Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - KEVIN BACON

Episode Date: July 31, 2022

In 1978, Kevin Bacon got cast in Animal House. And in the ensuing decades, he starred in iconic films including A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Mystic River and, of course, Footloose. In this week's "Sunday Sitdown," Willie Geist gets together with the actor to talk about why he chose to stay in New York, how he incorporates the Six Degrees of himself in to his family life and why he decided to take on his latest role in the horror film They/Them. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got a great one for you today with no understatement here, a Hollywood icon. His name is Kevin Bacon. I will not insult you or bore you with a long wind-up or introduction. You know the man. What I can tell you that you may not know is that he grew up in Philadelphia, the son of a legendary architect and urban planner. His dad basically helped to shape and build modern, Philadelphia. So he was kind of a celebrity around the city when Kevin and his siblings were growing up. Kevin saw that people knew his name, people liked his dad's work, gave him pats on the back and thought, hmm, that's something I'd like to have when I grow up. So he became an actor. Moved to New York City when he was 17 to become a stage actor, but within about a year got an audition for a movie called Animal House. He won the part. The rest is history. The movie becomes an American classic. He then was in the original Friday the 13th. movie. I don't know if you remember that. And then he was in Barry Levinson's diner. He got a lot of acclaim for his performance in that movie. All of it leading to a movie called Footloose in 1984. Of course, that is the movie that made Kevin Bacon a household name and a star around the world. His latest project is streaming on Peacock. It's a movie called They Slash Them. Has him back at camp, just like he was some 40 years ago with Friday the 13th. This time.

time as a counselor, a very creepy counselor at a very creepy camp. This is a horror movie. The premise of it is that it's a conversion camp for LGBTQ kids to make them straight. And he is the counselor of that camp. It's a horror movie. It's beyond creepy. That's an understatement. The kids in it, the young actors are really, really good. It's a horror movie, but it's got a great message of empowerment for all these young people who are at the camp. So check that out. What I can tell you as we get to the conversation here is Kevin and I are at a little bar restaurant called Bodega 88 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where Kevin has lived

since he moved to New York when he was 17 years old, never moved to L.A., never went to Hollywood. He loves being in New York. He says it's an easier place to raise a family. He's married to the actress Kira Sedgwick, as you probably know. They raised a couple of kids in New York. away from the spotlight of Hollywood. And this is just one of his favorite little bars. Cool place.

It's on Columbus and 88th if you're ever in the neighborhood. So right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast, me and Kevin Bacon hanging at one of his spots on the Upper West Side. Thanks for doing this, Kevin. Good to see you. Nice to be around the neighborhood with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good spot. I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but I just finished watching the movie.

And it's a little hard for me to be this close to you right now. having seen what I just saw. Well, then I had the desired effect. You did your job, my friend. Tell me about this movie when it came across your desk. They slash them. And what you saw on it that you thought would be cool or exciting or a fun character to play.

Yeah. John Logan, who I've known for many, many years, and it's a very, very excellent, successful writer of films and television as well as theater, said, I've got something for you. And it's not too often that someone says that they wrote a part with me and mine. And I don't really know how to take that when you see this role.

I was just going to say. But John had created this screenplay that was very much following the format of an A70s or 80s slasher movie takes place in the summer camp, there's, you know, axes and knives and a lot of blood. I was in the original Friday of the 13th. So I know, you know, I know this world to a certain extent. I also am a very big fan of horror, but he had followed that format and brought in this very, very interesting idea of it taking place in a gay conversion camp.

And John, looking at the fact that this was even a possibility in our country that someone would think that you could try to change the way someone is with, you know, some kind of therapy or mind-bending, you know, kind of stuff, was, he looked at that as a horror. and it is a heart. And so a lot of the characters are LGBTQIA plus characters, the campers, for lack of a better word. And this character that I have, you know, when I play a bad guy, which I had played many, you know, you want to stay away to the extent that you can from the mustache, sort of, you know, cookie cutter, evil character. You don't want to be a cliche. No, I tried not to be, you know, the way that it's approached.

