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Kevin Bacon Goes to Dark Side with 'Woodsman'
2004-12-23
American actor Kevin Bacon |
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LOS ANGELES - It's been apparent for some time that Kevin Bacon can do it all.The 46-year-old actor brings believability and talent to every sort of acting role, from comedic ("Tremors," "Animal House") to dramatic ("Mystic River," "Murder In the First"), from action ("The River Wild") to horror ("A Stir of Echoes"). He also directs ("Losing Chase" and the upcoming "Loverboy"), plays in a band with his brother, Michael, and frequently ventures into theater. But the controversial subject matter of his new film "The Woodsman," which opens in limited release on Christmas Eve, challenged even this veteran actor. Based on co-screenwriter Steven Fechter's play, director/co-screenwriter Nicole Kassell's movie follows the story of Walter, a pedophile recently released from a long stint in prison, as he tries with great difficulty to move forward in his life and to resist his demons. Bacon's performance as Walter is one of the very best of his career, a taut marvel of heavy silence and repressed emotion, a non-showy yet exquisite piece of work. Appropriately enough for such an unusual project, Bacon got the script via untraditional means. He was in the Caribbean, where an acquaintance who had been sent a script as an investment possibility sought his opinion. "I was in a good mood, I guess, but that's not the way to get material, generally," continues the actor. "It's usually a mistake, risky from a legal standpoint. I read it, and I was just floored by it. I found the writing so good. I personally went on this strange, horrific journey as I read it. The process of reading it took me on such a ride. I had so many conflicting feelings. If we could create that, if we could make a movie that makes people feel that while they're watching it, I think it's going to be interesting." Even though Bacon was looking for something fun and mainstream, having just finished shooting "Mystic River" and about to direct his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, in the similarly dark-edged indie "Loverboy," the couple quickly realized he had to take on "The Woodsman." Sedgwick plays Walter's girlfriend, who comes with her own emotional baggage. "I think if there's one word (to describe Walter) ... (it) was shame," Bacon says. "I think you have to take that shame and put it in your gut every day you go to work and just kind of keep it there, make sure that it informs everything." The central, unforgettable scene in "The Woodsman" takes place in a park of the unidentified city, where the heretofore mostly sympathetic Walter is talking to a sad young girl. The audience realizes with a sickening groan that something very bad may happen, and the scene plays out in a tense pas de deux of hope that Walter will resist his impulses and dread that he won't. It's a remarkable piece of acting, and Bacon knew that this was the crucial scene the first time he read the script. "It's like the end of a horror movie," he says. "It's like it's come to this big conclusion, and you're thinking, 'Oh, my God, I hope that the monster doesn't jump out of the closet.' "I felt if we could just make that scene work, the rest of the movie would fall into place around it somehow. It's the essence of what the film is: He doesn't want to be this way, he doesn't want to say this thing, he doesn't want to go to this place, but it's like this pull that he is having a very difficult time controlling." Bacon says "The Woodsman" does not offer a solution to one of society's most odious crimes, nor does he feel expert enough to offer his own fixes. "I do know that pretending that it doesn't exist is really dangerous. It's dangerous to try to bury your head in the sand and say, 'These guys are just monsters, and we'll send out some bad guys and take care of them.' This is a widespread and tragic kind of issue that has a lot of victims." Reuters/Back Stage
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