SXSW event coverage: A Conversation with Billy Bob Thornton

"Relax - that's all I'm saying."

by John P. Meyer

Billy Bob Thornton drew a big crowd on Tuesday afternoon at the Austin Convention Center as he sat down on stage with a moderator to talk about his career, along with his thoughts on film, music and life in general.

He is a genuinely engaging fellow who comes across as both self-effacing and surpassingly confident - in other words, the type of guy you'd like to play cards with, or maybe go out drinking (if you were into that sort of thing).

Speaking of which: the sunglasses, Billy Bob told us, were not about trying to put on airs, but were necessitated his having partied a little too hearty the prior evening.

Here's selected words of wisdom from Billy Bob:

"Once you start testing things, it becomes toothpaste." - re. pre-screening of movies and music, followed by massaging content to please the crowds.

"Nobody should knock anything they get to do in the entertainment industry, because they're not working in a sawmill."

"When you read a screenplay, there's a rhythm to it. Movies and music are the same thing."

Upon viewing a finished cut of Billy Bob's film, Sling Blade, Martin Scorsese told him: "You're gonna get an Academy Award for this movie, and once you do you'll never make a movie the way you want to again. And he was right." (Because the production companies got their fingers in the pie at that point.)

"You always assume that people are gonna be cool with stuff." (But then there's Hollywood people.)

"And then one of the studio execs said: 'It's really long!'" - re. a pre-edited, full-footage version he showed them of All the Pretty Horses, after having told them "this is a pre-edited, full-footage version."

"It's human nature for people to want to see people suffer for their own entertainment." - re. reality TV programming

"We don't have people that preach anymore - except for the wrong kind." (He references Nathan Hale as an example of the good kind.)

"Relax - that's all I'm saying."

"Writing, acting, music, sculpture, painting - it's all the same mind (vision)."

His manager told him: "If you go to George 'Goober' Lindsay's film festival, I'll kill you." (He went anyway and had a great time.)

"These are the ones I have trouble with: directors who just want to stand around and act important." (Examples of directors he's enjoyed working with: Barry Levinson, the Coen brothers, Marc Forster and Sam Raimi.)

Billy Bob news & notes:

* He's just finished acting in a film called Eagle Eye for Stephen Spielberg

* He wants to make two new movies as director (now that his contract with the Weinsteins has run out): one will be the true story of Floyd Collins, who was trapped while exploring a cave in 1925, resulting in a sensationally-reported rescue effort.

* He finds Mike Nichols to be a particularly intimidating director, because he says Mike is smarter than almost everyone around him and can make you feel stupid without actually yelling at you.

* His good friend, Daniel Lanois, composed a "hauntingly beautiful" score for All the Pretty Horses, but it was not used in the theatrical cut.