And, you know, what John had written was a guy who is genuinely laying out these sort of logical points of view about how we are meant to essentially fit into some gender normative categories. and that if these campers are willing to, he can make their lives better. And we talked a lot about him saying this with as much sincerity as he possibly could muster. And that became kind of the basis of the character. And that's why it works, because you start the movie of sort of this appealing, welcoming guy who runs a summer camp. And then, of course, things take a quick turn. You said you've played bad guys before, but as an excellent actor, how do you get into that place of something that's so contradictory? I assumed everything you believe in the way you think.

What's that headspace like for you to play someone like this? Well, you know, when I became an actor, the whole idea for me was to try to walk in somebody else's shoes. I've never had any kind of interest in playing. someone like me. I frankly don't think that someone like me is all that interesting as a character. You know, whether good or bad is not to me so much the issue as it is, are they fascinating, complicated, and interesting men whose shoes I haven't walked in before. And when When it comes to people who are, do terrible, terrible things to other people. I think a lot of times, you see this all the time in the news and in the way that people

frame things. The first word out of someone's mouth is, that guy's a monster. He's an absolute monster. That was a monstrous kind of action. To me, the frightening thing is not to make him a monster. and making a human being. Regardless of anybody that I've played who does terrible things, I want people to feel like that's an actual human being

because that's the truth about our so-called monsters. If they were actually monsters, then we would send somebody out like a ray gun or something, you know, to shoot them, and then it would be fine. You know, we got rid of the monster. So it's all about just humanizing someone to the extent that I possibly can. And to me, that ends up being scarier than, you know, without question, without question.

It's interesting that I don't want to give away too much of the movie, but sort of the lesson or the plot or the theme of the movie is summarized nicely at the end by one of the main characters about people just being who they are and not being able to be changed. What did you see at the center of this? Because we were talking a minute ago, this isn't just like an 80s slasher movie and everybody dies and that's it. there is something at the heart of this movie. I think that's it. I think it's that you have to let people be who they are and this idea that based on whatever it is that you're basing something on your religion generally or your politics or your life experience that you

can take somebody who is essentially one thing and convert them to be something completely different is ridiculous. It's inhumane. I don't think it has any place in society and not in an intelligent and loving society. So I think that part of what John wanted to do with this film, which is interesting, is you could make a very...

You can make a documentary about gay conversion which Blumhouse actually has. You could make a dark little indie about one person's experience. But what I responded to was that he was taking a genre and a kind of style of filmmaking that has the potential of drawing people in

just because it's entertaining. You know, that it's, it is a very entertaining movie. You know, it's like a... It's got moments of like kind of rah-rah. It's got heroic. moments, it's got blood, it's got scares, you know what I mean? It's like, it's a pop kind of movie. And then you kind of add this piece of it that will hopefully make people think and question

what I'm doing in that camp. Again, not giving away too much. All I'll say is I'll never look at a rhinoceros the same. Let's just leave that right there. Let's leave that right there. it's so interesting the way you talked about you worked with Steve before and you guys you know he did gladiator for people don't know and the aviator and all these other things and it was his first time directing is that as you go through because you do pick such interesting things like here comes a horror movie that has this message at the center of it is it at this point for you like the people you get to work with the people you trust yeah yeah but you know I still go off to work with people that I've never met before forward. You know, you kind of have to. I mean, I, I think it really, it starts with, with, with the guy that I'm going to play. You know, if I, if I look at that guy and I say, is it different than the,

than the last person that I played? Yes. Or maybe it's different than anybody than I've ever played. Do I have a little bit of a hook? Do I have an idea? Do I have an in? In terms of, um, this man or am I really going to have to dig deep to figure it out. If I have a hook, it makes a little bit easier. I go like, okay, yeah, I got him. I got him. I hear him. I get it.

