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As Strobl, Bacon follows the emotional journey the colonel took when he volunteered to escort PFC Chance Phelps’s body home after the young soldier was killed in Iraq. The level of detail and care given to our fallen military is something that Bacon wasn’t aware of, and it’s a story that had to be told, he says. Bacon makes Taking Chance a movie that hits a chord with military personnel and civilians alike..

There’s something else Bacon holds on to—the hope he feels with the changing of the guard at the White House. The only thing that kept him from January’s inaugural events was premiering Taking Chance at Sundance. But Bacon visits the Washington, DC, area often, playing with his band, the Bacon Brothers, at the Birchmere in Alexandria, the Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis, and for the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda’s National Naval Medical Center.

Here, Bacon shares his favorite moments—playing music with his teenage daughter, the joy of being in a band with his brother, and the importance of his character in Taking Chance.

CAPITOL FILE: Tell us about your HBO movie, Taking Chance. What about the film attracted you?
KEVIN BACON: I felt it was a very simple story told in a very simple way, and it just touched me. I’ve read a lot of scripts related to Iraq or Afghanistan, but there was something about this one that transcended the politics of whatever you’re feeling about the war, which is very strong among a lot of people because it’s not so much about politics. It could be about this war, it could be World War II, it could be the Korean War, Vietnam—it’s the same story. There are casualties. And I also feel like it’s something we don’t get a chance to see, really—this process that was new to me. I didn’t realize, for instance, that servicemen and -women whose bodies were never going to be viewed would still be buried in full uniform with all that attention to detail. I didn’t realize honors were paid every time a casket was put on or off an airplane or train or car. This was all news to me. It’s good for people to see.

CF: How did the theme of the movie affect you personally?
KB: You know, it’s kind of a sad place to go every day. I mean obviously not as sad for me as the people who are actually living it, but it just felt a little bit weightier than working on a regular film. What was interesting about it was that as we went along and shot all these scenes in airports, on the tarmacs, in the towns, the people who were witnessing it had similar reactions to the way people would react when Mike [Strobl] was going through this, taking the remains back. There was a similar kind of reaction to watching the whole thing, even though we were pretending. I was really struck with how emotional people would get on the set, the extras and people in Montana [where some of it was filmed]. It was very moving to work on the film, I gotta say, it really was.

CF: Was Colonel Strobl on-set?
KB: He was on-set sometimes, not a lot. I spent time with him before shooting. The family of Chance also visited, and again it was very emotional to say the least. Chance’s mother made a gift to me of a T-shirt that had been in Chance’s bag when he was killed, so obviously that was incredibly touching.

CF: Have you ever worked with the Taking Chance director Ross Katz before?
KB: No, we didn’t know each other. As is the case with a first-time director, there’s a leap of faith that they’re going to know what to do. In Ross’s case, he has a lot of experience with making movies, so that would not be new to him. Sometimes you have first-time directors who have a certain level of hubris, which is maybe a mask for the fact that they have insecurities or are terrified about going into it. Having done it, I know it’s a terrifying proposition, taking on a movie to direct. Ross was very willing to say, “There’s some stuff I don’t know, some stuff I want to learn.” I was impressed with that. I think he sort of looked at it as a collaboration. And I was honored by that.

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CF: Is it typical to work collaboratively with a director?
KB: I feel like it is. It’s pretty rare that I work with someone now who has been on sets or done as many movies as I have, just by nature of my having been an actor for so long. I like the feeling that my opinions are going to be of value. I’m never going to tell somebody how to direct a movie—I don’t want that. I want to be as much of a team player as possible, but at the same time I don’t want to feel like I’m completely a puppet. I have ideas, certainly, about my character that require collaboration.

CF: How difficult is it to switch from being an actor to a director or producer, since you’ve been all three?
KB: It’s a natural extension—I think if you’re an actor for a long time, [you realize] it’s kind of a young man’s gig in a funny sort of way—you’re putting yourself in someone else’s hands. After a while that gets to be a frustrating proposition. Especially as you get older, you spend a lot of time on sets, and you eventually want to have some kind of input into running the show. I don’t think it’s so much the question of being difficult to switch from one to another. I look at someone like Eastwood who often directs himself—that’s a real challenge. As a director you’re out there getting some kind of perspective on an actor’s performance that is difficult to have about your own work.

