Loverboy
Directed by Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon's directorial debut, Loverboy is a disturbing drama about Emily, a single mom, whose life is wound tight around her young son. Although the film has no suggestion of incest, the filmmaking was a family affair. Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon's real life wife, co-produced and stars as Emily. Bacon plays Emily's father in flashback sequences and, in those scenes, Bacon and Sedgwick's real life daughter, Sosie, plays Emily's character at age 10. Additionally, their son, Travis, and Kyra's brother, Rob Sedgwick, have roles, and Kevin's brother, Michael Bacon, did the score.
"Those connections happened naturally, and I think they helped the production," says Bacon. "Kyra read the novel and gave it to me. I immediately saw it cinematically. I'd thought about directing, and knew this was the project. Kyra and I, having been married so long, have a sort of shorthand and work very well together. We weren't thinking of casting the kids-mostly because we'd vowed we'd never encourage them to do any show business/child actor stuff. But in this situation, where Sosie played Emily as a little girl-when I'd be playing her father-well, it was sort of a no-brainer. So, I put on my director's hat and the director overruled the father."
MERIN: What drew you to the story?
BACON: It's about love and family but twisted in ways I'd never seen before. I liked that I knew there was something wrong but wasn't sure what it was. I found the story's non-linear quality fascinating-with Emily's obsessive love for her son, and her parents' exclusive love that left her feeling so alone. Usually you see children suffering because parents aren't getting along, or there's a divorce. This was new.
Why did you decide to act in the film? Why as Emily's father?
I knew attaching myself as an actor would kick things into gear financially. Our financier wanted names. By casting myself, I could get other actors to sign on. As for the part, I didn't want to play opposite Kyra because that felt like stunt-casting that shifted focus. Plus, I was fascinated by Emily's parents' relationship and thought the part would be fun.
How has your acting prepared you for directing, and how'd you tackle editing?
As an actor, I've spent 30 years on movie sets. You learn a lot-from good and bad experiences. Something that was new, that I found fascinating, was editing. As an actor, I'd never edited my own movies. I've worked collaboratively with directors and know how a scene's structured, but I'd never been in the editing room-except a bit on The Woodsman.
In a movie like this where you're popping around in time, there's a bazillion possible combinations you can shape in the editing room. It's fun, but it's hard, too, especially because you know there're many takes better than ones actually in the final cut. Sometimes, I think it might be easy to err in choosing a shot that's more graceful, framed more beautifully-but not the best performance. I found I had to keep going back to performances as the key in editing. It's frustrating to think that directors or editors might not make concerted efforts to go with the best moments of performance. I can see how that may have affected some of the films I've acted in.
But Loverboy is beautiful to look at. What prepared you for the visual aspect of directing?
I grew up drawing and painting, and I think a lot about architecture and design. And I worked with my cinematographer, discussing options. I wanted flashbacks to feel different, so we used incredibly wide lenses for the parents' scenes and that gives them a bizarre quality, and for dream-like scenes with Mrs. Harker [played by Sandra Bullock], we used a special technique where you only print every other frame and it makes her move in space in a magical way.
With so much family on set and such heavy reliance on expert advice, did you ever have to say, "Hey, I'm boss here?"
No, I look at filmmaking as a collaborative thing. There's a balance you have to find between letting people know there's a leader, someone in control who has the big picture in mind and protects them. At the same time, you have to listen, be open and collaborate. Each person is so good at their job, and is completely focused on it. The prop man's thought a thousand times about how big the bottle of water should be. As a director, you can give it some thought, but that can't be your entire focus. When it comes to acting, I feel exactly the same way: Nobody knows as much about a role as the actor who's playing it. Because that's all they've been thinking about. I feel my job as a director is to create an environment where everyone can come in ready to play.