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Kevin Bacon: ‘I Got Done By The Police For Jaywalking’

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Watching Kevin Bacon’s new film isn’t the greatest advertisement for law enforcement. The actor plays a corrupt policeman in ‘Cop Car’ and admits he’s been in trouble with the law himself.

“I actually got a ticket for jaywalking in LA,” he tells Yahoo Movies. “For a New Yorker, it’s such a difficult adjustment because we just do not stop for red lights. It’s not in your DNA. It was a motorcycle cop, just doing his job. It was not a cheap ticket, like $250.”

So what, being Kevin Bacon doesn’t even get you out of parking tickets?

“Parking tickets? My God no!”

Luckily, apart from a couple of over-excited teenage parties, that’s the only time the 57-year-old has got in trouble with the law, at least off-camera.

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On-screen, the star remains one of the most fearless performers in Hollywood, having played dozens of sociopaths and even a child molester in ‘The Woodsman’.

“I couldn’t care less about my image,” he admits. “When I’m playing a character, nothing frightens me. You can’t give me anything that I go, ‘oh man, this is going to look bad for me.’”

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That’s the certainly the case with ‘Cop Car’, in which he plays a murderous sheriff, who terrorises two young boys after they steal his vehicle (hint: it contains some dodgy cargo). The result is a tense, psychological thriller with long scenes containing little or no speech.

“I thought it was an interesting exercise in creating a character with very little dialogue,” says Bacon. “When you start out as an actor, you’re an extra and all you do is pray you get a line. Then you pray you’re going to get more than one and you start to judge your parts based on how many lines you have. I learned quite a while ago that’s not a good way to judge how good the part is. Honestly, I think [doing a silent movie] would be a fantastic challenge.”

A hit on the festival circuit, probably the biggest success to come out of ‘Cop Car’ is director Jon Watts, who was snapped up by Marvel to helm in the upcoming ‘Spider-Man’ reboot with Tom Holland.

“I’m not surprised at all,” says Bacon. “He called me and told me that was happening. He’s got the storytelling stuff.”

Unfortunately, Watts hasn’t yet contacted him about being a part of it.

Bacon doesn’t seem to mind. One of the hardest-working men in Hollywood with more than 70 movies to his name, the star is so prolific that in fact, he can barely remember many of his own films.

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“It’s a funny thing because I don’t go back and look at them,” he says. “Recently, I’ve been in a couple of those lifetime retrospective things and they put together clip reels and I’ll look at it and go, ‘wow, I have literally no memory of shooting that scene.’ It’s pretty bizarre.”

Still, he explains there was never any plan B if he hadn’t made it as an actor.

“I never thought about anything to fall back on,” he explains.

But surely there was something he’d liked to have done instead if it hadn’t worked out?

“I have a feeling it might have been something in design, or furniture or architecture,” he says. “It’s a little bit in my DNA because my father was a city planner and he loves to draw. But I’m not very handy.”

‘Cop Car’ is available digitally now and is out on Blu-ray and DVD on 19 October.

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Image credits: Rex Shutterstock