Kyra Sedgwick Got ‘Emotional’ in Film’s Breakup Scenes with Husband Kevin Bacon

Kyra Sedgwick is not keen for life to imitate art when it comes to her new movie with husband Kevin Bacon.

The couple, who have been married for 36 years, star in The Best You Can, marking the first time they have costarred together in two decades. And in a Q&A following a screening at the Tribeca Festival in New York City on Saturday, June 7, Sedgwick opened up about one particular scene that was tough for her to film.

“There was a moment in the breakup scene where I could not — I was very emotional,” said Sedgwick, 59. “I knew [my character] would be emotional, but I had a little crossover of like, ‘Oh my God, what if this had happened [in real life]?’ ”

“Instead of what happened, which is that we’re still together, but ‘What if this had happened?’ And I got very emotional about it,” she added of herself and Bacon, 66.

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A synopsis of The Best You Can, from the Tribeca Festival, describes Bacon and Sedgwick’s characters as “two halves of an unlikely friendship between a security guard and a urologist whose chance encounter blooms into something deeper.”

“As a series of text conversations over the phone lead to late-night revelations, the two navigate the ups and downs of their lives and their growing connection towards each other that feels impossible to describe,” the synopsis adds.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the premiere, Bacon said he and his wife were drawn to the script in part because “there’s a lot of stuff for us to do together to play off each other.”

“As soon as you get into a into a scene, you have a responsibility to your partner to make that scene work, and we’ve had a partnership for 37 years,” he continues. “To be able to take some of that time that we’ve had together and put it up on the screen is just really fun.”

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And while director Michael J. Weithorn previously told Entertainment Weekly that his two stars rehearsed separately, per his request, Bacon came clean to PEOPLE on Saturday.

“Michael thinks that, but that’s not what actually happened,” he admits of their preparation for the movie. “We totally lied to him and said we were going to do that.”

“I mean, it’s great if you can actually run lines with the actual person that you’re gonna do the scene with,” Sedgwick says. “I think, in the long run, everyone’s happy to be prepared.”

“He doesn’t know that tonight we’re gonna spill the beans on that to [Michael]. He’s gonna learn that, yeah,” Bacon adds, joking, “His world will come crashing down.”