I mean, that was kind of the case in this movie. You know, right away, I saw him not as a drill sergeant, not as a, you know, a kind of, you know, right-wing kind of image. I saw him as a hippie, a gentle guy, a deadhead. You know, this is, to me, that's a more interesting way in. And then after I look at the character, then I'll go, well, who else is involved, you know? Or is it a director who either I like and know, or is it someone whose work I've liked or someone whose work I'd learned to like?

And, you know, then it just kind of goes from there. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Kevin Bacon right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Kevin Bacon. There are a lot of young actors in this movie, some really good ones too, right? So on a set like that, you know, you're just a small group of you, you're at camp somewhere near Atlanta. That's right. Are you sort of, do they come to you?

I'm always curious about that. Someone who's so respected, are you sort of the wise man on set? Yeah, you know, that's funny because now I don't even think about myself in this way, but now I look around and I stop and I go, wait a second, I'm not like, I'm the oldest person, not even in the cast, like I'm the oldest person of the director, the crew, like everybody. And that is a weird position that it's in because I just don't wake up and think of myself in that kind of way. I also don't really think of myself as if I enter into a company of players, I don't I'm not I'm not there to teach them how to act you know I'm there to be part of

the ensemble to you know do my work and you know learn my stuff and come in and do my do my best that being said I think in this case because they were fantastic one and all some of them had more experience in others and no one had as much experience as myself. And so John, you know, he said to me, I need you to, I need you to lead the charge in terms of what this set becomes. It's very important to me that, and especially in something like this, that a set is a positive working environment, a safe working environment. Like, I'm too old to deal with any, you know, I just, I just don't want to anymore, you know. So to the extent that I can influence that, I do. In fact, he very specifically made the first speech that I say to the campers, the first scene that we shot.

And it's kind of a long sort of, you know, diatriop about what's going to go on. Yeah, it's quite a monologue. It's a monologue, yeah. And they basically have to just stand there during my monologue, take after take, and watch me. And I think that he did that because he wanted to show that, you know, I knew my lines basically. Yeah, right. This is how a pro does it, right? Right.

That's interesting that John sort of put you front and center and wanted you to do that. I mean, if I were a 20-year-old actor and Kevin Bacon were on the set, I think I'd take as much out of that as I could. And your rule about not putting up with anything anymore, I was interviewing Michael Douglas recently. He goes, my only requirement is no . . . . . . he's like, that's it at this point. Yeah. I want a good experience. Yeah. Well, I might also add that, you know, when you have 20 younger people, there's a lot I can learn

from them too. Sure. About their experience, about their lives. All of the casting was done with a very close eye to the fact that these actors have a related experience and their lives to the characters that they play. So, you know, I got a lot to learn from them too. Yeah, now they're great. Were you cognizant of the full circle nature of this movie?

You mentioned Friday the 13th, 1980, 2022. Here's this movie. Did you think about that at all? Like, oh, this is kind of where I started way back when. And now here I am again at camp. Right. I'm back at camp. I'm back at camp. Woo-hoo. I don't know.

I didn't really. I think that, you know, maybe John did. You know, maybe in putting me in the film, there was some kind of, you know, wing to that. I know that the kids, I call them kids who are not kids that are adults, but I know that they all got together and watched it, watched Friday the 13th. Oh, did they? Yeah, for like the night before they were going to start shooting or something like that. And, you know, I think that he, the hope for him and I think for all of us is that for a young person who is,

in some way, it feels other, feels disenfranchised, feels like an outsider, can look at the movie and say, okay, I can root for these guys, and that's me. That's my hope. I was amazed this was John's first movie. He did such a great job. As a director, I mean, he's written, people watching don't know, The Gladiator and the Aviator. It's this incredible list, but first time directing. Yeah, and Petty Duffel, you know, he was on the set a lot for that.

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Thinking about your Friday the 13th days, a little before then, when you were growing up in Philly, I was reading a bunch of interviews where you were basically saying, like, you love the idea of performing, you love being on stage, and the idea purely at that point anyway was, I want to be famous. Was that because your dad was sort of this legendary architect and city planner, and his name was in the paper, and people knew that he was. He was sort of this revolutionary figure in urban planning.

