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By
Krista

Interview with Kevin Bacon of
"The Following" on FOX 1/17/13
I did not get to ask a question, due
to time constraints, but it's an interesting interview, and
Kevin Bacon was very nice and seemed like a great guy. I
look forward to his new show.
Final Transcript
FBC PUBLICITY: The Following Conference Call with Kevin
Bacon
January 17, 2013/10:00 a.m. PST
SPEAKERS
Joanna Wolff
Kevin Bacon
PRESENTATION
Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.
Welcome to The Following Conference Call with Kevin Bacon.
At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode and
shortly here we will begin a question and answer session. As
a reminder, today’s conference is being recorded and I will
now turn the conference over to Joanna Wolff for some
opening remarks.
J. Wolff Hello, everyone. This is Joanna Wolff from Fox
Publicity, just wanted to thank you all for joining us today
for The Following conference call with Kevin Bacon. Just a
reminder The Following premiere is Monday,
January 21st at 9:00 p.m. on FOX. All photos and press
materials are posted on our press website, Foxflash.com. So,
without further ado, I’d now like to turn this call over for
questions for Kevin. Thank you.
Moderator We’ll go the line of Jamie Ruby with
scifivision.com.
J. Ruby Obviously the show can get very dark. Is that easy
to kind of get out of your system at the end of the day, or
does it kind of stick with you a bit?
K. Bacon I find that over the years, as you know, I’ve dealt
with a lot of dark material in the movies as well. I think
you have to find ways to protect yourself from that and when
I’m on the set, I’m very, very focused. We have to stay
focused on our job at hand, and when you dealing with things
that are of a thrilling nature, tense, ticking clock-kind of
vibe, you have to keep yourself in that head space.
But, I work real hard to try to turn it off on the weekends
if I can and connect with things like my family, my kids, my
dog, take a walk in the woods, those kinds of things; you
have a good meal, they’re able to pull me out of that head
space.
J. Ruby Okay. Great. Like you mentioned, you have done a lot
of films. Why did you decide it was time for television?
K. Bacon I had been looking for a television series for a
long time and trying to get my head around it. My initial
call, if you will, to my representatives was probably three
or four years ago.
J. Ruby Oh, wow.
K. Bacon But, it just took some time to really find the
right one. I had seen Kyra’s experience secondhand and was
also finding myself to be more and more of a television
consumer. The quality of the shows and the writing just
seemed to be getting better and better and better, and I
just found myself really knocked out by so many shows and
sitting down and spending a weekend watching every episode
of The Wire, stuff like that. And then, this one had the
qualities that I was drawn to.
J. Ruby Okay. Great. Well, thank you so much. Great to talk
to you.
Moderator Thank you, and next we’ll go the line of Sonia …
with MSN, please go ahead.
Sonia Hello ,there. So, you had mentioned you’d seen Kyra’s
experience secondhand. Did she give you any advice going
into this yourself and is the reason you wanted to do TV,
because I know you guys are very family oriented; does the
schedule of TV, the pace give you more leeway there?
K. Bacon No, it’s not a family decision. If anything, I
think one of the most frightening things about it for me was
the fact that I was going to be staying in one place. If it
ends up that we go on for a few years, that’s not something
that I’m used to doing. I’m used to going from here to there
to there to there to there. Even though we have a really,
really strong kind of central family, we also are gypsies.
We always have suitcases packed and we’re not used a steady
gig. So, that was a real adjustment for her on The Closer
and I think will be for me as well.
One thing that we talked about was the fact that when she
took the pilot for The Closer, I remember us having a
conversation and kind of said, “Listen,” you know. It’s kind
of overwhelming to think that you’re going to sign up for
something for six years, but that never happens. Rarely does
a television series go that long and rarely do the pilots
even get picked up
and all that kind of stuff. And then, seven years later
we’re still, she’s still chugging away on that.
So, you have to really think whether or not it’s a place
that you want to stay in for a good amount of time. I felt
like the continuing exploration of this guy and what is
eating at him and what makes him tick was something that
would be interesting to explore from a character standpoint.
Sonia Okay, and can we expect her to guest on the show? I
know you directed some episodes of The Closer and you guys
have worked together before.
K. Bacon Yes, I don’t think so. I’ll tell you why. I feel
like that seems to be a risky kind of—if you’ve noticed, I
never acted on The Closer because I think that when you have
a strong character and then you take someone who has a
relationship outside of it that people are aware of, you can
really run the risk of kind of jumping the shark. It kind of
feels like stunt casting. I don’t think she would be
interested in acting on the show. You know what? Never say
never. Who knows?
Sonia Okay, well, thank you so much.
K. Bacon Thank you.
Moderator Thank you, and next we’ll go the line of Stephanie
Goldberg at cnn.com.
S. Goldberg Hello, Kevin. I was wondering how this sort of
works in terms of cable raising the bar on horror shows.
What can we expect to see on a network series?