CF: Tell me about your character in Frost/Nixon, which was released in December.
KB: Jack Brennan was Nixon’s chief of staff when he left the White House. Jack was also a marine stationed at the White House. Nixon was enamored with marines, probably because they were the type of man he wasn’t. When he left in ’72 and resigned the presidency, he was allowed to bring with him a chief of staff. So he took Jack, who eventually left the Corps and worked full-time as his chief of staff.

CF: Did you enjoy that role?
KB: It was a small role but a really good one. It was a chance to work with Ron Howard again. I hadn’t worked with him since Apollo 13. It was a real good experience.

CF: Have Murder in the First and Hollow Man been your most challenging roles, physically and emotionally?
KB: Yes, I’d say so. The Woodsman was definitely a tough one, too. I was playing a sex offender, and it’s not a place you want to go every day when you go to work. I also did a film called Death Sentence, which was not seen too much but was also extremely challenging. It was very emotional—one of my sons in the movie has been killed and my family is being threatened—but also physically just really, really hard, with a lot of fights, a lot of stunts, a lot of gunplay…. I dig those kinds of things.

CF: Do you do all your own stunts?
KB: I don’t do everything. Jackie Chan does all his stunts. I do as much as I can, as much as they let me do. In Death Sentence, there was a lot of hand-to-hand fighting, and I wanted the character to not look like he knew how to fight; [he was] a kind of straight guy from the suburbs, and it was a question of making it look real.

CF: You’ve played several career servicemen. Is this something you like to do, or does it just happen?
KB: It happens. If you hang in long enough, you’re eventually going to play some servicemen, some cops, some priests.

CF: Is there a role you haven’t played that you’d like to?
KB: I have not played a transvestite. I’ve not done much period stuff—I would love to do a Western. Someday. Anybody reading this, give me a Western. It’s hard because they don’t get made that often. People are hesitant to put their money into them. It could be fun, because I actually know how to ride a horse. It seems like I’m always learning to do something for a movie. There’s always some skill I don’t have that I’m trying to learn, and the one thing I do know how to do, I don’t get a chance to.

CF: Any more dance movies in your future? How about Footloose at 50?
KB: Sounds like a nightmare.

CF: Last year and this year are filled with milestones—30 years since you made Animal House, 25 years since Footloose came out, married for 20 years, turning 50. Seems like anniversary time for you.
KB: It sure is. It’s really interesting how you hit these kinds of milestones and you don’t see them coming. They’re numbers that are strange numbers. Fifty—that’s a strange number to me, yet there it is.

CF: You’ll always be the youngest of six children, though. Did you learn a lot from your brothers and sisters growing up?
KB: Absolutely, and I continue to learn from them. My brother, as you know, we have a band, and we have this new record out, New Year’s Day. Growing up he was one of my heroes, and just being able to watch him play and see the way he inf luences an audience, and just the whole idea of performance, was something I got from him. Although we’re really different kinds of performers, it was definitely inspirational for me.

CF: How are you different performers?
KB: He’s much more introspective, more serious, and quieter, and never has a problem taking his time, letting people come to him. I’m much more of a show-off—I like to rock it out.

CF: You wrote a lot of the songs on your new CD, New Year’s Day. Have you always been a writer?
KB: I have, of that sort. I can’t write anything else. I’ve never attempted to write a book or a screenplay or a scene or anything. As a kid I struggled a lot with writing—and I still do, because I have learning difficulties. My handwriting is really atrocious. Thank God for spell-check. I can’t spell at all. I write things on the computer and the computer scratches its head and says, “I have no idea what that word can possibly be; it must be Ukrainian.” The idea of sitting down and writing something is difficult, but songs have always come to me—it’s a real natural thing to write songs.

CF: Who were your role models musically?
KB: One of my biggest role models was Springsteen. Growing up in Philly, because he was in South Jersey, we sort of thought of him as our own in a funny kind of way. And certainly one of the things I admire about Bruce is that he keeps creating new, great music. It’s not like he’s out on the road playing oldies. Others were Tom Petty, the Beatles, and the Stones. Also, when I was growing up I listened to a lot of soul music, because in Philadelphia that’s what we had.

