Kevin Bacon and director Jon Watts on their throwback thriller ‘Cop Car’

Kevin Bacon has played his share of dark characters, most recently as a tortured FBI agent on FOX’s The Following, but his role as a corrupt sheriff in Cop Car may just be his most nefarious yet.

While dumping a body out in the wilderness, Sheriff Kretzer (Bacon) leaves his car unattended, where a pair of 10 year-old boys (James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford) stumble upon the abandoned vehicle and take it for a joy ride.

Thus begins a white-knuckle cat and mouse chase, with Sheriff Kretzer trying to track down his car before anyone on the force discovers it’s missing, and before the boys uncover what he has hidden in the trunk.

As the increasingly desperate and violent sheriff, Bacon delivers an intense portrayal of a man at wit’s end, who has to somehow seem forgiving enough to plead with the thrill-seeking children to return his car back.

Director Jon Watts (who will direct the upcoming Spider-Man reboot), has crafted a tightly-coiled, brutal action thriller, mixed with the giddy pre-pubescent joy of the best Spielberg adventure flicks. The film wastes no time on back-story, allowing the audience to fill in many of the plot’s blank spots themselves, making for an invigorating movie experience.

We caught up with Kevin Bacon and Jon Watts at the film’s Montreal premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival to discuss the inspiration behind Cop Car, Bacon’s penchant for dark roles, and his secret to working with children.

Cop Car is in select theatres and VOD now, and will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD on September 29.

Bad Feeling: Kevin, what attracted you to this character? This is a pretty dark role, even for someone like yourself who seems to play a lot of dark characters.

Kevin Bacon: It wasn’t that I was trying to look for something dark, I just liked the mystery of him. I liked the idea that you have to piece him together as an audience member, to sort of take a little piece from here and a little piece from there to figure out who he is, and what he’s been up to. That’s a nice challenge. Jon and I talked about ways that we could make that happen without having a scene where I actually stop and say, “I am what I am.”

Jon Watts: The Popeye scene.

Kevin Bacon: Yeah, the Popeye scene [Laughs].

Bad Feeling: The film is a lean sort of thriller that you don’t really see very often anymore – was it a homage to the type of films you enjoyed growing up?

Jon Watts: I think so. I like movies that are really sort of stripped down and straight-forward. I think this can sort of fit into that group.

Bad Feeling: Did either of you get into any adventures exploring around when you were kids, like the children in the film?

Jon Watts: The movie is shot in my hometown, in my backyard basically. So it’s sort of the adventure I hoped I might go on, but also was afraid I might go on as well.

Bad Feeling: Is the film an attempt to capture that youthful energy mixed with a hard-edged thriller?

Jon Watts: Yeah, I think so. It’s about kids that start off looking for  an adventure, and end up stumbling into a very adult, dangerous world.

Bad Feeling: What was it like working with child actors on such an intense film?

Kevin Bacon: I’ve done some very intense things with kids. Very, very intense. Everyone’s got a different process. My process is not one where I pretend that I’m the guy, and try to literally scare them so that they have a scared reaction. I’ve seen people sort of do that in the past, and to me, first off, I think it’s kind of irresponsible, but I also think there’s sort of diminishing returns. I like the creative world if I’m doing something dangerous where the child actor can feel safe, safe enough to do another take, safe enough to let me go as far as I want to go.

I remember doing this movie with little tiny Dakota Fanning; I was kidnapping her, dragging her all over the place, I was really doing horrible shit. It was really about me saying, “Hey, look in my eyes. I want you to know that I’m not this guy. I’m about to become this guy, but then they’re going to say “Cut,” and that’s going to be over.” And that’s just the way that I like to do it.

Cop Car is available on VOD now, and will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD on September 29.