THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
IN THE OPENING scene of ``Murder in the First,'' a bruised and scarred Kevin Bacon is thrown, naked, into a dank 6-by-9-foot dungeon. When the metal door clanks shut, the darkness is total.
This role of hapless convict is a long way from the teen-idol part Bacon played in ``Footloose,'' the film that had him defending rock 'n' roll in a small Midwestern town.
That was a career ago.
Now, at 36, Bacon is actively seeking a new, and markedly different, career as a character actor.
``I was tired of playing leading men in movies that no one saw,'' he said. ``I sent out a message, so to speak, that said: `Don't try to typecast me. I can do other things.' ''
Helped by his role of super-evil villain in ``The River Wild,'' in which he both threatened and tried to seduce Meryl Streep, the fresh-faced Bacon is now getting rave reviews and steady work in meatier, more complex parts. He's a star of a different type.
When I first met Bacon, some years ago, he asked me to help him memorize the room he was about to enter. ``How many steps are there up there? Three?'' he questioned, taking a quick glance with his glasses and then stuffing the offending spectacles back in his pocket. He was entering a press conference and didn't want the reporters to know either that he wears glasses or that he is seemingly quite blind without them. He managed to navigate without falling down the steps or bumping into anyone.
Today, he wears the glasses and he doesn't mind bumping into thorny issues as well as unlikely roles. For ``Murder in the First,'' he has his head shaven and disfiguring makeup added to suggest the tortured Henri Young, a convict at Alcatraz in 1938. The harrowing and intense film gives Bacon a chance to trot out the ham - it's one of those roles replete with histrionics and showy emotions.
At 17, Bacon came from Philadelphia to apprentice at Theater in the Square in New York. His idols were ``serious dudes'' like Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman. He debuted on the New York stage in ``Slab Boys'' with Sean Penn and Val Kilmer. But his lanky build and thatched blond hair made him a natural for Hollywood. The first hint of fame came with ``Diner,'' the landmark film in which Bacon played an underachiever. The box office success of ``Footloose'' gave him star billing in Hollywood.
What followed was a rash of forgettable films that few people saw. They included things like ``The Big Picture,'' ``He Said, She Said,'' ``Criminal Law,'' ``She's Having a Baby'' and ``Tremors.''
The death of his mother affected his personal life, and the birth of two children added maturity. (He has a 4-year-old son, Travis, and a 2-year-old daughter, Sosie).
His wife, actress Kyra Sedgewick (``Singles,'' ``Heart and Soul''), encouraged him to take smaller roles in bigger films. The change of pace came with his part as a gay prison inmate in ``J.F.K.'' and was cemented by a role as a military lawyer in ``A Few Good Men.'' Both got critical raves.
``I love doing smaller roles,'' he said. ``It's a challenge to create a character in less time. When the character is totally different from me, it's easier to play. I love parts that are distant from me - totally different.''
His role in ``Murder in the First'' is no small part, but it is not a conventional outing. Christian Slater plays his youthful lawyer - the leader in the fight to free prisoner Young from the oppressive Alcatraz atmosphere. The studio claims it was the case that ``brought down Alcatraz,'' but the script writers have taken liberties with the facts. Henri Young didn't merely rob a post office, as suggested in the film. He did commit a bank robbery.
Bacon, though, doesn't worry about variations from the facts. ``We didn't make a documentary,'' he said. ``I worry only about playing the script as it was written. It was enough to worry about.
``If the film sends a message, it's that we, as a society, need to question `Why?' more often. I don't believe that everyone in prison is innocent, but I do believe that Henri had no chance. There is that scene in which Christian and I compare notes and Henri points out that he could have had a good life if they had been switched in the crib. We are a victim of our environment.''
Bacon did worry about authenticity. To understand the isolation and darkness of the cell, he spent one night, from 5 p.m. until 9 a.m., in a simulated cell on the set.
Henri Young, at age 29, was confined in a similar cell for three years. When he was released, he stabbed and killed a convict he thought was responsible for his isolation. In 1941, the public defender claimed that Young's act was a result of inhuman treatment in the penitentiary and boldly stated, ``We are putting Alcatraz on trial.'' It was this statement that drew the moviemakers to the material.
``I could have played the part without reconstructing incarceration in the cell, but I needed to know that feeling of entrapment,'' Bacon said. ``From being in that cell, I got the idea that I would have huddled in a corner - trying to get all the warmth I could. I used that in the film. But, of course, my door was not locked. I could have walked out if I had wanted. I knew that, and that makes all the difference.''
He laughs when he remembers that, on the night of his cell stay, one crew member who though the set was empty, opened the cell door and found the star cringing on the floor. ``He must have thought I was crazy,'' Bacon recalled. ``He slammed the door and left. There was a strange feeling when the last person went home and I knew the set was empty, isolated. Of course, what I felt was nothing like what Henri must have felt.''
Bacon was nervous when his wife brought their two children to the set one day and they saw him in his bruised and tortured condition. ``I want the children to know that I play parts and that I work on a movie set, but that was the longest day I ever worked. I worried that it would be traumatic for them to see me like that. It wasn't. They knew it was make-believe.''
In the film he is beaten regularly by a sadistic warden played by Gary Oldman. ``I had to trust Gary totally. Actually, I'd rather be beaten and tortured by him than anyone.'' He said with a laugh. ``Hey, don't think that's kinky. Gary is a good actor.'' Bacon's now working on ``Apollo 13'' in which he plays an astronaut opposite Tom Hanks. As with ``Murder in the First,'' he's experimenting with real-life mood to explain what he's playing. ``I'm spending a lot of time getting the feeling of weightlessness,'' he said. ``It's a little like riding a roller coaster inside a plane. I've learned to really like it. When you think about it, we spend our lives fighting against the force of gravity. There is a feel of real freedom to be lifted from it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Kevin Bacon, left, plays convict Henri Young in ``Murder in the
First.''
Bacon's career has soared since he and Meryl Streep starred in ``The
River Wild.''
Convict Henri Young (Kevin Bacon) huddles in his Alcatraz cell in
``Murder in the First.''
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