Kyra Sedgwick Says Everyone Asked Her for Relationship Advice on the Set of Her New Movie

Endings, Beginnings, on demand now, is all about love and Kyra Sedgwick says, "Everyone was picking my brain" during filming

One half of the one of the longest-running and most revered marriages in Hollywood Kyra Sedgwick knows a lot about love. She met Kevin Bacon on the set of the TV movie Lemon Sky in 1988 and they married the next year.

Sedgwick, 54, has enjoyed a steady career in television and film. In 1982, at 16, Sedgwick joined the daytime soap Another World. Ten years later she pivoted full-time to movies, starring in the cult hit, Singles. Something To Talk About, Phenomenon, and The Game Plan followed. The biggest role of her career came in 2005, when she returned to television for The Closer. The part of deputy Los Angeles police chief Brenda Lee Johnson brought Sedgwick an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

This month, Sedgwick returns to film, with a role in Endings, Beginnings, alongside Shailene Woodley. Available on demand now, the movie addresses the struggle of asking for what you want in matters of love. Sedgwick says that because of her famously successful marriage, she served as an on-set relationship expert. “Everyone was picking my brain.”

Kyra Sedgwick.

Kevin Bacon with Kyra Sedgwick. Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect/Getty

As the film is largely improvised, her real-world knowledge was valuable on set. “One of the biggest reasons the director Drake [Doremus] wanted me to be in the movie is because I’ve managed to be in a relationship for as many years as I have.” But Sedgwick doesn’t claim to have all the answers. “Relationships are such a mystery. Why do they work? Why do they not work? It’s just a total crap shoot. But that’s the aha moment: Nobody has the answers.”

Asked if she and Bacon get tired of people asking about their successful marriage, she’s quick to answer. “We do,” she says with a laugh. “I joke that the secret to a successful marriage is to not take marriage advice from celebrities. I guess if I had to think too much about [our marriage], that would probably not be a good thing. We just got lucky. I honestly believe that’s truth.” She has one piece of advice. “I do believe this: That thing people do, ‘If only I had this, if only I had that…’ There has to be some piece of wholeness that is within yourself before you can let somebody love you the way that you need to be loved.”