Billy Bob Thornton's irreverence mixes with his Southern charm like a good old-fashioned whiskey sour. After all, he can deliver lines with an almost mocking sincerity. He even, with a wink and a nod, portrayed the not-so-saint Nick. Some considered it a bold choice. He doesn't do this. “It is a brave choice to see someone being attacked in a park and intervene; This bold choice,” he said. “It's not a bold choice to do some weird stuff in the middle of a stage, you know what I mean?”
In his current role, he also makes choices, mostly just to be himself. “Well, I mean, if I were a land dweller, I'd pretty much be playing myself.”
Paramount+'s Landman gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the world we usually see. “I'm thinking about the movie 'Giant,' one of my favorites, which is set in the West Texas oil business,” he said. “I always tell people it’s like ‘Giant,’ but with curse words!”
Fans have been waiting for the second season of Landman for a long time. It debuts next Sunday.
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According to his co-star Ali Larter, Thornton doesn't like to rehearse. “You have to be ready to work,” she told us. “Fresh. Like, whatever happens, happens.”
Thornton's country vibe is no pretense—he proudly calls himself a Texan-Arkansan, a product of many rural areas that even the railroads passed by.
But he wouldn't trade his small-town childhood for anything: “You know, I keep my upbringing in my back pocket all the time,” he said. “You'll never forget this.”
Although he'd never worked on an oil rig, he'd had his fair share of jobs where dangerous machinery made the difference between coming home at night or not. “Machine shops and sawmills aren’t the safest places to work, especially when you’re a dumb little skinny hippie kid with waist-length hair,” he said. “We always had a joke about sawmill workers: Do you know what this is? [He holds up three fingers.] This is a sawmill worker who orders five bottles of beer.”
He went from sawdust to Hollywood pixie dust in a rather unconventional way. “I only took drama because I thought I needed to get a C in something because I wasn't doing well in school,” he said.
His idols were Robert Duvall, Bruce Dern and Sam Elliott. But in Los Angeles, at a cocktail party where Thornton was working as a bus boy, famed screenwriter and director Billy Wilder told him acting wasn't for him.
“He said, ‘Forget it. You're too ugly to play the lead role,” Thornton recalls. “And he said, 'You're too handsome to be a character actor.' I said, “What should I do?” He said, “Can you write?” I said, “Yes, I’m writing.” He says, “Write your own stories, create your own characters, don't stand in line with everyone else.”
He wrote his own story and created his own character. The Sling Blade (1996), which he wrote and directed, earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Asked if he thought he'd return to writing and directing, he said, “You know, I don't know if anyone wants to see what I have to say as a director or screenwriter because all my stuff is based on Southern literature. And I don't think these stories will really be relevant to anyone right now. So I doubt I'll ever do it again.”
Letting go of what he loves is not easy. We were stunned to learn that he hasn't felt truly carefree since the short-lived TV show The Outsiders – more than 30 years ago. “I don’t take any responsibility,” he said. “I was making $2,500 an episode. I never thought I would see this kind of money. Then my brother Jimmy died and changed my life. He was my best friend.”
“So that’s when you’re talking about carrying it in your back pocket?” I asked.
“Yes, yes, yes.”
They both grew up playing in bands. To this day, Billy Bob idolizes his brother's musical talent. “He played every instrument except the drums,” Thornton said. “He looked like he had a breakdown when he tried to play the drums.”
Thornton never gave up his love of music. His band The Boxmasters have recorded 19 albums and opened for The Who last summer. “We’re just here to waste 45 minutes while they get ready, you know?” – he said. “So hopefully the fans will be with us.”
He doesn't live up to his age, and in hindsight, we probably shouldn't have asked that.
“Any thoughts about turning 70?” I said.
“What did you say?” Thornton replied, raising an eyebrow. “But, uh, no, you know what, it’s so funny how you dread every milestone. But this one actually affected me in such a way that I had to, you know, have a few meetings with myself late at night.”
Ultimately, Billy Bob Thornton discovered that he and many of his older contemporaries, including his friend Sam Elliott (who still plays with him at 81), were still producing good work.
“We’ve all seen each other age,” Thornton said. “And when I see that wisdom and the respect that people have for them, it just makes everything kind of melt. I mean, I'm in a successful group and I'm on a successful show. Every day when I wake up I just say I'm lucky. That's all.”
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The story was produced by David Rothman. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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