Billy Bob Thornton, finest identified for starring in and directing the Oscar-nominated movie Sling Blade, just lately revealed that he was supplied the chance to play “unhealthy guys” in a number of the greatest franchises however turned them down. Throughout his look on the Bingeworthy podcast, the actor-director defined why he declined adverse roles within the 2002 Spider-Man and Mission: Unattainable III.
“I don’t have a lot curiosity in these sorts of roles,” he mentioned. “With the Inexperienced Goblin, I didn’t really feel like getting up at 4 a.m. for 5 or 6 hours of make-up. And with Mission: Unattainable III, I didn’t wish to be the man making an attempt to kill Tom Cruise,” he defined.
Thornton additionally believes that enjoying a adverse position in such huge franchises can depart a everlasting imprint on folks’s minds. He prefers to tackle roles which are “losers and fewer predictable.” In the end, the Inexperienced Goblin position in Spider-Man went to Willem Dafoe, whereas Philip Seymour Hoffman ended up enjoying the antagonist in MI3, arms vendor Owen Davian.
Though Thornton didn’t play a villain reverse beloved superheroes, he did painting the villainous hitman Lorne Malvo within the first season of the FX sequence Fargo, a efficiency that earned him a Golden Globe.
The Unhealthy Santa actor just lately earned his seventh Golden Globe nomination for his efficiency because the titular oil rig disaster government, Tommy Norris, in Taylor Sheridan‘s sequence Landman. In an interview with Deadline, Thornton spoke about how his character understands the damaging enterprise and the dangers concerned in it.
“My character clearly got here up doing extra menial jobs on this. So he has been there. He is aware of how this works,” the actor defined. Now that his character has change into the foreman between the proprietor of the oil firm and people who work within the fields, he has no time to be a landman.
“There’s at all times an issue to resolve as a result of he’s a fixer, actually,” Thornton mentioned. He additionally believes that his character has developed an obsession with success. “I believe he’s pushed and doesn’t actually take into consideration that a lot, although I believe he’s a bit fatalistic about it,” Thornton added.