CF: Have you met Springsteen? And have you played with him?
KB: I have [met him]. I have never played music with him. But I had an amazing opportunity: We did a tribute to Bruce at Carnegie Hall with a whole bunch of other artists. We did sort of an unplugged version of “Streets of Philadelphia.” No one knew if Bruce was coming to this thing, but sure enough he showed up. Someone came and said, “Would you guys mind if Bruce shared a dressing room with you?” and of course our answer was, “No, we would not mind!”

CF: Your son is in a band. Do you think he’ll get into acting?
KB: My son is in a few bands—his passion is music. He’s not into acting.

CF: What about your daughter?
KB: I don’t know. She’s in high school and dealing with that. She’s starting to think about college. So far she hasn’t come to us and said, “Guess what, I want to be an actress.” She’s a beautiful singer. One of the things I really relish is the time when she’ll come to me and say, “Can we work on this song?” I’ll figure it out and find a key that works for her, accompany her while she sings. It’s my favorite thing to do.

CF: Do you come to DC often to support causes, or do you have any causes you’re passionate about?
KB: We have in the past. In terms of the environmental struggle, one thing I remember is standing on the steps of the Capitol building—my son is 19 years old, and he was in diapers at the time. We were standing there with him, saying, “This is the reason why we’re concerned about our planet—it’s right here in our arms.” Even if we had made changes 18 years ago, we would still be in bad shape, but a hell of a lot better off than we are now. It just kills me when I think about us being there in DC 18 years ago, trying to get people to focus on it. We were thought of as tree huggers. But I have an organization called Sixdegrees.org—that’s been a great focus of mine. We have something kind of cool going on right now called Good Cards. It’s a great way of giving, where you can give somebody a card, any amount of money, and they can take that card and they can donate that money to any charity they want. We’re kind of like a portal for more than a million charities. You have the ability to feel good about giving something to somebody, something that has some value.

CF: How do you feel about the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, now that you have the organization?
KB: Now I’m thrilled about it. I was able to turn it into Sixdegrees.org. [The game’s] been around for so many years. I thought, Is it ever going to go away? Maybe I can think of something interesting to do with this. I started the website based on the idea of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, on the idea of taking me out of the equation and the idea that we are all connected to each other on this planet, that the things we do in our lives and the choices we make affect people on the other side of the world and down the block. There is a small-world phenomenon. That’s the idea behind Sixdegrees.org.

CF: How do you feel about Obama being elected?
KB: I’m absolutely thrilled. I feel incredibly inspired, and every time I think about the fact that he made it, it makes me feel hopeful. I feel very strongly that, as tough as things get, we have to remain hopeful. It’s at the backbone of our American spirit. If his stature during the primary and during the transition period is any indication, I can’t wait to see what this guy can do. I mean he’s so level-headed; he’s so calm and thoughtful in a way that I just haven’t seen in politics for a really long time.

CF: It’s an exciting time here in Washington, DC.
KB: I can imagine. I was hoping to be down there for the inauguration in some kind of capacity, but it happened during the same time as Sundance. We premiered Taking Chance at Sundance. To get into Sundance is one thing—to get into competition with a television film is really an amazing launching pad for the film, and I’m thrilled about that. I’m really happy that [Sundance] got it. I have a long history with that film festival, but it doesn’t mean that everything I’m in is going to get there.

CF: What other films did you have at Sundance?
KB: I had a film that I directed called Loverboy; I had a film I produced, The Woodsman; my wife, Kyra [Sedgwick], had the film called Personal Velocity. I went to Sundance to launch my Sixdegrees.org website.

CF: Are you visiting Quantico as well?
KB: I did spend quite a lot of time at Quantico just because of A Few Good Men, I did research on that. I’ve been to the National Museum of the Marine Corps, and Mike Strobl is down there and went to the Pentagon.

CF: Has Colonel Strobl seen Taking Chance? Has the family?
KB: Mike has seen it. The family—I don’t know yet. Mike has seen it and I think he loved it. He sent me an e-mail and was very, very happy with it. ★