Billy Bob Thornton ‘Countryman’ Interview: Gets His Own ‘Yellowstone’

Billy Bob Thornton is about as rough, no-nonsense and tough as a leading man can be, and he gets an excellent opportunity to tap into those qualities – as well as his gift for sharp humor – with Husbandmanthe latest series in the ever-expanding Taylor Sheridan’s television universe which premieres on November 17 on Paramount+.

As Tommy Norris, an oil major who must keep oil production flowing, revenue streams robust and his boss happy, Thornton finds himself at the epicenter of a sprawling saga involving the influential and lucrative industry. He exudes an outrageous brashness that is at once familiar and distinctive, layered as it is with measures of doubt, guilt and regret over the mistakes he has made and the opportunities he has squandered. At once larger-than-life and cunningly complex, it’s a role that fits him like a well-worn glove, and his performance reaffirms his knack for playing Southern men with great attitude and the cojones to back it up.

Thornton first crossed paths with Sheridan thanks to a guest spot on 1883and that performance inspired the mogul to write Tommy specifically for him. The result is a show that seems tailor-made for the 69-year-old headliner, whose protagonist faces all kinds of dilemmas, whether threats from a Mexican cartel or tensions involving his adult children (Jacob Lofland and Michelle Randolph) . , pressure from his employer (Jon Hammwho the bigwig is married to Demi Moore), or attempts by his ex-wife (Ali Larter) to rekindle their flame, regardless of the fact that she is currently remarried.

In many ways it is Husbandman– the story of macho titans trying to maintain their grip on power – is prototypical Sheridan. Still, the actor brings his own personality to the proceedings, giving it not only the requisite bluster and biting humor, but also hints of melancholic remorse and anguish as Tommy grapples with his rocky past and uncertain future.

Since he entered the mainstream scene in 1996 SlingbladThornton has been one of Hollywood’s most unique performers, so his return to the small screen (after Prime Video’s four-season legal drama) Giant) is more than welcome. On the eve of HusbandmanAt the premiere, we spoke with the Oscar-nominated star about beer, oil, music, Texas, Sheridan and his undisputed dominance of the world. Christmas movie season.

Your Husbandman character Tommy is an alcoholic who drinks a lot of Michelob Ultra because, according to him, it contains so little alcohol that it does not count as such. This probably reduced your chances of getting a Michelob commercial, right?

(Laughs) Well, I drink Bud Light, so all is well.

But it was really something funny in there. There are a few scenes in the series where the bartender and I battle with each other on that subject, where I say, “I really don’t drink.” There’s this thing we call “Nashville sober,” and with a lot of the country music cats I know there, they say, I quit drinking about two years ago – I only drink wine. I think they consider it food because that’s what the Italians do. So if they just drink wine, they think they’re drinking too much because they’ve stopped drinking whiskey or whatever.

That is of course the safe way to handle alcohol.

You drink wine with your meal, it’s just food. But it’s 20-25 percent alcohol (laughs).

Taylor Sheridan wrote Husbandman with you in mind. I guess that put a lot of pressure on you to accept the role?

Certainly. I pretty much agreed to it before I read the first script, to be honest, which I’ve only done a few times in my career. I did that once with the Coen Brothers when I did that The man who wasn’t there. They called me on the phone, they were both on the phone, and they said, how would you like to play a barber in 1949? I said yes, I would like that (laughs). You just know that the things they’re going to do are going to be great.

How did this come about?

I had done this cameo with Taylor 1883and I loved his style and had a great time there with my old friend Sam Elliott and Tim (McGraw). Then they had the premiere in Las Vegas, and like I said, I just had a cameo, but if there’s names in anything, they want you all there (laughs). So I go to Vegas, and afterward they had dinner and Taylor was sitting next to me and he said, I’m writing this show around you. It’s called Husbandman. I’m going to write it in your voice. It’s set in the West Texas oil business in the 2000s, and your character is Tommy Norris and he’s essentially you if you were a country man.

I was intrigued because you don’t often see the inner workings of the oil industry in a movie or TV show. I love Giantthe movie was Rock Hudson, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, so I thought it had the potential to be that. When I read it, I think: yes, that’s it Giantonly more dangerous and tense. I was all for it, and when I read the first script, he got my vote. It sounded like I was a country man.

Did that make Tommy an easier role to play, compared to a character that was created separately from you?

