Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick play parents to their real-life kids in first look at meta horror-comedy “Family Movie ”(exclusive)

The Bacons are keeping it all in the family.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have worked with their kids, Smile star Sosie and musician/composer Trevor, in various capacities over the years, but their latest joint project, fittingly titled Family Movie, marks the first time all four are leading a film as the core cast.

“I don’t think that we were necessarily looking for something to do together,” Sedgwick tells Entertainment Weekly on a Zoom call with her husband and kids. In fact, when she and Kevin approached them about making a movie, she was surprised by their enthusiasm.

“We pitched it to the kids, thinking that they probably wouldn’t be into it,” she says. “I was so nervous. And they actually said yes. I was like, ‘Wait, what? You wanna work with your parents?’ It was pretty monumental.”

Premiering March 13 at the SXSW Film & TV Festival, the comedy-horror flick, written by The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou associate producer Dan Beers, follows a family of four in the movie biz — though they’re not quite as successful as their real-life counterparts.

Jack Smith (Kevin) is a washed-up indie filmmaker in the horror scene, and Elle (Kyra) is his supportive wife and longtime leading lady. Their daughter, Ula (Sosie), is also an actor who, unbeknownst to her dad, plans to exit his latest slasher in favor of a role she’s landed on a TV series. Her brother, Trent (Trevor), is a musician and boom operator with dreams of becoming an MMA fighter.

Despite some major financial concerns, the family comes together to help Jack make what might be his last movie, but the production goes off the rails when they learn that Elle has more in common with the psycho killers from their films than anyone realized.

While the real-life production was free of similar life-altering revelations, Sosie admits she was still hesitant to work with her parents on their latest project.

“Oh, I had reservations for sure,” she admits with a laugh. “I think we all were concerned that things would come up, we would get into arguments…little tensions and stuff would arise. In this situation, because we’re on set, tensions are already really high.”

Instead, she says, “It ended up being the opposite. Like, we had no tension. We were so collaborative. And I don’t think any of us expected that going into it, how easy it was, and how nice everybody was to each other.

“Not that we’re not normally nice to each other!” she quickly clarifies. “But how down to try different things, down to collaborate, interested in hearing each other’s thoughts, even down to our performances. It was just the best, most pleasant, exciting, and kind of connected experience that we could have had.”

Travis, too, initially felt some trepidation, especially as the least experienced actor of the clan, but he says, “It felt extremely collaborative and like everybody’s voices were heard. It was magical.”

Sosie praises her brother, whose acting experience has mostly been limited to shorts, for his willingness to accept notes — and there were plenty. “The amount of collaboration that he was willing to accept, I would say, I probably wouldn’t have been able to accept it,” she says, laughing. “Even if I was just starting out, I’d be like, ‘All right, everybody has notes?’ But Travis was like, ‘Okay, thanks for saying that.’”

As professional as everyone tried to keep it, there were still some moments where it became abundantly clear it was Mom and Dad in the director’s seat. “There was a scene they were directing where I was boxing and, you know, the scene was supposed to start, and Dad said, ‘All right, you can go, Travis,’” Travis recalls. “And I watched the dailies back, and I heard myself under my breath say, ‘Usually a director calls action.’”

While the Bacons are quick to note they’re not their characters, some similarities did sneak in. As he was writing the script, Beers held Zoom calls with each to better understand their personalities.

“There was always the understanding that this was not gonna be us. We’re not a family that makes horror movies,” Kevin says. “I mean, in this case, we are, but, you know, we’re different, and there’s a lot of differences to us. But when we first read the script — at least me, I don’t know about you guys — I was like, Holy shit. That really sounds like whoever, you know? So he really, in beautiful and subtle little ways, kind of nailed that.”

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For example, like the Smith family, Kevin says, “We definitely have all snuck cigarettes from each other, and for some reason, kept a secret that we’re smoking a cigarette when everybody else is doing it. That’s something that Dan intuited; we never told him that.”

As for whether we can expect more Bacon family movies in the future, Kevin says, “We would do it again in a heartbeat.”

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