Monsters Are For Monster Movies, But SHOWTIME’s CITY ON A HILL Is About Real People, Says Star Kevin Bacon

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede A familiar path for many TV shows is to push an ordinary character to extremes. But SHOWTIME’s CITY ON A HILL, starring Kevin Bacon, has found a fascinating way to do the opposite. Particularly in Season 2, which debuts Sunday, March 28 only on Crave, the main intrigue with Bacon’s character, FBI veteran Jackie Rohr, comes when he blinks or flinches, figuratively speaking. Season 1 – available now on Crave – taught viewers that Jackie is capable of just about anything, so it’s a real personality study when there are lines that Jackie won’t cross, or moments when his veneer of cocky confidence is breached. “Yeah, that’s right, that’s exactly right,” Bacon agreed in a virtual interview with TV reporters. “And I would add that when he doesn’t do something extreme, he surprises the people he’s with, in terms of the things that come out of their mouths. As a result, if you think this is the way he’s going to react, and then he reacts in a different way, we get to surprise the audience.” Bacon added that bringing out a bit of the humanity in Jackie is one of the things he’s most excited about in Season 2 of CITY ON A HILL. “Jackie is kind of forced to reveal some very personal things, and does so in a real and emotional way,” Bacon said. “And I think that even when you’re as big a s— as Jackie is, and a liar, and a racist, and a drug addict, and a philanderer, I mean, it’s a pretty long list of things that make this guy pretty despicable. But I always want to take those kinds of characters and make sure that they’re actual human beings. Monsters are for monster movies, but we’re making a show about real people.” CITY ON A HILL – set in 1990s Boston, which was plagued by violent crime and government corruption – has a stellar ensemble cast that includes Bacon, Aldis Hodge, Pernell Walker, and Jill Hennessy, among others. Season 2 centres on a federal housing project in the Roxbury neighbourhood. As coalition leader Grace Campbell (Walker) works tirelessly on behalf of the community, her efforts are undermined by gang activity that’s taking place right under her nose. Bacon’s Jackie is keen on exploiting the situation to salvage his own career, but assistant district attorney Decourcy Ward (Hodge) is keeping a watchful eye. Meanwhile, Jackie’s wife Jenny (Hennessy) is feeling unseen, by both her husband and the wider world. “One thing you have to keep in mind with Jackie is, even though this takes place in the ’90s, he’s a character who really is very backward in a lot of ways – even his mindset is from 10, 20 years before,” Bacon said. “For instance, I went with this mustache, and mustaches were not really popular in the ’90s. That was a time when everybody was really into cleaning up, and shorter hair, and being clean shaven. So I felt like this was something that was left over from this old vestige, and it’s a way of showing that he’s a guy who’s really going kicking and screaming into the future. He likes the status quo. He likes the power that it gives him. He likes that life before.” Of course, even thinking of the 1990s as a bygone era makes Bacon chuckle. “It’s very odd for me, having done this for as long as I have, at my age, to think of the ’90s as a period piece – that just doesn’t compute,” Bacon said. “But I think it’s an interesting world to explore, and I felt like it was a really cool moment in history. I’m interested a lot in, for one thing, how do we look at life before we were so digitally entrenched?” The impact of cell phones is a perfect example of what Bacon is talking about. “In the first season, I don’t think Jackie had a cell phone, and then I think finally towards the end of the season, I pulled out this giant cell phone and we started to use it,” Bacon recalled. “That was a different way of approaching the world, and certainly of approaching law enforcement. It makes sense that these people actually get together to talk to each other. Whereas, a lot of times when I think of shows today, where people go over and knock on doors and talk, it’s like, you didn’t really need to do that – you just wanted to put the two actors in the scene together.  So I love stepping into this world, and I love playing this character.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv