Kevin Bacon And Kira Sedgwick On ‘The Best You Can’, The Importance Of Comedy And The Kind Of Roles They Are Looking For

Kevin Bacon and Kira Sedgwick are back on screen together with a heartfelt dramedy, The Best You Can, directed by Michael J. Weithorn and now available on digital.

Sedgwick portrays Cynthia, a urologist who finds out that her husband, Warren -who’s much older than her- is showing signs of dementia. One night, Stan, a security guard portrayed by Bacon, breaks into her house to prevent a home robbery attempt. The two develop an unlikely friendship that soon turn into something more romantic.

The Best You Can is full of romance and funny moments, but it also has its share of heavier topics, especially when Cynthia has to deal with Warren’s dementia.

“You want to crack people open because that’s what sort of like… That’s the great thing about comedy and dramedy, is that you’re sort of catching them unawares of how much it’s touching your heart because it’s funny. But comedy has that way of sort of opening you up to a deeper level I think,” told me Sedgwick over Zoom.

What makes the characters of The Best You Can so compelling and relatable, is that both Cynthia and Stan had a life before they meet each other, and it’s not one that’s quickly explained to give the movie and characters more context.

In fact, it’s a life that they are still currently living, with personal issues they are actively going through, which makes for incredibly layered and interesting characters. So, I asked Bacon and Sedgwick if they had noticed a difference in the scripts or in the types of characters they were sent as they are moving through life and through they respective careers.

Bacon said, “What’s interesting is, and this is the great thing about being an actor, is that you get to a different age and the things that you get asked to play, change. So, if you can continue to work, I mean there’s been times in my life where I felt like who I was and the things that I was being offered, were really not lining up, you know what I mean? I was at a point in my life where the things I was asked to do as an actor were not that interesting to me, I was kind of past them. But then they do tend to change.”

He added: “A movie like this, God knows that both of us have acted and read a lot of different characters, but when you find something like in my case with Stan, he’s got this weird, you can’t call it mid-life because that means he’d live to 120… But he’s at this weird passage in his life, where he’s trying to make this connection with his daughter, but he’s kind of stuck in a situation. And then he’s confronted with the idea that none of us are going to outrun time and the physicality of getting possibly sick or whatever. So I think it’s a good moment, and that’s something I wouldn’t have had the chance to play years ago. So I appreciate it when things like this come around.”

Having both been in this industry for decades -Bacon and Sedgwick, who are both married in real life, actually met on set of Lemon Sky in 1987- I asked them if there are any particular roles that they are both actively looking for.

Sedgwick said, “For me, it’s always about great parts, and it’s just about doing something I haven’t done before. It’s kind of know when you see it, kind of thing. Obviously something layered, but I love the idea of doing fun s—! Because life is so dark right now! Everything is so dark! So having a laugh and giving people a laugh feels very important, especially right now.”

In the movie, Stan is indeed trying to build a stronger relationship with his daughter, who is a singer and songwriter. He pushes her to reach her full potential because he knows she’s talented, even if it means that they have to argue and disagree on how to handle her career. I asked the two actors if they’ve had someone just like Stan in their lives, pushing them to achieve their goal, especially when they were starting out in Hollywood.

Bacon joked that Sedgwick didn’t need anyone but herself for that, and she added:

“Myself! Kicking my own butt, saying ‘Let’s go! You can do better!’ I mean I direct more than anything right now, more than I act, and I would say that Kevin Bacon is really the person that was like, ‘You should direct, you gotta go!’ He really helped me to wrap my head around that notion, and then I fell in love with it. I would say that he’s the one that encouraged me a lot more than I was encouraging myself at that moment.”

Throughout the movie, Stan and Celia communicate mostly by texts -at least at the beginning- The texts are actually read and acted out loud so the audience gets an insight into those very magical and intimate first moments, as the characters realize that there might be more than friendship to it.

Bacon said, “It was tricky because as you said, texts are a big part of our lives and culture, for better or for worse. How you handle that in movies is an interesting, common thing, I mean Michael did a great job, we worked on it a lot, we re-recorded the dialogues and you have to do that weird thing where you’re reacting without saying anything, where you’re just trying to make it play on your face. It was actually kind of challenging, both for us and the director but I think we hit a nice sweet spot and I think it really works.”

Sedgwick added: “Yeah, I think it’s funny, for so many people, it’s about texting, and how they can revere the personality in texts, that’s what scares the s— out of me with this ChatGPT stuff! I gotta tell you because I can tell a lot about a person from the way they express themselves. I just… it makes me nuts!”

The Best You Can is now available on digital.