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in the States of Kevin Bacon's Telling Lies In America has left him despondent.

As The Guardian asked this week: "What has he done to deserve all this?" In the film he plays a corrupt DJ - the moral is that telling lies is essential.

But Bacon, who's made blockbusters and small movies, says simply: "You put the same kind of heart and soul into a $4 million movie as you do into a $40 million movie."

Bacon says the movie did brilliantly at all the film festivals - but bombed when it opened in New York. "I've gotten to the point where I don't want to make movies for nobody to see any more," he says plaintively.

Bacon began acting at New York's Circle In The Square theatre, and soon after had a small part in National Lampoon's Animal House back in 1978.

He first hit the big time with the movie Diner (1982), followed by the rock 'n' roll film, Footloose. As he says: "I was hot for a year". But then he wasn't. So what went wrong?

"I made some bad choices...and then I slowly carved out a career as a young character actor. Once I acknowledged I didn't need to be the lead all the time, it opened up a whole bunch of great roles..." This includes the ill-fated Telling Lies.

Asked why he became an actor, Kevin Bacon says: "I wanted everyone to look at me. I wanted to be loved by millions of people, like every other actor, and if they tell you they want something else, they're full of rubbish."

Bacon's married to actress Kyra Sedgwick, with whom he has two children. The kids have, he says, focused his mind on being a "provider". Though he has stopped taking drugs because of his family, he is still torn between fame and responsibility.

Telling Lies In America sunk in the States, probably because it paints a cynical picture of the country, saying you must lie to survive. Bacon responds to failure by saying: "Acting is very isolating. There's this incredible competition.

"You need to have worked on things that make money. It might be rubbish, but if it makes money you get a chance to work with Scorsese or Ron Howard. That's what moves you into better material."

Unusual for any actor, he doesn't try to cover up the picture's failure, readily conceding that it has "bombed" in America. While Bacon thinks he put in his best performance, he adds: "But it will make no difference to my career."