Comic-Con 2012: Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy Nerd Out Over Music Legends, Explain Their 'Following' Bromance (Video)

Who does Kevin Bacon geek out over? The answer may surprise you.

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The Following star, along with James Purefoy, touted at Comic-Con his new (and terrifying) Fox thriller about an FBI agent who finds himself in the middle of a network of serial killers. He also let his geek flag fly.

"I remember one time I thought I was a pretty big star and I was a really huge fan of The Police, so going back to when [they] were first starting out. I heard that Sting was staying at the same hotel that I was in and so I got up my courage," Bacon revealed in The Hollywood Reporter's Comic-Con video lounge.

"I had this idea that if I just called him, he'd probably want to hang out and party with me so I picked up the phone and called the front desk -- he wasn't under a pseudonym -- and I said, 'Hey, can you ring Sting's room for me?' They did and he picked up the phone," Bacon recalled.

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"I was like, 'Hey .. Sting .. this is Kevin Bacon.' There was a pause. 'Kevin Bacon, the actor,' " he continued.

Sting's response may have been the highlight of the exchange. "He goes, 'Fill me in,' " Bacon said with a laugh.

For Purefoy, whom Bacon called "way too cool" to be geeky, he recently asked the lead singer of AC/DC, Brian Johnson, for an autograph -- for his son, of course.

What attracted the duo to board The Following was the page-turner of a script by executive producer Kevin Williamson.

"[It] really was one of those scripts where you just had no idea what was going to happen next and you just didn't see it coming over the horizon at all," Purefoy said. "Quite often you do when you read through a lot of scripts."

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The dynamic between Purefoy's serial killer Joe Carroll and Bacon's detective Ryan Hardy will be a big highlight to play with for the actors as the series progresses, who discussed their characters' relationship.

"Obviously I hate him, I spent many years of my life trying to put him behind bars but there's a part of me that also really admires him," Bacon said. "There's elements to Joe's character that my character just doesn't have. He's very charming, I'm not very charming. He's good with people, he's extremely well-educated, all things my character doesn't really have. All I really have is instinct."

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"In a strange way, the most exciting and the most fulfilling times in my life are the times that I've spent either chasing him or with him which is strange," Bacon said. "When you meet the character we haven't seen each other for 10 years and it's almost like I'm heartbroken."

Purefoy, who locked himself in a darkened room watching YouTube clips of sevearl well-known serial killers for inspiration, summed it up best: "It's a strange kind of love story."

Watch the full interview with Bacon and Purefoy above, including whether Bacon would be open to directing an episode of The Following and more behind the character of Joe.

The Following launches midseason on Fox.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com