For quite some time, people did a ‘six degrees of Kevin Bacon’ series, trying to connect Hollywood imagery with the Footloose actor in just six phases. Well, this week, Pilot TV has dropped a notch: we catch up with the fantastic screen star when he returns in the misbehaving show City On A Hill, back for its third season on Paramount+.
In addition to talking about his character Jackie Rohr’s looks, Bacon tended to court performances, the Tremors series that never became, his upcoming test show Lucky 13, and much more. Please wait patiently and listen to the full meeting on this week’s Pilot TV podcast, and read the modified highlights below.
PILOT TV: Jackie Rohr started the show as a terrible cop. Near the beginning of season 3, at this point he’s not a cop, he’s lost all of his distinctions. How should you portray his point of view as the season begins?
Kevin Bacon: Well, you know, there are two points of view. Jackie, he’s really done with the FBI, but he gave in to him. I feel like he’s a bit of a man without an item, he’s having a couple of odd jobs at a bar where we see him with DeCourcey in a weird way. Similarly, he is sitting on the couch a lot and watching youth shows. Her soulmate, Jenny is really keeping in mind that she should get away from the house.
She never really liked that he was in the FBI anyway, but that was better than him lounging around all day doing nothing and getting no money. So he’s hitting a monetary dead end, and he doesn’t have a truly remarkable explanation.
I could never have taken Jackie Rohr for an active person! Was that in the content, or was it a thought of yours? That was not my thought. A surprising point of view of the writers is that, in general, they find something new and fascinating in Jackie. Jackie is an amazing person, even from the first season: the ability of him to refer to quite tenuously composed pieces and genuine things, and a wide variety of things. Sports, regulatory issues – she has one of these characters that is very, surprising many times.
You have described him as ‘a man of the street, but wonderfully well read’. He pulls these affirmations out of the blue: do you have one that is generally appreciated or that surprises you?
There was a scene, and it’s extremely important to me right now considering the destruction of Bill Russell, who was an unprecedented baseball legend. Jackie has a whole talk, I think in season 2, about the history of Bill Russell and the kind of bigotry he defied being in the city of Boston.
I can’t remember what his point really was. [laughs] Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out what his certified point is, but it was a story he told a lot of detail to DeCourcey, and it was only a story for me because of Bill’s passing.
Before my last film, I was unaware that “conversion therapy” is legal in more than half of the US. I am grateful to @ThePerfectBorn for their work to end this harmful practice. Join me in telling LGBTQ+ youth that they were born perfect: Text ‘BornPerfect’ to 44-321. pic.twitter.com/X74GNJ8dvu
—Kevin Bacon (@kevinbacon) August 9, 2022
Basically, there is something inherently profound about a court. It’s family life and conditions fall on the line.
In each season, it starts with one region in Boston and then moves on to the next – much of Season 3 will take place in Beacon Hill. How does that light up Jackie’s character and bend this season?
Certainly, to be sure, Jackie has been successful in the FBI, but he was decidedly not met with any kind of money. So, to get into this universe of foolish wealth: the guy, regardless of whether he’s a former FBI-trained professional, his family is an incredibly wealthy family, pigeon of travellers. It’s not exactly a world Jackie is familiar with walking.
As he is very awkward this season, you know. I think he looks at that house and sees that kind of wealth, and you know, he even communicates it at a later point: ‘Sure, I should have this for my life partner.’ He gives her the keys to a fair BMW and says, ‘Damn, this is great. I could use this. But what he really establishes is a kind of certifiable moral situation, when he sees what’s going on in that house. Could it be said at some point that he’s going to pick the most ideal option and call out this Sinclair character about how he’s treating these young women?
You work with Aldis Hodge on this show, and an impressive portion of the scenes happen in a courtroom. Does shooting those scenes bring you back to A Few Good Men? Have you had any conversations with Aldis about her work on that film?
Sure enough, I moved over to Aldis and said, ‘Okay, let me tell you about legitimate conduct in court.’ [laughs] No, it’s impressive at court. All things considered, he’s consistently uncommon, but in the last episode he has an unprecedented and exceptional court scene that basically blows everyone’s minds.
I certainly really reflect on A Few Good Men. The intriguing thing about the court is that it is essentially characteristically deep. It just works continuously. That’s the explanation, something like A Few Good Men, or To Kill a Mockingbird, or even Law & Order for countless seasons… there’s something characteristically deep about what goes on in court. Many times the lives of people and the conditions that take place are at stake. You see that the spectacle extends while the jury analyzes the election.
Is there a person you’ve played in a movie that you’d really like to give the TV treatment? I did a movie called Tremors – it was everything except a hit on film, but it was a gargantuan hit on record and I produced a whole package of side projects that I wasn’t in. Likewise, Blumhouse and I had pitched a series for two or three years prior, and that would have been a compelling series for me. It was not obtained, but I hoped to explore what had happened to that individual for more than 25 years.
Other than that, I don’t understand that there are characters that I was talking to someone about a couple of days ago, I did a movie quite a while ago called Diner and someone was like, “You should definitely come back.” to that with people now”, and I have no idea… I have no idea. In fact, never say never.
Anyway, what’s interesting over time is that I’ve been around long enough that my movies changed, not with me, but they remade Footloose, they changed Flatliners, and they’re going to retry The River Wild, which is a movie I did with Meryl. Streep a long time ago. Also, that’s like, “God, amazing, has this actually become a period piece?”
One person who could play again is Sebastian Shaw from X-Men: First Class, given the multiversal nature of the MCU. You have exceptional passing scenes with Magneto. Do you have any particular memories of recording that one?
Working with Mike was great, you know, Fassbender, he’s a good actor. Until that moment, he had been aware on green screen, at this point it had not been my existence. Likewise, he has his difficulties. We are capable artists, so we incessantly strive to make something that is not there and strive to make it happen. Michael and I were surrounded by green all day, doing that crash scene, and that definitely, surely had his problems.
You will have another test program, Lucky 13. What restrictions do you want to look for next? This partnership had a big breakthrough in the UK with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and it wasn’t even something basically on my radar, but they sent me different expected results of the things they were working on in the reality check. I read this release for Lucky 13 and indeed we continue to play the game.
It was interesting, I ended up driving and my better half was in the vehicle, so she was patiently waiting, listening to me play this game. Likewise, it’s basically an extremely cool and fun game. It’s just empowering, it works.
I thought, at this point in my life there are so many things I’ve done, why not try something new and find out how it ends? I feel like I’ve commonly struggled to say, “In light of everything, could I at some point make my own rules?” I don’t realize the rules basically, from the rest of the world. I will make my own rules. So this is one of those minutes where I can do a pass at a novel, something new.
City On A Hill Season 3 is coming to Paramount+. Please wait patiently, expecting to hear new episodes of Pilot TV Podcast every Monday.