In my opinion, you want to fulfill roles that suit you. I made a joke recently during a question and answer session. Well, it wasn’t really a joke, but I said, look, we have enough Texans, so we don’t need people from other countries playing Texan. And in the same way, we don’t have to go there to play Churchill, and if you’re going to make a film about Charles de Gaulle, take a Frenchman, because he’ll be much better at it than me. Because when you put yourself in roles, it becomes your strongest work. It’s just that way.

Now, easy to get into and understand? Yes, that was Tommy. Easy to play? No, because you have all these things spinning around you. You’re in the heat of West Texas and you’re doing two- or three-page monologues. It was quite challenging. But at least I felt good about myself, you know?

Was it attractive to not only portray the oil sector and the world around it, but also to do this in a complicated way?

Nowadays almost everything is politicized; There’s almost nothing you can talk about that isn’t politicized. The good news about this show is that it just shows you what happened in West Texas in the 2000s, and the names have been changed to protect the innocent (laughs). It’s really just a glimpse into that world. But what this show is really about is the relationships and how people are affected. People who work in the oil industry and then their immediate family and extended family – how this affects all these people and how it affects you.

And being torn apart, because Tommy is a torn man. The cartel uses part of its land and they say: look, you leave us alone, we will leave you alone. Those are the interesting characters to play. You don’t want to just play a milk drinker. You want to be a complicated character. That’s the whole point of acting.

That makes sense.

I tell people that we used to watch movies without an agenda. We just watched the movie. If you watch a movie about a serial killer and the movie is great, it doesn’t mean you like serial killers. It just means you loved the movie. I think when people look at things without an agenda… and sometimes they won’t even see it at all because of their agenda. It’s like taking a look there! Maybe you’ll learn something.

Husbandman isn’t exactly a one-note celebration of the oil industry.

If we have a viable alternative (to oil) that has been proven and we can actually do it, I think everyone is in favor of it. That would be great. If they suddenly made a place where you could use water to run cars, planes and stuff, the oilmen would just get into the water business. It’s a group of business people, so that’s what they’re going to do. But the show isn’t really for or against when it comes to oil. It’s just: this is what happened in this story. That’s all it is. But most of all I hope that people learn from this how relationships work and this kind of world. Because they work this way in every world.

Incidentally, Husbandman is about oil, so that’s obviously the company we’re talking about, but there are many more companies that may need to be adjusted (laughs). Like the pharmaceutical industry, and what a powerful lobby it is in Washington. We saw what happened with that.

You’ve played Texans (and Southerners) before, but with a role like this did you feel compelled to do any research, like hanging around oil derricks and oilmen?

Certainly. It almost feels like Texans in general, but especially West Texans, have grown like plants from the ground in this country. It’s in there, you know what I mean? (laughs) As far as authenticity goes, I grew up in Arkansas and Texas; I came to California from Texas in 1980. So I know that world, and I know those people. All I had to do was: when you perform somewhere, if you don’t know what you’re talking about – if you don’t know what the words mean – then the audience isn’t stupid. They’ll catch on if you just recite lines you’ve memorized. Some of the audience may not even be aware of why, but they get it.

You’re also a musician, both as a solo artist and with your band The Boxmasters, and there’s a lot of music in there Husbandman. Was there any dialogue about including some of your songs in the show?

It’s funny because sometimes people assume that The Boxmasters, and also my solo days, were country. We only made two records where we said, what if Frank Zappa combined the British Invasion with hillbilly music? We made those first two records as experimental records. But that’s not how we sound at all. We’re somewhere between a rock ‘n’ roll and a punk band, and that’s us these days. I grew up listening to nothing but rock ‘n’ roll, and we just had those two records that did it.

As for your question, I keep my music career separate from that kind of thing. I told Taylor I would never want me to appear on the show. I think that’s a little strange, you know? But what I did do is I co-wrote some songs that I think are going to be used on the show, and they’re country songs. I’m not a country songwriter, but I wrote it with a few country songwriters, and it was fun to do with them, even though it’s not my bag. I don’t mind having my name on a song with someone else, but when it comes to actually putting our bond in it, I don’t think I would.

Finally, I have to tell you that in all my years of going to the movies, I have never laughed so hard in a theater as I did when I went to the movies. Bad Santa. I thought I was literally going to pee my pants.

(laughs) I appreciate that first of all because I laughed so much when I read the script. My wife thought I was crazy. But yes, that has become a favorite every Christmas. I have Love actually And Bad Santa every Christmas, and they couldn’t be more opposite.

And besides, inside Bad Santa ClausI even peed my pants in the movie, if you remember! (laughs)