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SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains mild spoilers about this season of “The Bondsman,” now available to stream on Prime Video.
The new series “The Bondsman” stars Kevin Bacon as Hub Halloran, a recently-murdered bondsman who is granted fresh life by Satan, as long as he uses his tracking skills to hunt down and kill demons who have escaped from the underworld. That’s a hell of a premise, but this show has much more on its mind than just monsters-of-the-week, diving deep into Hub’s relationship with his ex-wife and son and his love-hate relationship with the country music industry.
The surprises start at the top. At first, Bacon’s macho lead role seems like a run-of-the-mill badass: All one-liners, muscles and cool-guy poses. But that was only half of the appeal for the veteran actor.
“You see him right away kicking ass, right? But he’s also a man-child,” Bacon says. “He’s still living in his mom’s garage. That to me is an interesting look at manhood, because some people would define manhood by going into a bar and being able to kick ass. Some people would define it as not still being under the wing of your mother. He’s stubborn, but he’s also kind of a baby, and I find that fascinating.”
Kevin Bacon and Beth Grant in “The Bondsman.”
Courtesy of Prime
The mix of supernatural with family drama elevated this project for Bacon, who is also an executive producer.
“On one hand, you have all this insanity in terms of the plot and demons and devils and the violence,” he says. “But the way the characters react to it and to each other is very grounded. It stays really small and real while all the rest of the world is just so completely insane.”
Erik Oleson, who is the showrunner for “Bondsman” as well as an executive producer and writer, was thrilled to work on a series that had robust characters but was also looser and more lighthearted than some of his previous projects.
“I’ve done the big, fancy shows,” Oleson says. “I’ve done the politically-leaning, ‘Daredevil’ kind of thing. This was an opportunity to do something that would be just fun to write and make and watch. At the jump, when we were figuring out the alchemy of this new show, we’re thinking, ‘OK, let’s make this a laugh out loud, scream out loud mash-up that’s totally unpredictable.’”
Because “The Bondsman” walks the tricky tightrope of comedy and horror, Bacon knew the show needed to get the proper tone right to keep horror fans happy. Sure enough, it’s filled with campy setpieces and wild gore that plays well to an audience looking for a wild time. Bacon says he knew the mix was right when the first eight minutes of footage screened to an audience at this year’s South by Southwest. The crowd’s reaction — including that of his wife, Kyra Sedgwick — was enthusiastic.
“My wife hadn’t seen it yet, so she didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “The audience, when I got my throat cut, they’re like [makes a shocked face]. And then they laughed and it was exactly what we wanted, a lot of ‘Oh, shit’ reactions. And she was out in the audience and looked at me and [mouths ‘Oh shit!’]. She was having a good time. So it was very satisfying. That’s the kind of stuff that I dig, when horror works in that way.”
Bacon knows what works in horror. The prolific actor has starred in scary movies throughout his career, from getting killed in the original 1980 “Friday the 13th” to toplining the franchise-launching “Tremors” in 1990; then starring in Paul Verhoeven’s 2000 film “Hollow Man” and last year’s trilogy-capping “MaXXXine,” and appearing in the upcoming “Toxic Avenger” reboot. After decades of impactful roles in the genre, what does horror mean to Bacon?
“It’s life and death. Stakes are high,” he says. “I also feel like, as a consumer, I like to share that experience with people in the theater where we’re like, ‘Oh fuck!’ and everybody jumps at the same time, and everybody laughs about the fact that they jumped at the same time. That’s just a great shared experience. It’s similar to a comedy in that it’s a genre that’s great to share with people.”
Kevin Bacon hunting a water demon posing as a cheerleader in “The Bondsman.”
Tina Rowden/Prime
The stakes were also high during some of the series’ wild battle scenes, including one standout that had Hub battling a malevolent entity in a swimming pool. Both Bacon and Oleson knew it would be a challenge due to the complexities of shooting scenes while submerged in water.
“I’ve done some underwater stuff before, but I don’t think it had ever been an actual fight,” Bacon says. “I didn’t think about the fact that it’s blurry because your eyes are open, so you’re swinging and taking hits but you don’t realize how much air you lose trying to do that. I was exhausted, but that was fun as shit. I love doing that.”
“‘Hey, Mr. Bacon: Do you wanna hold your breath underwater while you’re fighting a demonic cheerleader?’” Oleson says. “I thought for sure he was gonna ding that and say ‘You’re out of your mind,’ but instead he doubled down: ‘Oh hell yes, we are doing that scene.’ When others thought maybe it’s too expensive and we can figure out a different sequence, Kevin and I were adamant that it was going to be cool.”
Given the fun they had making the first season, Bacon and Oleson are optimistic they can keep “The Bondsman” going.
“They have not picked the show up for a second season, but we’ve already had conversations about if they were to do it, what it might be,” Bacon says. “Going deeper into Hub’s issues — I’ll leave it to the writers to figure out all the plot stuff, but from a character standpoint I’m always looking for new and harder challenges, whether they be physical challenges or emotional challenges: Loss, guilt, redemption.”
“I have evil, devious plans for a second season, and I tried with the way I wrote Season 1 to make it as difficult on Amazon as possible to not give us a second season,” Oleson adds. “There’s a lot more story to tell in this world. We’re just getting started.”
Watch a trailer for “The Bondsman” below.
