his big-screen debut in the 1978 comedy blockbuster National Lampoon’s Animal House. In the early ‘80s, he rocketed to stardom with the indelible one-two punch of Diner and Footloose. Since then, Bacon has appeared in more than 70 films (including A Few Good Men, Apollo 13 and Mystic River) and earned a Golden Globe for his turn in the 2009 TV movie Taking Chance. He is also a well-respected musician who performs with his brother Michael in the Bacon Brothers, a father of two, and half of one of our favorite acting couples alongside Kyra Sedgwick, whom he married in 1988. With two new high-profile projects coming out this year — Amazon’s supernatural horror series The Bondsman and Netflix’s dark-comedy limited series Sirens, costarring Julianne Moore — the actor, 66, spoke to us from his home in northwestern Connecticut.

He was the baby of six Bacon kids, and you know what that means …

I was the youngest by eight years, so I was 100 percent an accident even though my mother denied it. My parents were supportive and loving and very big on creativity. Write a song and play it, bang on a pot, do something! But they were very hands-off, and when I left home, I was on my own. My dad gave me a little bit of money to pay for my first year of acting school, but it ran out pretty quick. When I see the kind of relationship I have with my children — we talk about stuff, we communicate — I didn’t really have that.

Getting cut down to size is part of the gig

When I got the call to be in Animal House [1978], I thought I was off to the races. I was invited to the premiere, but I didn’t have the VIP ticket to get into the after-party. I was on the other side of the rope watching the cast get out of the limo and walk down the red carpet. This business is nothing if not humbling. But if you want to stick it out, you’ve got to have thick skin, because you will get your ass kicked.

He still doesn’t think he’s made it

Honestly, I really don’t. But I would say there was a moment when I thought: I don’t think I’m going to have to go back to waiting tables. That was probably around 1982 when Diner came out. That’s when I knew I’d be able to make a living as an actor. I didn’t know if it would be a good living, but you know, there’s so much more I want to do. And this is one of the great gigs where you get to explore different things and different types of characters as you get older.

He’s been married to Kyra Sedgwick since 1988, but don’t ask for their secret

I hesitate to answer because what happens is it ends up being a quote that minimizes 36 years of marriage. And think about what the possible answers would be: “Oh, she’s my best friend.” Get outta here! I don’t like the pressure of other people looking to us. Marriage doesn’t work. Look how many end in divorce. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, honestly. I don’t even like the words “successful marriage.” It’s like, yes, we’re still married, and that’s that.

He has a huge presence on social media, but he’s not in it to rack up millions of followers

People said to me: “This is great because people from your past will get in touch with you.” That’s my worst nightmare! But I do like to create stuff. I don’t like to play golf, I don’t really like to read. So when I was away from Kyra and the kids, I would share little videos and be creative. What’s funny is now people come up to me and say “I love you in ...” and you think they’re going to say Footloose or Apollo 13 and they say "... on Instagram." All the years I’ve been at this, and that’s what they respond to.

His dream project is one for the whole family

There’s this film we’re trying to put the financing together on that we developed with the four of us [Kyra and his two kids, Sosie, 32, and Travis, 35] to all work on together. Kyra and I would codirect, and we’d all act in it. We’ve all worked together in different capacities on other projects. She’s directed me, I’ve directed her, she’s directed Sosie, Travis has produced things Sosie’s been in, Travis has done music for things we’ve done, but we’ve never done something with all four of us. It’ll be terrifying if it all comes together!

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The whole ‘Six Degrees’ thing has been a blessing and a curse

First of all, I say this with a tremendous amount of gratitude for coming as far as I have and being able to make a living at what I truly love to do. But with Six Degrees, there’s an element of almost being more famous for being me than the work I’ve done. And I’ve always hoped that the work would be first and foremost in people’s minds, but I also feel like it’s never too late.

His all-time favorite movie is This is Spinal Tap, and he was almost in it. Kind of …

I haven’t been asked to do improv much. And in the few situations when I have, I found it frightening but super-fun. Of course, if Christopher Guest called me to be in one of his movies, I’d do anything for him. In fact, when I first heard about Spinal Tap, I had someone reach out to Rob Reiner to ask if I could be one of the exploding drummers. He said no.

**He’s been reluctant to mix his two passions — acting and music. That is, until his upcoming supernatural Amazon series, The Bondsman.**

When my brother and I put the Bacon Brothers together, I never wanted people to say, “Oh hey, actor boy has a band.” And people have said to me in the past, “Oh, you’ll be interested in this project because you get to play a musician.” But to me that’s never been a plus or a minus, it’s the music-making that attracts me. What was fun about Bondsman is that the amazing [Sugarland singer] Jennifer [Nettles] and I play exes, and we got to write songs for the show. To prepare, we’d sing into our phones and pass the song back and forth until it was done.

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Chris Nashawaty, former film critic for Entertainment Weekly, is the author of Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story and a contributor to Esquire, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.