Was that part of it that drove you to acting, do you think? I think so, yeah. I mean, I think that if I really broke it down in its simplest terms, my mother was the one that sort of encouraged the artistic, creative side of all of us, all six of us. she you know her one of the first

presence that I ever got from from her was a box full of costumes not costumes it's just junk our old clothes and you know pieces of fabric and you know rope and belts and just crap that she threw in there

that you could make into a costume so right away you know I was performing you know taking on you know, other characters. But my father,

yes, I wanted to be more famous than my father. Yeah. For sure. And he was someone that really, you know, kind of embraced whatever was known about him. Now, granted, you know, Philadelphia is a very big, very small town. So he was very, very well known in Philadelphia, which meant that if we would walk around,

people like, hey, Ed, Ed, you know, what, what's next for the whatever, you know, right. And there's a lot of stuff that was written about him and he would always, you know, bring home articles and, you know, was really, really, you know, into it. And I think that, you know, he looked at success in some ways as having success on a, you know, in a very public, a very public way. And so, yeah, I wanted that. So it was almost a competitive thing with that?

No, I definitely think so. I definitely think, yeah, I would think so, yeah. I mean, you know, I don't think that's an unusual thing for a, you know, band with his father. You know, I wanted to definitely want to be more famous than him. Was that the drive that sent you to New York City when you were 17 years old? because that's a pretty, what's so a gutsy? Let's use the word gutsy. That's a gutsy thing to do for a teenager.

Yeah, to the Upper West Side. Yeah? Yeah, not too far from here. I... What was the plan? I mean, you went to circle in the square. You get off the bus and port authority and say I'm here? Yep.

Suitcase in a dream, 100%. Slept on my sister's couch. She was already up here. My eldest sister, was 18 years older than me. I had auditioned to get a. into the summer workshop at Circle and Square, but decided to stay. You know, I knew that I didn't want to go to college. I was already, like, deep into doing whatever I could in Philly to be an actor.

I just, you know, I knew. But the truth is, is that even though I was holding on to that dream of success and, you know, sitting here with you and being in that kind of a situation, name and lights, all that kind of stuff. At that point in my life, I had become, began to really focus on the craft as much as the career, as much as the fame and recognition. In a weird kind of way, it stayed in the back of my mind, but it had become less important than try to be good to try it to be, you know, whatever, a serious actor for whatever that means.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Kevin Bacon right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Kevin Bacon. Well, that's what's so interesting about it. You quickly get Animal House, then Friday the 13th, then Diner, and then, of course, footloose, and you kind of get swept along into this Hollywood stardom that you hadn't quite prepared for, right? You wanted to be a stage actor. I mean, nothing prepares you for footloose.

But you're not turning down those jobs and you're rising so quickly. What was it like for you to sort of, as I say, be swept along and not overnight, but pretty quickly become a big star. Yeah. It was, well, I can tell you that it didn't feel quick. You know, footloose came out. I was about 24. You know, and when I got here, I was 17. So that seemed like a pretty long, to me it seemed like a long road.

And all those steps, while they were, ended up being iconic, things like Animal House and Friday the 13th and Diner, none of them felt like I had, like my life had changed. It wasn't until Flip was that it really felt like my life had changed. Yeah, it was terrifying. I think I was conflicted about it. I've been thinking a lot about talking also, my daughter's an actress, so I get a chance to kind of, you know, to think about it through her point of view. You know, I think that the thing, it was never the work. Like the work I was always good with.

It was all the other stuff that was, I was resistant to, you know, that felt weird to me, you know, press, photo sessions, sign of autographs, premieres. of course I loved it on one level because it was an acknowledgement that whatever I was doing was getting seen

but I had a real kind of like sort of very conflicted feelings about it you know never moved to L.A. for instance you know

I just felt like just Hollywood I just don't not quite the hot like I just don't really feel like Hollywood you know I've adjusted that That way of thinking through the years,

and I really understand our business, I understand the importance of, you know, like what we're doing and all the rest of it. But when I was young, I had a hard time with it. You're not alone, by the way. They're very, very well-known actors like yourself. I'm like, why do I have to do this interview? Because we have to tell people that the movie's coming out.

