Awesome Exclusive Interview with Billy Bob Thornton

Actor, director, musician and Oscar-winner chats about his films, music, and favorite actors and movies

I had a chance to meet up with Billy Bob Thornton this weekend at the Animal Rescue Foundation Stars to the Rescue concert. Thornton’s band, The Boxmasters, absolutely killed a 30-minute set of “electric hillbilly” music. I had a nice chat with Thornton after his performance and found him to be a down-to-earth, whiskey-sippin’ good guy, which was nice, because I’ve been a fan since he wrote and co-starred in the thriller One False Move (directed by East Bay native Carl Franklin) back in 1992. Four years later, Thornton won the Oscar for best original screenplay for his masterpiece, Sling Blade. He was also nominated for best actor for his unforgettable role as Karl Childers. Sling Blade made Thornton into a Hollywood A-lister, and he’s bounced from roles in big budget flicks (Armageddon, The Alamo, Eagle Eye) to numerous, memorable smaller films (A Simple Plan, Monster’s Ball, Bad Santa). Earlier that week, Thornton and I had a long chat on the phone about his music, films, and some of his favorite artists.

Pete Crooks: Happy new year to you.
Billy Bob Thornton: Happy new year.

PC: Speaking of years, the press release for your Boxmasters records mentions that this band exists in the year 1964. That was an interesting time. An old-Hollywood classic musical, My Fair Lady was the Best Picture winner, but there was this new wave of British Invasion bands capturing the attention of young people. Now, looking back on The Beatles and The Kinks and all that music it seems very nostalgic and less cutting edge. I’m curious what it is about 1964 that you’re hooked on.
BBT: First, if you consider the music that’s out there today, well, I think music ended in about 1974. If you listen to the Stones or the Kinks or the Beatles, they were much more interesting than anything today. I mean, I would rather listen to  Freddie and the Dreamers, “Doin’ the Freddie” than anything they have on the country music channel now.

When you think about VH1 Classics station, they consider Warrant and Ratt and Cinderella classic rock. I’ve never seen that music as cutting edge as the music of the ‘60s. You know, punk music came from that era. If there hadn’t been The Who, there wouldn’t have been a Sex Pistols or Ramones or anyone else.

And when you look at pop, consider, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” That is a GREAT record. A lot of musicians you talk to, if you ask them what is your favorite Beatles song, they won’t go for the headier stuff, like when they started seeing the Maharishi and all that, they’ll say “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”.

You know, those guys sounded like a band. There are no bands anymore like that. There are a lot of people looking to have a cut or a smash or a hit, or whatever you want to call it, and they are all writing the same thing.

The idea then was to be different. We’re all about originators. When the Beatles came on Ed Sullivan in 1964, I was 9-years-old and that changed my life. Subconsciously, I think I knew, that was never going to happen again. I grew up being in bands and what we all wanted to be was The Beatles. I think that’s driven every musician who was around in that time, whether it’s Tom Petty, or whoever—you get a band together and you want to be The Beatles. That drives you.

PC: I’m a fan of Tom Petty's lead guitarist, Mike Campbell, who has a side project called The Dirty Knobs. They come to these small clubs and bars and play all these ‘60s covers, just to play the music. I’m curious about how you came up with the idea of The Boxmasters—not just the sound but the look and feel of the band.
BBT: Well, it’s not like we came up with this idea to be stylized. A lot of it came from me, growing up and doing that, being that. The bands that played in my town, we had one called The Yardleys, and they were like the Beatles to us. When I was a freshman, they were seniors, and we would have street dances and we’d go see them and they would be in their suits, playing “Hanky Panky” and “House of the Rising Sun.” There’s a certain point where you don’t stop growing, but you stop…desiring. My desire is to still be in 1964, and to still be in one of those bands. I still want to be one of those bands playing the street dance back in the sixties.

PC: I want to ask you about some of your musical inspirations, because you’ve not just been influenced by them but have been able to work with them in movies and on records. The first is John Prine, who is my personal favorite songwriter and live performer. You cast him in your film, Daddy and Them. What can you tell me about Prine?
BBT: John and I have been friends before Daddy and Them, I was always a huge fan. I’ve always been a fan of people who there’s only one of, and there’s only one John. He can make you laugh and cry in one line. His stuff reminds me in a lot of ways of Southern novelist, where tragedy and humor is intertwined. He’s such a calm presence, especially for a guy like me, who kind of bounces off the walls. He has this simple wisdom, and that’s why I put him in that part in Daddy and Them.

There’s a line in the script in Daddy and Them, where Andy Griffith has to say “cornhole”. Andy did not know what that meant—fortunately for me, because he said it and he might not have if he knew what it meant. John came up to me and said, “Andy wants to know what cornhole means.” I said, “uh-oh, did you tell him?” and John goes, “No, I told him that you wrote it, so he should go ask you.” (laughs) I always tell people that if I don’t do anything else in my lifetme, I’ll be the only director in motion picture who got Andy Griffith to say the word cornhole!

