Homegrown actor Kevin Bacon returns for Kimmel talk

Actor Kevin Bacon, who grew up in Center City, was at the Kimmel Center last night for a Q&A moderated by film critic Carrie Rickey.

The first official performance of Bacon as spokesman for the Kimmel Center’s 10th anniversary spokesman of the Kimmel Center was to sing the song of his old junior high school, the city’s Masterman School.

The star of films like “Apollo 13” and “Mystic River” got his start at the Plays and Players playhouse on Delancey Street.

“I appeared in two plays there,” recalled Bacon, who was dressed in all black except for a thin, purple tie.

He credits his parents with encouraging his interest in the arts.

“My parents did not care if we got good grades, made money, put our elbows on the table, or played sports as long as we were drawing a picture or creating a song or a play,” said Bacon, whose five siblings includie his brother Michael, who plays with him in their band, the Bacon Brothers.

He credits living in Center City with learning about all kinds of people, from “frat boys [to] the homeless.”

Bacon, who has played a frat boy, pedophile and Marine, does not draw the line at playing any role.

“There is no character that I would not play. Part of the reason that I became an actor was to explore different aspects of the human condition and to exercise demons,” Bacon said.