Yes, but like that. Are you shocked by the endurance of footloose, the fact that my wife is showing it to my daughter, and she loves it. It's going to carry on to another generation. I saw you and Kira on Instagram, doing the footloose challenge. Like, it's still right here in front of us,

almost, what, 40 years later. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. I mean, listen, I love it. I think it's great. It's like all those things that you think, oh, my gosh, is it ever going to go away?

You know, things like 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. You know, it's like, you know, at a certain point, you have to embrace the beast. you've come around on that one I had yeah yeah I've come around on it and I've come around on footballers too

I mean I I I think that it was a great gift you know to be part of that movie and I certainly took it very seriously when I was doing it

and I love that people will still come up and say that they just showed it to their because actually one thing that really sort of re-ignited the whole response to it I think was

the fact that they did the Broadway show, and then after the Broadway show leaves its run, it then becomes available to be done in every single high school in America. And there's not that many plays, certainly musicals, where you can have a musical with a bunch of high school kids in it. And so, I mean, everybody does footloose,

and everybody gets in touch with me to say, you know, little Jimmy's doing footloose. I'm just a kid the other day came up in me and said, you know, he said, I got to tell you something. He was probably in his about 23, something like that. He says, I was in footloose, and I thought, oh, that's great.

You know, I figured he played my part or Chris Pence or whatever. He says, I was Reverend Shaw. Oh, oh. And I said, well, yeah, I could see you as Reverend Shaw. It is amazing. I mean, people, it holds up. Not everything holds up, but it definitely does.

Do you feel, Kevin, like that pushing Hollywood away, that you just described, did that ever hurt you? It doesn't look like it from the outside. I mean, you go on another run with a few good men in Apollo 13 and the Mystic River and all those other roles. Did you feel like staying in New York and being true to yourself hurt your career in any way? I think that I'm very happy with my career.

I wouldn't change a single piece of it because I, you know, that's like that hindsight's 20-20 thing. I do think that after footloose, there was, quite a few years before JFK and Apollo 13 River Wild where I made some kind of bad choices that were not

I wasn't I somehow wasn't really embracing I was neither embracing the movie star thing nor was I really finding what I'm good at which is being a character actor So I think I was in a sort of strange and I think there was an element of self-sabotized that was going on at that point Just personally, I mean?

Yeah, just personally, yeah, and you know, I just personally wasn't very happy and and and and it just was you know It was a it was but you know in the greater scheme of a career. I look at that as like a blip on the radar It's probably like you know five years or whatever something but but but But it also taught me and I figured out another way in. I think part of this is probably meeting and marrying Kira somewhere in there, but how have you kept giving your level of fame some normalcy in your life? I just told you my mom and everybody else sees you in the park. Hey, Kevin, how you do it?

It's not paparazzi all the time. I know it happens sometimes. But you guys seem to, you're both famous, but you seem to just kind of live your life around New York City. Have you pulled that off? I don't know. I just, it's just a choice. I mean, I, I just, I just don't see any other kind of option.

I mean, is it a weird life? Yeah, sure. I mean, there's definitely things that are weird about it. But I feel like, you know, it's very easy if you achieve a certain level of stardom, to live in a world that really. really, you're not really in touch with reality. You can really get out of touch with reality. It's almost like, I don't know, I've never been a royal,

but I would think it's almost like being a royal, you know, in a funny kind of way. And if you only put yourself, you know, in a giant, you know, SUV or behind a big, you know, electrified wall, You know, I don't feel like I'm going to get a chance to be in touch with the people that I'm going to be asked to play, right? You know, it's like I've played movie stars. I've played myself as kind of like a joke, and I kind of like that.