PC: On the subject of Andy Griffith, any comments on his performance in the film A Face in the Crowd, which has just been released on DVD?
BBT: That’s one of my favorite movies. It says so much about egomania and power and the way that the system feeds that. It’s not that these people weren’t bad already. Some people say success really changes you. I don’t believe that. Success just gives you a forum. If a guy was an asshole when he was a bartender, it’s likely that he’ll be an asshole when he makes it as a movie star. So what was brilliant about what Andy did in that movie, his character didn’t grow into that monster, he was that monster from the time he hit the screen.

A friend of mine who is a country singer came up to me about 10 years ago at an awards show. He comes up to me and says, “Hey, I really want to be in movies and I want you to direct me in a remake of A Face in the Crowd. I told him to f--- himself. (Laughs) I said, “If Face in the Crowd ever gets remade I’m doin’ it!”

PC: It’s an incredible film. I grew up watching re-runs of Andy Griffith whistling and going to fish with Ronny Howard at the lake on the Andy Griffith Show. When I saw his performance in Face in the Crowd, it was profoundly disturbing—how evil he could be. I’m also impressed at how well that film holds up after 50 years, much like The Lost Weekend and Ace in the Hole. The themes in those movies are just as relevant today as they were a half-century ago.
BBT: How about A Place in the Sun? When I watch that movie, I get so nervous and so depressed. Golly, that movie affected me. Montgomery Clift was a great actor. When people ask me what’s my process, who did I study, stuff like that—tell you the truth, when you hear actors talk about that, it’s a lot of horseshit. I don’t have a process, I can’t tell you what it is.

But I will say that I always noticed Montgomery Clift. He was just right there—whatever lonely shit he had in him, he put it right there on the screen. He was always one of my favorites. When people ask who are my influences as an actor I’ll mention him. You’re supposed to say Spencer Tracy and Marlon Brando, but for me it’s Montgomery Clift and Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. And countless character actors. I’m a character actor guy.

PC: Like M. Emmett Walsh?
BBT: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

PC: I always liked how you cast country singer Dwight Yoakam in Sling Blade. He’s fantastic in that part, and there’s a scene where he gets his band together on the porch and plays terribly. I thought that was funny, because he’s such a terrific performer on stage if you go see him in concert. Tell me a bit about that scene.
BBT: The whole idea was to have a band, when you’re growing up in a small town you have a bunch of guys who have a band. Some of them weren’t even real, they were a bunch of morons and crazy characters, sometimes they could not play at all. But they would always rehearse, in case they could play the party at the VFW club or whatever.
For that scene, I wanted to use real musicians in the band, kind of an inside joke to myself. So (with Yoakam) you have Vic Chesnutt, and Colonel Bruce Hampton, the long haired guy playing guitar was Ian Moore, and the drummer—we called him Johnson n the movie—is Mickey Jones, who used to be Bob Dylan’s drummer in the ‘60s. I told them to play a shitty surf song that started but didn’t end.

Dwight Yoakam is a really good actor, he knew what to do with it. I told him to make the scene an extension of everything Doyle does in the movie. He’s an oppressive prick.

PC: I could talk forever about movies and I have a lot of questions about your films, but I thought I’d ask you kind of a goofy question about some of the characters you’ve played. Which of these characters would you like to see show up at a Boxmasters show: Richard Jemmons (the James Carville-inspired political advisor from Primary Colors), Ed Crane (the barber-of-few-words from The Man Who Wasn’t There), or Claude Montgomery (the hellraising dysfunctional husband from Daddy and Them).
BBT: At a Boxmasters concert? I’d want Richard Jemmons there. I think he would really get it. I think he probably wanted to be a Boxmaster, he d probably had a band at some point. Ed Crane would just be so nervous the whole time and not really know why he was there. And Claude would just be so out of control, he’s probably just want to hear whatever song is on the radio, right now.

PC: I love Ed Crane, he's such a memorable character. I think The Man Who Wasn’t There is a masterpiece, and for all the great movies the Coen brothers have made, that one does not get enough notice.
BBT: I am so glad you said that. That movie was virtually unnoticed in the States but it was big in Europe. I won virtually every award you can win in Europe. I did win the National Board of Review for Best Actor here, but they look at things a little differently. Academy Awards ignored it.

I have to say, I honestly believe, that if I were in that film, or not, it’s the Coen’s best movie. Not only that, but its my favorite character that I’ve ever played. I wish we could make that movie over and over again.

You know I always find it disconcerting when someone comes up to me in a supermarket or something and says, “You’re my favorite actor, and my favorite movie is Armageddon!” (Laughs) I always just say, “Thank you” but I feel like saying, “Hey, did you ever see The Man Who Wasn’t There?”

PC: When you were filming that movie, which was shot in black and white, did you think about Ed Crane existing in a black-and-white universe?
BBT: Well, I’m a fan of black-and-white, I think they ought to make every movie in black-and-white in less there’s a reason to use color, like Wizard of Oz or something. Black-and-white is heavier and its unreality because is life is in color, black and white movies seem more real for some reason to me. I think color is kind of a distraction.

