Believe it or not, Kevin Bacon actually enjoys not being an actor.

“If you've done a lot of movies, eventually you start wanting to tell the story yourself,” he explains. “I think a lot of times as an actor you can start to feel like a puppet, because you're always putting yourself in someone else's hands, and oftentimes you have very little control over the final product. And if you find a story you want to tell, that really is what directing is.”

Bacon will introduce “Loverboy,” his full-length directorial debut, during this weekend's annual Phoenix Film Festival. He stars in the film along with his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and Marisa Tomei.

“It's a book that my wife and I optioned a couple years ago,” Bacon says of the film. “It's a story about a woman's sort of obsessive love for her son. She tries to create this utopian, intense world for the two of them to live in. It's kind of about the moment at which he decides that he wants to break away and she's kind of incapable of letting that happen, so there are tragic consequences.”

This isn't the first time that Bacon has worked alongside his wife. They starred together in 2004's “The Woodsman” and in “Cavedweller,” a Showtime movie that Sedgwick produced and Bacon directed.

“She's the best actress I know,” Bacon says of his wife. “We get along very, very well. I think we're probably going to take a little break from working together, at least directly. We're always looking for stuff to produce together. It's great from a working standpoint.

“It's not the easiest thing on a relationship. You sort of feel like, oh, it's great because you get to spend time together, but what happens is that you're both so kind of consumed with each other's individual projects that maybe you don't pay as much attention to each other because you're so consumed as opposed to being a support system for each other when one person's working.”

Bacon — who names Clint Eastwood and Barry Levinson among his favorite directors — says he's become less tolerant of bad directors since he spent time behind the camera.

“Once you do it, you see how the time can be used efficiently and you see how it's important to have a strong opinion and a strong point of view,” he says. “And people that are kind of wishy-washy in that way, I always find that kind of frustrating from directors. I'm lucky that I'm at a point where I can sort of pick and choose, and I've got a chance to work with a lot of great, great filmmakers.”

Bacon says he enjoys working on independent films just as much as mainstream movies.

“You have to put the same kind of heart and soul and energy into it,” he says of independent films. “You just don't get paid, and the hours are longer, and you have less time to do it. I don't change my commitment to things based on how much I'm getting paid or how much the movie costs. Your commitment has to be on the same kind of level.”

In addition to debuting “Loverboy” this weekend, Bacon and Sedgwick will receive a Copper Wing Tribute Award to honor them for their life work and support of filmmaking. Then Bacon will take the stage on Saturday to perform with his rock band, The Bacon Brothers.

“They're original stuff, singer/songwriter-based things,” Bacon says of the music. “My brother and I have very, very different kind of performing and writing styles. You kind of see a contrast between two brothers. He's much more introspective. He plays the cello. My stuff is more kind of out-there, rock kind of stuff.”

Bacon, who says he's listening to Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, U2 and Kanye West, says the group performs 50 to 60 dates a year.

“We have a great time,” he says. “It's a gas.”

Bacon can also be seen currently in “Beauty Shop,” in which he plays a flamboyant owner of a hair salon.

“It was a lot of fun,” he says. “I've been doing some really heavy stuff lately, and I went and did this crazy (role).”