Six Degrees of Separation is now Zero after having the chance to interview Kevin Bacon on his role in the new queer slasher film THEY/THEM.
THEY/THEM, pronounced “they slash them,” premiered on the final night of Outfest at the ACE Hotel Theatre in Los Angeles. A Red Carpet with the stars followed by the premiere of the film was the perfect way to close out Outfest’s 40th annual film festival.
Credit: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse
Kevin Bacon Interview – THEY/THEM Queer Horror Genre
Kevin Bacon‘s film career has spanned decades, and with that experience comes a new take on the summer sleepaway camp slasher film. Forty-two years ago, Bacon took an arrow to the neck in Friday the 13th; this time his role is a little different.
“I play a monster,” Bacon said of his role as cult-like leader Owen Whistler of a gay conversion camp in the Blumhouse-Peacock horror film THEY/THEM.
Kevin Bacon at Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival’s Closing Night Gala Presents ‘They/Them’. PHOTO: Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock for Outfest
Owen Whistler is the owner/leader of a summer camp for queer teens. Bacon dished on the red carpet a bit about his role and the challenge of portraying a character with so much hate inside while allowing himself to still feel like a human. Bacon likened it to those who commit violent crimes.
“The first thing people will say is, ‘We caught this monster,’” Bacon said.“The sad reality is that you didn’t catch a monster. Monsters are the stuff of fantasies. What you caught, was a human being.”
Bacon tried to focus more on who they are, where they are from, and their likes & dislikes, not about the acts they commit.
What makes Bacon’s character and the other lead characters who work at the institution so terrifying is the fact that they seem so “normal” at first glance. But the language and actions of Bacon as Owen Whistler and the other leaders of the “camp” begin to be apparent within moments of the campers’ arrival at Whistler Camp. This element of normalcy is underlined by Bacon’s performance.
The queer empowerment theme of the movie is driven by the queer campers’ need to grow in the face of subjugation.
Bacon shared a beautiful Easter egg for our nerd friends. “I’ve only played maybe 2 monsters ever, and one was a Mutant,” Bacon says. “I play a monster as a human being.”
Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class. Photo: 20th Century Fox
That Easter egg? The “Mutant” Bacon referred to is his role as Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class. Bacon is a longtime Marvel fan. Super geeks will already know there’s a Footloose nod in Guardians of the Galaxy. Maybe we’ll see him in an upcoming MCU movie?
The hardest part about playing a monster? Budgeting your fear levels. “It’s like life and death because the stakes are so high,” Bacon says. “You can run out of scary-face looks. You can run out of tricks if you have to be scared for an hour and a half.”
“Finding new ways to be scared is a very real acting challenge,” Bacon says. It’s part of the reason he says he enjoys the difficulty of the horror genre. “To me, the hardest part about horror is finding different levels and ways to express the terror and anxiety, and not make them all the same.”
Bacon’s Favorite horror movie? Friday the 13th.
Credit: Josh Stringer/Blumhouse
About THEY/THEM
A group of teenagers at an LGBTQ+ conversion camp endures unsettling psychological techniques while being stalked by a mysterious masked killer.
Rating: TBD
Runtime: 90 mins
Director: John Logan
Executive Producers: John Logan, Scott Turner Schofield, Jon Romano, Howard Young
Producers: Jason Blum, Kevin Bacon, Michael Aguilar
Writer: John Logan
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Theo Germaine, Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, Cooper Koch, Anna Lore, Boone Platt, Monique Kim, Austin Crute, Quei Tann, Darwin del Fabro, Hayley Griffith
THEY/THEM premieres on Peacock August 5.
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