So, to answer your question, I didn’t think of that character in particular in black-and-white, simply because I always think in black-and-white. I thought of Simple Plan and Sling Blade in black-and-white.

I did do this movie with the Polish brothers (The Astronaut Farmer, Twin Falls Idaho) called Manure that we’re taking to Sundance and it will come out later this year. It’s about fertilizer salesmen in the 1960s—imagine Glengarry Glen Ross or 12 Angry Men, only with shit. It was shot all on stage with painted backdrops, the way they made movies in the ‘30s and ‘40s. It’s a gorgeous movie—and all the color in the movie is a variation on brown. It’s brown-and-white.

PC: The movie you directed after Sling Blade was All The Pretty Horses, which based on a book by the great writer Cormac McCarthy. The Coens won a bunch of Oscars last year for McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men and John Hillcoat’s adaptation of The Road is coming out this year. Were you the first director to bring a McCarthy story to film?
BBT: I believe I was, yeah.

PC: I’ve heard Matt Damon say that the three-hour cut of All the Pretty Horses is one of the best films that he’s seen, but the version that came out in theaters was much different.
BBT: It’s actually two hours forty minutes, but yes, it’s a much different movie than what Miramax put out. They cut it, did what they wanted with it. At the time, we made that, Titanic was huge, and they wanted the guy’s and the girl’s faces on the poster, and to make it into a love story between Matt and Penelope, when in fact, she’s out of the movie about 2/3 of the way through. The movie I made was about the end of the West, which is what, in fact, McCarthy wrote about. One of these days I might talk to them about releasing the original version, because its much, much different than what they put out.

PC: I also read that Daniel Lanois (producer of Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind albums) composed the original score, but that was changed as well.
BBT: That’s right, one of the best motion picture scores I’ve ever heard in my life. The studio said it was too sparse. They wanted big Academy Award music with horns and orchestras.

PC: You’re playing Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation benefit show. I know you’re a big Cardinals fan and a friend of Tony’s. Are you an animal lover?
BBT: Oh yeah. Big dog lover. I have a four-year-old daughter and my sons are 14 and 15, and they’ve always had pets. Right now I have a Mynah bird that talks, but I don’t have a dog, and I’m jonesing for one so bad.

We have a cat, which I’m allergic to. A couple years ago I did Tony’s celebrity pets calendar—he puts out a calendar every year with different celebrities holding a dog or cat on their lap. I told him, I’d be glad to pose with a dog. And Tony goes, “We need you have enough dog shots, we really need you to hold a cat.” So I did, even though my eyes were red and watering. I always give him a little shit for that.

PC: I’m a big baseball fan as well, and I love being able to talk to Tony about the game. He’s one of the great baseball minds, of all time. Since you’re such a big Cardinals fan, what do you like about being friends with the manager?
BBT: I’m sure that I get more joy out of being friends with him than he does from being friends with me because I can annoy the hell out of him about trades, and things like that. I’ll call him and say, “Tony, you gotta get K-Rod, man, I can’t believe the Angels are letting him go.” So I’m sure that my messages at 3 a.m. that I leave him about some idea that’s going to help the Cardinals this season just annoys the shit out of him.

But he’s such a great guy and a great mind. I grew up as a baseball player and I’m still really wide-eyed around pro baseball players. When I see another actor or another musician, I’m somewhat non-plussed because I’ve been in this stuff a long time. But I still have a little kid thing around Tony, because he’s a baseball manager, the manager of the Cardinals. I actually get a little nervous around him. The fact that I’m friends with him is kind of unreal to me. I try to pry as much information out of him as I can.

PC: Speaking of baseball managers, you must have fun playing the manager in the Bad News Bears remake. I remember when that project was announced, I was OK with it, because I could see you playing the role that Walter Matthau played in the original, which is one of my favorite films. Usually I grit my teeth at remakes but you did well in that one. You made it even darker than Matthau.
BBT: I went a little dark with it. But that comes natural to me.

PC: An even darker role, is Bad Santa. It’s a classic, and it needs to be in there among all the sweeter, saccharine Christmas movies. Bad Santa really has something to say about consumerism.
BBT: The movie really did have a heart, but we had to toe the line and keep it dark the whole way. The director (Terry Zwigoff) wanted to make it even darker than it was, but the movie had an actual budget, so the studio wants some commercial moments in it. Terry wasn’t responsible for stuff like the scene where the midget punches me in the balls, but if you want it to be a commercial success, someone has to get hit in the nuts.
 

Here's Billy Bob Thornton's IMDB biography. Make sure to queue up Bad Santa, Daddy and Them, Monster's Ball, A Simple Plan, Sling Blade, The Man Who Wasn't There, and One False Move on your Netflix queue, if you have not seen them yet. Also, The Gift. And check out his music at www.billybobmusic.com and www.theboxmasters.com.

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