Kevin Bacon has played almost every kind of character imaginable over the course of his tenured career, but it’s his latest role in the new series, “The Bondsman,” that has the 66-year-old actor catching hell as Hub Halloran, a demon-hunter searching for redemption.
“It was a fun show for me because there’s a lot of physical challenges, which I really like. There’s a lot of running, jumping, fighting and underwater stuff,” Bacon says during a sit-down interview with TODAY.com
“You know, just basically demon ass-kicking,” he laughs.
The new Prime series, which premiered on April 3, is about a murdered bounty hunter (Bacon) resurrected by Satan to help track down escaped demons, so it’s naturally going to be hellish. But fortunately, for Bacon, it’s in all the right ways.
“What’s really fun to me is the fact that the character is such a badass, but at the same time, he’s such a child in a lot of ways,” Bacon says of the role. “He’s living in his mother’s garage, he hasn’t been able to make it work with his ex-wife. He’s estranged from his son. He’s kind of a mess in his life.”
That complicated backstory is exactly why he enjoyed taking on the character. “If you’re going to play somebody who is ultimately the hero of the show, it’s fun to have that kind of complexity.”
Produced by showrunner Erik Oleson, “The Bondsman” also stars Beth Grant as Kitty Halloran, Bacon’s tough-as-nails mother, Maxwell Jenkins as his son, Cade, and Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles as the ex-wife he still carries a torch for.
It’s a campy, often gory mix of comedy, action and straight-up horror as Bacon battles various demons as part of a mission he’s been sent on to round up wayward demons by the Devil himself.
No stranger to the genre, the “Footloose” actor has appeared in a variety of horror films, including the original “Friday the 13th,” “Hollow Man” and “Tremors.”
Beyond it’s genre identity, “The Bondsman” is also a metaphor for personal redemption, with its phrase, “to hell and back,” serving as both a literal and figurative meaning.
Kevin Bacon vs. Hub Halloran: Similar or different?
While Bacon says he doesn’t connect with his character Hub’s alter ego, they do share a passion for music.
Along with acting, Bacon has spent decades touring with his brother, Michael, as one half of the musical duo known as The Bacon Brothers. Hub, a failed musician, provided Bacon with the perfect opportunity to marry two of his loves in “The Bondsman.”
“It came up when we were about to pitch (“The Bondsman”), that it might be fun for me to write some songs, and then Jennifer (Nettles) got cast, and she was definitely the best person for the part, the best actress, but she was also a fabulous singer and a great, great songwriter,” Bacon tells Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie during a segment on TODAY April 3.
“So, right away, we wrote a song, and that song was rejected,” Bacon said. “And then we wrote some more, and wrote some more, and we ended up with three of our tunes in the show.”
Music, however, isn’t the only thing that Bacon and Hub have in common. Bacon says that Hub’s calm and collected way of dealing with chaos is something he can relate to.
“Part of the humor lies in the fact that when all this crazy stuff starts happening around (Hub), he’s pretty cool around it. He’s like, ‘OK, well, now, I’ve come back from the dead and now I’ve got to go and hunt these demons. So, let me just figure out how I’m going to do that.’ You know what I mean? I would say, if anything, that’s a similar quality,” explains Bacon.
Big screen vs. little screen: Which does Kevin Bacon prefer?
“The Bondsman” is far from Bacon’s first TV series. The actor also starred in the 2019 cop drama “City on a Hill,” the 2016 comedy “I Love Dick” and the 2013 serial killer series “The Following,” among others.
He also stars opposite Julianne Moore in the upcoming Netflix series, “Sirens,” which will be released on May 22.
Having appeared on both the big and little screens, does Bacon have a preference between the two?
“When I started out, all I wanted was to be in movies and on the stage. Those were my two dreams,” he explains. “It’s hard to imagine, but back then, if you went from the movies to the small screen, it was kind of a sign that you were throwing in the towel.
“Now, movie stars left and right do it, everyone does it, and I love it. I’d never not do TV,” Bacon continues. “I also really love movies and I go to them, I would say, maybe once a week. I go to the theater, sit in the room, get the popcorn, go through that experience because I love it.”
