When it comes to horror, Kevin Bacon doesn't necessarily care whether he plays the good guy or the bad guy — although the bad guy usually brings more potential to flex his acting muscles.
"I became an actor so that I could walk in a lot of different men's shoes," he said. "I'm not afraid of doing horrible things as a character. That's never been frightening to me. You can tell from the movies that I've done ... I've been pretty bad in a lot of things, but I've also played characters who were heroic and friendly and romantic and all kinds of other things."
As for why he keeps gravitating toward horror in his career, Bacon has a pretty straightforward viewpoint.
"First off, I like it," he explained. "I'm a fan myself. I'm a consumer of it. If a new horror film piques my interest, I'm front and center opening weekend ... I like the experience, because when I go to a movie as a ... consumer, I want to feel things. Whatever it is, I want to feel things deeply. You can feel sad. You can get tears coming out of your eyes. You can laugh hysterically. You can jump. You can get scared. You can get creeped out. You can walk out of the theater with an uneasy feeling. These are feelings, and I like that."
Plus, as an actor, horror offers something other genres don't necessarily possess, according to Bacon. "I like to do horror because the stakes are very high, and that means that there's good stuff to play," he said. "In life and death situations, those are good things to play."
Bacon's latest horror film, "They/Them," is now streaming exclusively on Peacock.
