Kevin Bacon is back on our screens as a corrupt law enforcer with Eddie Murphy in the new sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
The 65-year-old has been on our screens for decades, thanks to iconic roles in Footloose, Tremors, A Few Good Men and so many more.
He talks about refusing to show off his famous moves on command, longevity in such a tough industry and whether there’s a ‘secret sauce’ to his marriage with wife Kyra Sedgwick.
How long have you known Eddie Murphy?
I didn’t know him at all. Probably our paths crossed some place along the line since the 80s. I say we’re a couple of old war horses, we’ve been here for a long time.
This new sequel feels very gritty, like the original Beverly Hills Cop…
I loved it. I think it’s really fun. They really embraced an 80s feel. I remember we were doing that big shootout at the end of the movie, and there’s a guy up on the balcony – this over-the-top house.
It was a stunt where the guy gets shot and tumbles off the balcony into some boxes. These days, you would have to digitally have him go flying all over to make it more impossible or more dramatic.
But this was just a basic old-school stunt. That’s so cool, to put that in a movie, and have the courage to say, ‘We don’t need to make this like a superhero thing.’ It is what it is.
What’s your approach to playing a villain, like your character, Captain Grant?
People tell me that a lot – you play a lot of bad guys. And I say, ‘Well, sure, but it’s not because I’m seeking them out.’ There’s this misconception that bad guys are fun. And they can be if they’re well written and well rounded and they’re complex and they are interesting people.
But I don’t look at it and go, ‘Oh, I’m gonna do my bad guy performance.’ I look at it and I go, ‘Okay, what’s going on with this guy?’
The original Beverly Hills Cop came out in 1984, the same year as Footloose – two massive movies for you and Eddie…
It’s the 40th anniversary of Footloose. And while I’m not somebody that has much of a rearview mirror, I’m now forced to look at that moment in my life.
I don’t think I ever got a chance to talk about this specifically with Eddie. But that had to have been a huge moment for him, too.
Do people still ask you to do the Footloose dance at weddings?
Yeah! I haven’t been to a wedding for a while, but they probably would.
Do you find that more annoying than the ‘Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon’ game?
I don’t mind ‘Six Degrees’ anymore because of sixdegrees.org. We made it into a charitable foundation, and there’s a lot of good work that’s come out of that. So I’ve embraced Six Degrees and it’s not annoying.
When people say, ‘Do the Footloose dance,’ I don’t know what the Footloose dance is. I am not a trained monkey.
I was on a red carpet recently because we inducted Dean Pitchford – who wrote the Footloose screenplay and co-wrote all the songs in the movie – into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. And we played the song, my brother and I, for him. And that was really, really fun.
But on the red carpet, a couple of people said, ‘Will you do the Footloose dance?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’ I’ll do that when I choose to do it, but not on command.
What do you think is the secret to longevity in Hollywood?
Longevity is the secret. If you can hang in, I think, eventually, two things will happen. Number one, you’ll get better.
If you can hang in enough and get enough opportunities, you use your 10,000 hours to improve what it is that you do, whatever it is… if you’re a guitar player or an actor or a comedian, you get better.
The other thing is that eventually people will go, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve always liked him and I’ll give him a part.’ Or your own physical age and appearance will line up with the parts that are going to be offered you.
I used to find sometimes, wherever my look was, wasn’t really what was happening in the world, in the zeitgeist. And then it would get there for a little while, and then it would go away and get there for a little while. It’s really about just hanging in.
You’ve been married – to actress Kyra Sedgwick – since 1988. What’s your big secret?
We don’t have a secret. We take it one day at a time. I mean, we found somebody that we like to spend time with. Today, we will have lunch together and we’ll go and sit in our apartment and talk about what’s going on with our lives.
I think statistics show that marriage doesn’t really work, right? I mean, don’t most marriages end in divorce? So the idea that I would give people some kind of secret sauce, to me is just idiotic.
Your dad was an architect. Did you ever fantasise about that as a profession?
Certainly architecture and design are two things I really like. I don’t know that I’d ever be organised enough to do it. When I became an actor, there was no Plan B, and there never has been.
So fantasising about it… I like it. If something happens like you decide to renovate your kitchen… I really love doing that.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is available on Netflix from tomorrow.
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