But that's not normally the role that I'm going to get, you know. I'm going to get a, I don't know, whatever, regular person, you know. So I feel like in order to still be able to do that, need to just not live, not try to breathe too much rarefying there. So I think part of that is living in New York too. Definitely. If you're in L.A., you wake up behind your gate, you get in your darkened car, you go to where you're going here, you're contacting people all day.

Listen, New York, to me, people have a hard time believe it. To me, New York is the most celebrity-friendly place you can be, except for midtown. I mean, if you, but because wherever, wherever there are, and believe it, I love New York tourism, don't get me wrong. Bring on the tourists. We need more, please. We've got plenty to do here and see. And there's really, really fun stuff.

But when you're in a tourist situation, that's a lot different than being in a neighborhood. It's just different. New Yorkers, people think this reputation that New Yorkers are somehow, I don't know, rude or something like that. To me, it's that they're busy. Yeah. You know, they got to do. You know what I mean? And they want to do it now and they want to get it done yesterday.

And that's just the way it is. And so that the time that is wasted by, you know, stopping and, you know, asking for a picture. It's more like, bram-bram, hey, Kevin, how you doing? Yes. Your last movie, not too good. You know, keep up the good work, all right? You know, it's like, that's mostly what, you know, that's mostly what you get. That's what I was described on the subway.

Somebody, you know, they get their buds in and they'll look at you. And it's just a head nod like, I see a big shot. I'm going somewhere important too, okay? Relax a little bit. Exactly. Yeah. It's so funny. So you mentioned six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

There's like this cult of personality around you that's out of your control completely. They're like restaurants with your name on it that aren't even yours all over the world. Right. What do you make of that fascination with you and your career? There's like there's something about you. that people just can't get enough of. I don't know. I don't know.

Because you didn't love six degrees of Kevin Bacon when it started. Well, no, I didn't love it because, maybe because I had an instinct that that's what it was, more of a cult of personality than an actual acknowledgement of any of the work that I've done. Right. It's, you know, it's funny because it's like, on one hand, I do, I'm totally fine with it now, you know.

But it was also, I felt like it was a, joke at my expense basically that they were saying can you believe that this lightweight could be you know connected to someone like you know maryl Streep or lara actually i did a movie with maryl so i was definitely connected but but i mean Lawrence olivier or any of the great you know daniel day louis whatever the great the great the great act because he's you know just you know just you know it that's so interesting right well that's just you know that's the actors of secure yeah yeah yeah i always thought it was look at the breath of his career uh look all the work he's done look at all the people he's been in movies

with. Yeah, I guess. Um, uh, you know, but, you know, I think that it's, it's out of my control, as you said. Yeah. You know, I can't, I can't not have it. And, uh, all I can do is just, you know, try to do my best when I, when I, when they say action. What does Keira think about that kind of stuff? Should she laugh at you? Uh, she doesn't, I, you know, listen, this is what happens. Every, every, every night around five o'clock, we play a couple rounds of the game. I make her play it. Yeah. And if the kids are over, they've got to play, too.

Guests, you know, if anyone comes over, like, to the house with the weekend, we're going to play at least three or four hours of the game. So they just know that that's the deal. Listen. Yeah. Well, you really have embraced it. Can you imagine? Oh, my God.

Honey, we're going to play that game again. It's time. Six degrees of me. That is hilarious. Excuse me Got to ask you about City on a Hill Boy, what a great show Thank you

Season 3 coming up here In just a couple of weeks How much fun is that character to play? Oh, he's awesome He's awesome That's one of those guys Where again, as I was saying You know, I read him

And right away Like, I saw him, I saw the way he looked, I saw the way he dressed I saw Like the movement He heard his voice It was almost as though

He just kind of like came, you know what I mean? And it's just, and when you do something for three seasons, it becomes really interesting because you get to a point, and this is something that once in a while I've experienced in films, but you have to have a role in the film that's there a lot to get to this point. And it's almost hard to describe, but it's like you know the guys so, well or you know how he feels inside your body so well that you could throw him into any situation.