K. Bacon Well, I don’t know if I would quite describe it as
horror. I mean I think that we are making a thriller and
it’s a tense, fast paced, exciting thriller that has a lot
of moments that are a real surprise, and that’s really what
hit me when I was reading the script. Nobody really prepared
me. I really, honestly, wasn’t even looking for something on
network, but they said, “I think maybe this should would one
that you should take a look at.”
So, I found it to be such a page turner and I found it to
have so many moments where I just went, “Oh, my God. I
really did not see that coming.” You combine that with two
other things; one is this kind of giant concept of the idea
of this cult that Kevin Williamson has created and just kind
of the creepiness of that idea.
And then, to me, the most important thing is that it’s an
exploration of these characters and the relationships, and
the fact that we’re able to go back in flashback and get
some insight into why they have become and who they have
become. The fact that you meet this guy “Ryan Hardy” and
know that something’s bothering him deeply, but not learn
all the details of that in the first episode is kind of an
exciting thing for an actor to be able to peel the layers
back.
S. Goldberg Is that what you mentioned when you were talking
about the reason you took the role is because of the things
that sort of make this guy tick?
K. Bacon Absolutely.
S. Goldberg Thanks so much.
K. Bacon Thank you.
Moderator Thank you, our next question will come from the
line of Carla Day of Buddy TV. Please go ahead.
C. Day I was wondering, because of the investigation,
“Hardy” and “Carroll” really seem to know each other in a
very deep way and while “Ryan’s” not necessarily a disciple
of “Carroll,” is he sort of a follower himself?
K. Bacon It’s interesting that you say that. I’ll tell you
what—in one of the episodes, and again, I think this is just
a really cool idea from Kevin Williamson, we go back and we
meet “Ryan” when he first meets “Joe,” and before he knows
that “Joe” is a suspect. He’s just interviewing him by
happenstance on this college campus. And what you see is
that he gets strangely seduced by “Joe,” not in a sexual
way, but just in a friendship kind of way. “Joe” sees into
“Ryan” and is able to kind of play him like a violin and
there are a lot of qualities of “Joe” that “Ryan” really
admires.
I’m not, when I say “me,” I mean my character, is not an
extremely well read and well educated man. He’s not a people
person. He’s not a charmer. He’s a dynamic speaker, and he’s
maybe not even somebody that you necessarily want to go and
have a beer with. And, “Joe Carroll,” is all those things.
And I think that I look up to him in a strange kind of way.
It’s one of the dynamics of the show that is interesting,
one that we continue to play with.
C. Day Excellent. Will we see sort of a parallel come into
play, that “Carroll” has his followers but now “Ryan” also
has his followers like “Mike Weston” that have come to
appreciate the book and what he did as an investigator?
K. Bacon I think that is definitely going to be there and
certainly with the “Weston” character. I think the
difference is that what you want to see on “Ryan’s” side is
this ability—so, here’s one of the big differences between
the two guys.
“Joe” has followers and believes that he can create more and
more people that come around to his way of thinking and
likes to be surrounded by people. We’ll see his admirers and
the people that are close to him grow and grow, and grow,
and yet, except for maybe a few, he doesn’t seem to really
deeply care about those people. They are kind of expendable
in a way. It’s one of the kind of sociopathic aspects of his
personality.
I have nobody in my life and have pushed the people in my
life away, and when “Weston” comes to me, I don’t want him
to be close to me. I don’t want “Agent Parker” to come into
my life. Even with “Claire,” I’ve walked away from her. I’m
very resistant of doing anything other than just being a man
alone on an island. And yet, as the show evolves, I think
I get more of an ability to let people in, to take help,
advice, you’ll see more of that.
And also, the difference between me and “Joe” is the people
that I do let in, the people who are in my life, I care
about very deeply, extremely deeply and that’s one of the
contradicting elements of the two characters.
C. Day Excellent. Thank you so much.
K. Bacon Thank you.
Moderator We’ll go next to the line of Virginia Rohan with
the Record Newspaper. Please go ahead.
V. Rohan Hello, Kevin. I really enjoyed the episodes I
watched, very, and then like you said, the surprise element.
I can’t think of many times I don’t see things coming on TV
shows. …much was made from what I gather about the violence
in the show and yet, I’m not really sure how you could drive
home the horrific nature of these things without it. The
other thing seems to be that I was looking at the top 20
shows on the Nielsen list last week and ten of them were
like crime dramas. Do you see anything of a sort of
contradictory nature in people saying, “Oh there’s too much
violence, but we love violent shows”?
K. Bacon I think that this show is a thriller about a serial
killer. That’s what it is and it’s not a comedy. When I go
to—as a consumer of films or television, if you’re telling
me that something is a comedy, I’m going to be really
disappointed if I go and I don’t laugh. If someone has
pitched something to me as incredibly moving, I want real
tears coming down my cheeks.
And if something is supposed to be a thriller, I want to be
on the edge of my seat. I want to be scared. I want to have
chills. I want to be grinding my teeth or turning my eyes or
whatever. When we make films and television, we, I think,
are doing it to try to tap into something emotional for
people and this show is not an exception. That’s what we’re
trying to do.
V. Rohan And the other thing is why do you think people, and
“Ryan” obviously clearly, why are people so fascinated by
serial killers particularly?
