Written by Lauren Stern | Photos by Ryan Demarco
If you would have told me that I would have sat down with Kevin Bacon to discuss the new season of The Following at New York Comic Con, I would have told you to get lost. In fact, even now, almost a week after the con, I still can’t believe I sat down with such a prolific actor. Even more surprising than the opportunity itself was Bacon, who I definitively say is down to earth, passionate about his work, and dedicated to his fans.
Mr. Bacon, or America’s National Treasure according to our editor-in-chief, sat down with myself and a roundtable full of journalists to discuss his character Ryan Hardy’s development in Season 3, The Following fandom at New York Comic Con, and his social media activity.
So Marcos just told us that Ryan’s not going to be living with his love interest. He’s not going to be a father figure to her kid.
Yeah we did a little switch on that.
How happy is he in terms of involvement with his relationship?
Good, yeah really really happy. I think that the difference between the beginning of the first season and the beginning of the second season is being in a happier place and shaking off this Joe Carroll obsession, something he was only pretending at the beginning of last year. It was really a mask he was wearing. But this year he really is trying and open to the idea of letting lovers, friends, and family into his heart. I think you’ll see a lot more teeth in the pilot from me than you would have ever seen because I’m smiling, laughing, and dancing. I mean, it doesn’t last very long.
As the season goes along, what are your aspirations for the growth and development of your character?
I wanted to play a heroic character, but I wanted to play a heroic character who is deeply flawed, who struggles, and makes mistakes. Who has demons. That is to me what makes heroes interesting and I think you will see that as we continue. Whether or not it catches up with him or not and how he gets past the Joe Carroll thing. The other thing I think is kind of, well there’s a few things. One thing I lobbied for this year was I felt like there’s a lot of bad choices made by me in terms of the way I handled cases, taking them all in my own hands, killing people in a sometimes random sort of way. I wanted there to be some atonement. I wanted there to be some blood on my hands. I think they’ve done a really good job of bringing that to life, both in terms of being haunted by memories personally as a character but also in terms of congressional hearing about our methods and trials and stuff like that. I think getting past that, getting through that was all interesting stuff.
This show was huge at San Diego Comic Con and now it’s big here at New York Comic Con. Can you talk about the fandom for this show and how excited these people are for information? It’s been incredible.
Yeah I love it. It’s beyond my wildest dreams. The last thing you want is for people to not really care about your show (laughs). I’ve only been to Comic Con with a couple of movies and I’ve been more present here with The Following. I walked around yesterday (Saturday) in disguise.
What were you?
I had a pig’s head. I was Mr. Bacon. To see the energy and passion amongst a huge group of people for the things we wake up every day to do is very inspirational. You really have to keep that in mind when you go to work because you tend to sometimes work in a bubble and you think “I’ve had a long day, I’ve had a bad day, whatever, ratings and stuff.” You really have to keep in mind that all those people who show up for a panel, we have a responsibility to try and make our show as good as we possibly can. You have a responsibility for them. They are the people that consume entertainment and we as entertainers have a responsibility towards them. I think that Comic Con is the place where you really could focus on that.
You’re pretty active on social media. How has this affected your relationship with your fans?
One of the best parts of social media is to actually see responses. People are often afraid of it and I certainly was kind of nervous about it when I first heard about it. There’s no part of me that a) is interested in what anybody had for breakfast or b) do I want to share. I did not understand that at all and was kind of late to the party. But the thing that I find about social media is that it’s mostly supportive and informative. It’s mostly people saying “I like this.” There’s not a whole lot of hate out there and if it comes, you can just block and that’s nice.
Do you think some of the shroud mystery has been lifted around the entertainment world?
What I feel about entertainment is that it’s changed so drastically in so many ways. Certainly, yeah, in the ‘40s and ‘50s there was a complete shroud around people who were in relationships and all kinds of things. But entertainment is, even in the last five years, where we get it, how we get it, what it’s become– it’s changed so drastically.
The Following Returns in 2015!
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