Billy Bob Thornton, "Beautiful Door"/"Bad Santa" musician/actor: Mr. Media Interview, Pt. 2

(Return to Part 1)

BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: Have your music and film careers ever met? Has any of your music accompanied a film, for example?

BILLY BOB THORNTON: Well, actually, I’ve cut a couple of songs for TV shows that are not out yet that are coming out. I was asked to do a Hank Williams cover for a Canadian television show that’s gonna be on this coming year, and then there’s another show on Showtime that we did an opening credit song for. So I’ve done that, but I haven’t done anything for my own movies. I tend to be more willing to do music for a movie that I don’t have anything to do with really. I try to keep the two as separate as possible.

ANDELMAN: I understand. Let me ask you this: could you pick out a song or two from Beautiful Door and maybe tell us a little about them?




THORNTON: Well, the song “Beautiful Door,” the title song, is an anti-war song, really. Normally, I haven’t put real political songs on my records. This whole record, really, the theme of it, is life and death and how important life is and how we need to treat it and about having to face death. It’s both on a personal level and a global level. There is a song on there that’s about not judging a book by its cover. There’s three sort of anti-war songs as well as a couple of songs about suicide and how that affects the people you leave behind because of your choice. So it’s really a record about life and death. The song “Beautiful Door” is about religion being mixed with war and politics so much and how it seems that the people that die are the people who don’t really care. It’s like the people who aren’t involved in it are the people that usually get it, and the big chiefs are the ones that live except for in a couple instances recently. It doesn’t point fingers at any particular group. It points a finger at everybody, the East as well as the West and everything. So the song is as much about our system as it is anybody else’s. It’s just saying, “If you think there’s some magical answer on the other side of some door into the heavens or whatever, and if you kill to get there, that’s okay. Well, you can believe that if you want, but don’t take any of the rest of us with you.” That’s not what everybody believes.





ANDELMAN: Do you feel as you get a little older -- you’ve got kids, early teens and a young daughter -- are you more prone to speak out about politics and things like that at this point because of your kids or your maturity?

THORNTON: Well, they definitely affect the way I think and what I do, but I don’t really speak out that much sort of publicly about politics. I’m not that educated about it. I tend to more do it as a character in a movie or in a song or something. I don’t go to many rallies because I don’t know what I would say. I’m not really a politician. Now, there are some actors and musicians and a lot of people who are real educated on politics and can speak about it way better than I can. I just kind of say what I feel personally in these songs, but I certainly wouldn’t be able to go before Congress or anything like that because I’m not educated enough.

ANDELMAN: Sounds like you might actually be a little shy about doing that even if…

THORNTON: Probably.

ANDELMAN: Now, on the lighter side of things, I see that Graham Nash sings background vocals on a couple of tracks. I was wondering how that came about?

THORNTON: Graham and I had a lot of mutual friends over the years, and we always tried to hook up and do something together. We were asked by a company to do a Surround Sound mix of one of his songs, one of my songs, and then do one together for this thing up in Vegas that they had, this sort of a techie conference to demonstrate this equipment. And so, during the process, we fell in love with each other’s songs that we’d just written, and he really loved the song “Beautiful Door” as well as “Hope for Glory,” and I can tell you, on those three songs he does the background vocal part. So it was pretty nice to be able to harmonize with a Graham Nash, let me tell you.

ANDELMAN: I would say that would probably be a career highlight.

THORNTON: Oh, it was really great. He’s such a terrific guy, and I’ve always been a huge fan of his. He’s really the only guest star on the record.

ANDELMAN: Good one to have.

THORNTON: This record is made by just me and Brad Davis, who’s my co-writer and guitar player and Teddy Andreadis who plays organ and piano for us. They’re both in my touring band, too. And then on bass is Lee Sklar who, if you’re gonna have a bass player, that’s the guy to have. He plays predominately these days with Phil Collins, but Lee and I are old friends.

Billy Bob Thornton at the Movies
Clip #1: Sling Blade
Clip #2: Bad Santa 1
Clip #3: Bad Santa 2
Clip #4: School for Scoundrels
(Karl meets Napoleon Dynamite)
Clip #5: The Last Real Cowboys

ANDELMAN: Let’s talk about movies for a moment or two before we wrap up. I’m very curious about this. If you were getting together with your own buddies and were gonna share a favorite story from the making of a movie, what would it be?

THORNTON: I guess I would have to say, actually, there are probably more stories from Bad Santa than anything else. I made a movie in San Quentin years ago and so for about two months, we were shooting in San Quentin. That alone was a pretty big deal. Every day was kind of a, well, you can imagine, you’re shooting in one of the heaviest prisons in the country. It was pretty odd. The thing is, to tell anecdotes about what happened on the set, like sometimes you’ll be asked, “You got any funny stories about what happened on the set one day or whatever?” There’s so many of them you can never think of one. It’s like when somebody comes to visit, and you’re supposed to take them out to a restaurant in your own town, you can’t think of one. So, yeah, mostly it’s just like a general vibe on a movie, and yeah, crazy things happen every day. I don’t know.





Probably the funniest story that ever happened on any movie was on a movie called Pushing Tin that I did with John Cusack up in Canada. The story is way too long to tell here, but let’s just put it this way: we played a pretty decent practical joke on John, who has a weak stomach, and we got him good. It was a very elaborate plan, and about two weeks later, he got me back. We’ll just say it involved a sheep, a real live sheep, and some lingerie.

ANDELMAN: All right. I think for those who are listening to this as audio, that will give them something to think about. What is it that you might see in a script that would get your attention as an actor? And are there any roles you’d like to be able to erase from your IMDB listing?

THORNTON: Well, maybe some stuff early on. Since I was a well-known actor, I don’t think so. I’ve been pretty satisfied with everything. Some I like better than others but certainly nothing I’m ashamed of. Early on in my career, there are a few, but that’s back when you can’t say no. And the thing that attracts me is really the story and the characters. I’m not that big on tricky stuff. I usually don’t look for a movie that has the surprise, it was the butler kind of ending or whatever. Like really tricky stories don’t interest me. I like simple stories with complex characters.

ANDELMAN: I think that my favorite Christmas movies of all time would have to be National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase, and Bad Santa. It just never fails to entertain and make you fall down laughing. But I wondered, what movies would a guest see at your house during the holidays?

THORNTON: The usuals, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, and then it’s not easy for me to sit and watch my own movie, but I have to say I actually can watch Bad Santa. It gives me a kick, so I don’t mind watching Bad Santa.

ANDELMAN: And do you watch Bad Santa or Badder Santa?

THORNTON: We usually watch Badder Santa.

ANDELMAN: Finally, what’s coming up next? I see you’ve completed something called Mr. Woodcock, but I don’t know anything about that.

THORNTON: Mr. Woodcock is a New Line movie starring myself and Susan Sarandon and Seann William Scott. It’s a comedy, a pretty dark comedy about a gym teacher, sort of the gym teacher from hell.

ANDELMAN: That wouldn’t be you, would it?

THORNTON: Actually, it is: Bad Santa in gym shorts. It’s coming out in September. I think it’s September 21st. I’m not positive on that date, but that’s from New Line Cinema, and it’s definitely out in September. And then I’m attached to seven movies over the next two years.

ANDELMAN: Wow.

THORNTON: There’s no start dates on them all. They’re trying to figure this out after my tour. We’re touring August 1st through the first week of September, mostly hitting the Pacific Northwest and western Canada, the West Coast, and then down South.

ANDELMAN: Okay. Well, it’s good to know that you won’t be bored in the months to come.

THORNTON: No. With all these kids and tours and movies, I’m pretty busy.

© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.