Kevin Bacon says his family has a ‘horror tradition’ after his daughter’s success in Smile

For many fans, Kevin Bacon was first noticed when he starred in the original slasher film Friday The 13th (1980), which became a surprise hit and spawned a 12-film franchise.

Turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as daughter Sosie Bacon has now also scored a hit in the horror genre with her role in Smile, which spent three weeks at number one.

“She is fantastic,” the proud father, 64, shared in an interview with the hollywood reporterbefore revealing how he was ‘surprised, not only by how great she was, but also how difficult that role was, because it’s one of those parts where there’s no break’.

Digging deeper into what he means by a non-stop role, Kevin shared how most characters usually start off “pretty happy for at least, you know, 15 minutes or 20 minutes before it all turns horrible.”

He added, “But that’s a movie where the stress level is [insane]. I was very proud of her.’

Playing Dr. Rose Cotter on Smile is not Sosie’s first role, but it is her most successful; having grossed $171.5 million at the box office on a budget of $17 million

The sleeper hit also holds the distinction of being the highest-grossing horror film of 2022.

The success of Sosie, 30, and Smile is similar to what happened with her father and his breakout role on Friday The 13th, playing Jack Burrell, the teenager who is famous for being murdered while lying on his back in bed. .

Having left home at age 17, the Philadelphia native landed the slasher movie about four years later, at the same time he had a small role in a soap opera.

‘Friday The 13th was kind of the definition of a low-budget indie. It was made for nothing. I was in Blairstown, New Jersey. I used to have to take a public bus to a bus stop in the middle of a country road, and someone from the set would come out and pick me up. I mean, that was the closest they had to any kind of transportation,” he said of the film’s shooting in 1979.

Although the budget for Friday The 13th ended up being $550,000, the film became an unexpected success, earning $59.8 million at the box office. And that was just the beginning, as it went on to earn franchise status, with 11 more movies, a TV series, novels, comics, video games, and related merchandise.

In keeping with family tradition, Sosie’s mother, Kyra Sedgwick, also starred in a horror film, The Possession (2012), alongside Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Madison Davenport, Grant Show, Natasha Calis, Matisyahu, and Jay Brazeau.

Kevin went on to explain how he and his wife of 34 years didn’t even know Sosie was interested in some sort of acting career until she was in her 20s.

He dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles and really started doing all the right things,” he said of the process he went through to create his own career. ‘Pounding the pavement, doing self-recording after self-recording, and studying.’

In fact, Sosie landed her first role in the drama film Loverboy (2005), which was directed by her father, who also starred alongside his 57-year-old wife Kyra Sedgwick.

His resume also includes roles in the Netflix teen drama series 13 Reasons Why (2017–2018) and the HBO limited series Mare of Eastown (2021).