Kevin Bacon reveals how the creepy caretaker character in 'You Should Have Left' was created
- Warning: Spoilers below if you haven't seen "You Should Have Left."
- Kevin Bacon talked to Insider about the origin of one of the scariest characters in "You Should Have Left" — Stetler, the house's caretaker.
- Bacon plays the role of Stetler in the movie and he's unrecognizable until the end.
- Director David Koepp had a dream that Bacon was playing both parts, which is how they came up with the idea.
- Bacon said that at one time he and Koepp were going to get even more twisted by making the character a priest from Theo's (Bacon's role in the movie) past.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
There are a lot of really creepy and twisted things that happen in "You Should Have Left," but one of the biggest standouts is the character of Stetler.
When Theo (Kevin Bacon), Susanna (Amanda Seyfried), and their daughter Ella (Avery Tiiu Essex) show up at their rental home in Wales they aren't greeted by anyone but they do know that there is a caretaker named Stetler. Theo hears more about him when going to a local market, before finally meeting him in the flesh during one of his descents into the layers of the mysterious house.
Stetler walks with a limp and has a baseball cap on. When he takes off the cap, it reveals that Stetler is actually played by Kevin Bacon. With a creepy voice and some makeup, he's hardly recognizable until the end of the movie.
Bacon told Insider that is was director David Koepp's idea that the star of the movie also should play its most mysterious character.
"We were talking about who would be good to play Stetler and then David called me up and said, 'I had a dream last night that you were playing both parts,'" Bacon said.
Bacon said from that point on he knew he had to play both Theo and Stetler in the movie.
"Once he said that it was kind of throwing down the gauntlet," he said.
The joys of developing the character, Bacon said, was the guy could literally be anyone. And at one point they were going to go really twisted with who Stetler would be.
"We got very specific about who this guy would have been," Bacon said, as they thought who could be a person in Theo's life that would frighten him. "For a while we were thinking maybe he is a priest or a guy from summer camp when he was a kid."
Finally, they pulled back and went with Stetler just being a creepy caretaker. Which proved to be very effective and a fun Easter egg for viewers. If you have seen the movie, it's likely the first time you see Stetler in the movie you don't know that's Bacon in the role. Which leads to a fun reveal at the end.
"It was fun putting that character together," Bacon said with a big smile.
"You Should Have Left" is now available On Demand.
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