In Greek mythology, a Siren’s song was captivating, beautiful, and capable of total devastation. Sirens were not mortal women, but were instead the ideal of feminine allure. They were as dangerous as they were compelling, and even the most powerful men couldn’t help but become victims to their intoxicating pull.

In the new limited series Sirens, a trio of women — sisters Devon (Meghann Fahy) and Simone (Milly Alcock) and Simone’s boss, the mysterious Michaela “Kiki” Kell (Julianne Moore) — are as enticing as their mythological counterparts. And they have just as much sway over the men in their sphere.

Chief among those men is Peter Kell. Played by Kevin Bacon, the billionaire husband of Michaela is as overtly friendly as his wife is subtly intimidating, and he navigates the grounds of his island estate with the ease of a ship captain in his home waters. But it would be a mistake to think of Peter as a passive player in the games being played around him. As Sirens creator Molly Smith Metzler tells Tudum, “Michaela has that line: ‘We all work for Peter.’ ”   

What does that mean, then, about who holds the power in Sirens — and who has the ability to make or destroy someone’s life by just opening their mouth?

Below, Tudum talks with Kevin Bacon about the series, whether monsters exist, and how Sirens is “clearly the story of the women.”

I would love to know a little bit about your first experience with Sirens and what it was like for you to dive into the story.

Well, I'm not in the first episode. And so, when I came on, only the first and second were written. I had to look at the second episode and then talk to Molly and just get a feel for where he was going, because when you [first] see the character, he’s kind of a mystery, right? You don’t really know what’s going on with the guy.

So it was like I had to go on faith that he was going to have an interesting character arc. And it was always a level of trust when you take something wrong like that, where you hadn’t read the whole thing. There’s a lot of great characters in that show, as you know, and a lot of fantastic parts. But it’s clearly the story of the women.

Your character is in opposition to the three main women, who are so strong, so forceful; they’re defined in this way that really embodies what it means to be an empowered woman. They represent different aspects of a powerful femininity, but they all do have that strength that’s very explicit. I think one thing that’s so fascinating about the character of Peter is that he’s a billionaire — and you don't become a billionaire by accident — but his power stems from his seeming accessibility, his relatability, his folksiness. How do these qualities both mask and amplify his power?

Yeah, I agree. You don't become a billionaire by accident, and what I really wanted to make sure of is that I was going to have to be powerful in the face of powerful women — but more than that, I just wasn’t only going to be an absolute shithead, because I just feel like that’s pretty easy.

That’s not very challenging to me — like, a billionaire? Shit, man, I mean, I’m sure I’ve done them before … there’s not that much to do. It’s just kind of a bad guy. And so we talked a lot about that, and the nuance is his charm. And I tried to tap into something that was ... Even though I’m clearly not a boy, it was something sort of boyish about him, you know what I mean?

In some ways, I seemed pretty immature in that Julianne’s character [Michaela] is clearly running the show, and then it switches a little bit — it switches a lot. That changes everything, and — this is all the writing by the way — I felt like the way to lean into that was to make him just boyish and maybe even a little goofy and shy. It’s fun to play when he meets [Simone], he’s 15 again. He doesn’t really know how to handle himself and is embarrassing himself. He is just acting like a little boy.

Macall Polay

It’s such an interesting thing to think about: This man has so much power, so much responsibility, so much freedom, but what winds up triggering what will eventually be this big life change is that he gets to access his inner child again. Do you think there’s a moment when Peter falls in love with Simone?

I don’t know that he really knows when he falls in love with Simone. It sort of sneaked up on him in a funny way so that when he kisses her, even after that moment, he has multiple self-realizations that ... I think he would go like, “Oh, what the fuck am I thinking? That was just weird. I don’t know what I was doing. Maybe I was high.” But I think it’s also when I’m running down the beach, running out of the house … he knows.

There’s an impetuousness to Peter, but also this kind of certainty, which is reflected in so many choices he makes, including lying to his wife, Michaela, about visiting his children and his new grandchild. Why do you think he creates these stories instead of telling the truth?

He’s in an important moment in his life … A lot of guys, I think, will get off track in terms of how important their connection with their children is. They get off track with making a billion, or playing golf, or hanging out with their friends, or sleeping around, or whatever it is — and then it’s not an unusual thing that people turn around and go, “Wait a second, this is my … for lack of a better word, this is my legacy. These people are my blood.” 

It’s so fascinating to witness Peter realizing that while his legacy matters and his children matter, what might not matter as much — or what might be interchangeable — is his wife. It demonstrates where the power is actually coming from, who actually holds it. Peter chooses to wield his power pretty decisively at the end of the series. How did you feel about that? 

It’s not what you would call a happy ending necessarily. It’s a challenging ending. I’ll tell you what I think is, there’s going to be people who will think [Peter] is an absolute pig, and there’ll also be people who will say, “Well, it wasn’t his fault.” I think people will have varying reactions to it … it’s not a cookie-cutter kind of story or ending.

I think what it really does capture is that Peter isn’t just some callous, wealthy man who is exchanging wives like they’re just cars he’s returning. He cares. Is that the place where his intentions for Simone come through?

Well, he definitely falls in love with her. There’s no doubt about that. He’s not using her. He definitely falls in love with her, and he is definitely angry at Kiki for denying him access to his children for all those years. Those are real things.

How do you think Peter comes out at the end of it all?

I don’t know. It’s really hard to say because I played the part. This is the only thing I know. I said to Molly and to [director/executive producer Nicole Kassell] all throughout the thing, “It’s going to be too easy for him just to be a bad guy.” 

I can do that — I’ve [played the bad guy] so many times, and I just feel like it needed to be a little bit more nuanced here, and I can just play him true to who he is and people can make their own judgments. 

But for me, I’m too close to it. I don’t love all the characters that I’ve played, but I have to understand their point of view on some level. A couple of times I played actual monsters, but I think of them as human beings. If they’re actual monsters, they’re actual monsters, but when I’m playing a man, regardless of what it is that he does, I have to just figure out a way that he is in some way justified — or maybe not justified, but in some ways it’s human, just human. That’s it.

Sirens is now streaming on Netflix.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Macall Polay