K. Bacon I don’t know. It’s really interesting that you ask
that because I’m really not sure. I was talking to somebody
the other day and I’ve known the guy
for a lot of years and he said, “Oh, by the way I read
everything about serial killers. I’m just fascinated by it.”
I suppose—gosh, I don’t know.
I think that when there’s a lot of darkness around,
sometimes you want to just kind of confront it in a way that
you know that it’s ultimately not real. It’s a TV show or
it’s a movie. You know what I mean? I think people
probably—there’s probably more people watching films and
television than there are watching documentaries about
serial killers, but I don’t know. I really don’t have the
answer to that.
V. Rohan Okay, thank you.
K. Bacon Thank you.
Moderator We’ll go next to the line of Curt Wagner with Red
Eye. Please go ahead.
C. Wagner Hello, Kevin. Thanks for talking to us. I was
talking to Natalie the other day and she’s talked about her
character’s guilt over not recognizing her husband’s nature,
his sort of true nature. I was wondering—something you said
earlier made me wonder if maybe “Ryan” feels that a little
bit too, although he’s figured them out but—
K. Bacon “Ryan” is nothing if he’s not a guilty person. He’s
got a lot of baggage and a lot of that baggage is guilt.
Because, as I say, I stopped him, but not before he killed a
lot of people, and he has guilt about a lot of stuff even
before “Joe Carroll” came into his life, things that, given
the opportunity down the road, we may get a chance to
explore. But, Kevin Williamson said to me very early on in
our conversations, and it was probably the most important
piece that I needed to start to put this character together.
He said to me, “This is a guy who has been surrounded by
death,” and that’s continuing in his life. I think that a
part of him feels like maybe he has a piece of that, that he
has some responsibility for that, and I think he feels
tremendously guilty.
C. Wagner All right. So, that leads me to this question.
What makes you want to go to such a dark place and do this
kind of character and basically be depressed all day long?
K. Bacon Well, doctor, I don’t know, man. [Laughs] In the
scope of a career, I certainly have explored things of a
lighter nature. I’m the guy from Footloose. The biggest
issue was whether or not the town was going to be allowed to
dance or not. Underground worms; this movie, R.I.P.D.,
that’s
in the can. It was really a great thing to do because
it’s—I’m playing a sort of, I don’t know how you would
describe him, kind of like a zombie-type character, but it
was really kind of a fun and lighthearted movie.
So, I certainly like to mix it up. But when I was trying to
choose a series, I wanted to be the hero. I wanted the
character to be complex and flawed because that’s the kind
of heroes that I like to play and that’s the kind of hero
that I like to see. I mean that’s the stuff that performance
is made of.
And, I found as I was shifting and sifting through stories
and pilots that I would really like something, but then I
would think to myself, “I don’t know if the stakes are high
enough.” I wanted to do something that was about life and
death because when I was looking at things that I was kind
of drawn to in a series, things like Breaking Bad, and
Killing, and Homeland, and The Wire, even Game of Thrones, a
lot of them are about life and death.
C. Wagner Okay, and then on a little bit of a lighter note,
does James freak you out sometimes? Where you’re doing
scenes with him?
K. Bacon No, he doesn’t freak me out. I love working with
James. He’s just one of those—our kind of working situation
is one of those things that he came to us so quickly in a
strange kind of way. It wasn’t something that needed to be
nurtured and sort of built up over time. We walked on the
set did our first rehearsal and just had a great connection.
I love the scenes that we get a chance to play, and he is
incredibly well prepared, and just great choices, and a
great listener, and just a great actor. I mean it’s a real
gas to play with him.
C. Wagner All right, how about those Poe masks? Do they
freak you out?
K. Bacon They’re kind of creepy, yes. Those Poe masks
are—it’s funny because when I saw them in the script, I was
like the guy comes after me with a Poe mask. I said, “I
don’t know, that seems a little—what is a Poe mask?” And,
then I saw the actual realization of them and I thought they
were really, really well done.
C. Wagner All right, well thank you very much and good with
this. It’s a great show.
K. Bacon Thank you.
Moderator Thank you, and we have time for one more question.
We’ll go to the line of Melissa Hayer with the Oklahoman.
Please go ahead.
M. Hayer Hello, Kevin. It’s great to speak with you today.
K. Bacon Thank you.
M. Hayer I guess I should just go ahead and ask, what’s your
pitch? Why would you recommend TV fans watch The Following?
K. Bacon It’ll keep you on the edge of your seat. It will
shock you and surprise you, and hopefully you will get drawn
into not only what’s going on plot-wise, but also what’s
going on emotionally with these characters that you’ll want
to come back the next week to see where things go.
M. Hayer Great, I really enjoy your performance in the show.
Thank you so much.
K. Bacon Thank you.
J. Wolff All right. I just want to thank everyone for
joining us today and thank you Kevin. Just a reminder to
everyone that the show premieres this Monday January 21st at
9:00 p.m. on FOX. Thanks so much.
Moderator Thank you and ladies and gentlemen that does
conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your
participation. You may now disconnect.
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