Yeah. And, you know, I could just be him. So the sliding in and out on the set gets to a point where it's almost like the time between before and after action are almost the same thing. It's not like I walk around as Jackie all the time, but I don't, it's not like I have to, you know, prep myself into the thing. I put, I sit down in the chair, you know, they do the thing, the hair, and, and I put on those suits and those shoes. And like, I can just, I can just feel him. And I love the character.

He's so great, mustache, too, is on point. For somebody who grew up in Hollywood where TV was not something you did, and you're, again, not alone in that. You've clearly embraced it now. And I imagine part of that is the story doesn't end after you're done with the movie, right? Maybe there's season four and a five, you get to keep changing and developing and growing the character. Totally. Yeah. It's really tough to explore multiple aspects of one person's existence in two-hour movie.

You know, there's a lot of things that you can't get to. Because there's just so many, you know, if I take a character like Jackie, It's like, well, here he is, but now let's see what would happen to him if, you know, he gets sick. Let's see what would happen to him if, you know, his daughter was having problems. Let's see what would happen to him if he had to confront his path. Like all things he might not, you can only maybe pick one or two of those in the course of a film. So it's really great. And I learned it a lot from Kira because when she got on a lot,

in a closer, I had never done television. You know, I had a very, very strict rule about not doing it, because that was the, that's how I was sort of brought up, you know, as an actor, was that I was a theater and movie actor, but definitely not a television actor. There were a couple of different series that, you know, when I was younger, I was offered to go to California and make a series. I was, I'm funny, you're crazy? I'm not, you know, my job was that if, if, you know, if, you know, I was that if, you know,

my, you know, agent had suggested doing a series I would have fired my agent. And I saw Kira's experience of, you know, continuing to over seven years find new things and new stuff to say about this woman and have her be in new situations all the time. And she loved it, you know. And it was that along with the fact that, you know, you know, you're, looking at, you know, the wire, six feet under, and just the pranos. And you're going, oh, shit, I don't want to do that. That's like, that's good stuff, you know.

Who's the writers, really? It's the writers that brought the actors in a way. And there was an era where for someone like you would have been slumming it to go do TV and say, uh-oh, he's doing TV now. What happened to the career? Yeah, it was the end. That's gone, obviously. No, it was the end.

No, now it's the beginning. So if I ask you which. project someone out on the street in New York yells at you the most about in your incredible career which one is it is it footloose or is there a surprise in there uh yeah i think probably footloose although when i go out to the heartland it's tremors oh right yeah so it depends a little bit on the demo that was a hit yeah yeah yeah well tremors was interesting because it was not a hit at the box office But there were these old things called videotapes. I'm old enough.

There was a store called Blockbuster where you went, you got these giant pieces of plastic that went into it. And sometimes they didn't have it. Somebody else took it out. Yeah, somebody else took it out. Exactly. When it was released on video, became a real monster video title and continued to be.

And then they made a bunch of sequels. So for a lot of people, you know, that aren't coastal elites, it was a very, very, very popular room. I also love that you say every once in a while somebody puts a picture in front of you of you dying in Friday the 13 to sign that for me. Yeah, not every once in a while, pretty much, if I, if there's a, well, first off, the whole idea of autographs is, was pretty much gone, except for, for people who actually collect them, and I don't know what they're going to do.

I think that what they do is they wait for you to die. I think they're hoping that you're going to die. I think the close, the older I get, the more people want autographs. That's what I've noticed. But yeah, this one picture is me like this. And my neck, my throat is cut, this blood just, you know, pouring out of my mouth and everything. And it's, I'm dead. So it's like, it's just a weird thing to sign, best wishes, you know.

Yeah. It's weird being famous, huh? You know, but it's mostly good. Yeah. It really is. This has been so much fun. Thanks so much, Kevin. Congrats on the movie. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great. Thank you. Thanks. My big thanks again to Kevin for a great conversation and to the good people at Bodega 88 for hosting us in New York City.

You can catch the movie, they slash them, streaming on Peacock starting August 5th. My thanks to all of you for listening again this week, if you want more of my conversation. with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.