The reason Kevin Bacon was chosen for the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game was because of his diversity of roles in Hollywood. Back in the ’90s when the game was created by Albright College buddies, Bacon’s work was filled with such a variety of projects. That offered an entertaining path to connect him and almost any actor in Hollywood in six or less links.
The game is now part of pop culture, and Bacon has embraced his status there, while continuing to stretch his mixed bag of career choices.
From starting out in National Lampoon’s Animal House, doing the soap Guiding Light, then on to Footloose, Quicksilver, She’s Having a Baby, Tremors, Flatliners, JFK, A Few Good Men, The River Wild, Apollo 13, Mystic River, Frost/Nixon, and X-Men: First Class, plus guesting on Frasier, Mad About You, Will & Grace, Robot Chicken, and SMILF, plus starring in HBO’s acclaimed Taking Chance movie, the list goes on with more than 70 movies and TV productions. He wasn’t always the lead, but he was always interesting.
Some roles were in crazy comedies, others historic dramas, thrillers, mysteries, romance, science fiction and fantasy, all with surprising takes on the characters he plays. Not all were heroes because Bacon has not been afraid to take on dark unsavory roles. “I’m not scared to do anything. In the past I’ve actually played not one, but two pedophiles,” he reported.
Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge star in City On A Hill, Showtime
All that has lead to his latest role as an unsavory character in City On A Hill. The tense guilty-pleasure Showtime drama set in Boston stars Kevin Bacon as Jackie Rohr, an immoral FBI agent who takes crime in his stride, even when trying to tackle corruption and racism with the city’s black ADA Decourcy Ward (co-star Aldis Hodge). The first season Rohr and Ward took on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown. Now Season Two centers on a federal housing project in the Roxbury neighborhood, with community efforts undermined by gangs and the shameful criminal justice system of Boston.
As contemptible as Bacon’s Rohr is in the show, he is mesmerizing. The ‘bad cop’ and horrible husband also has rough charm that leaves the audience transfix and coming back for more.
Describing his character’s flaws, Bacon had a smirk on his face that was transmitted during Showtime’s virtual interview session for the Television Critics Association. The actor does not admire Rohr in any way and told the TCA, “My responsibility is to stay true to who Jackie is. People say to me ‘Well, Jackie kicks ass’ or ‘Jackie gets it done.’ These are not things that I personally feel about the man. He’s not a person that I honestly would either like, or respect, or want to spend time. He’s a shit in so many ways, but I don’t really think about that. I just want to approach each scene and stay true to who he is. It’s up to everybody else to make judgments about what they agree with or find interesting. I feel like if you think that Jackie is doing the right thing, you probably need to check yourself, and frankly, that’s on you.”
Bacon assured, “There are a lot of other characters, specifically Aldis’s (ADA Decourcy Ward), who people can look to and root for. This is someone whose heart is in the right place. And I think it’s a combination of those two points of view that make the show interesting.”
Tune in Kevin Bacon starring in City On A Hill, Sunday nights at 10 pm on Showtime.
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