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Billy Bob Thornton welcomes lighter role in `Astronaut Farmer'

By J.A. Montalbano
Friday, February 23, 2007

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Reckonings

A hit-and-run on a few topics with Billy Bob Thornton:

On reuniting with Bruce Willis from "Bandits" (2001) and "Armageddon" (1998): "Bruce and I seem to have a thing together. I liked it in the old days when studios had their own groups of actors that did films together. I wish we had more of that where you have a group of actors and you work together a lot."

On his general disdain for sequels, because good films should stand on their own: "I never would make a sequel to `Sling Blade.' I like to think I'd give it the respect of leaving it alone."

But there are exceptions. He said he would seriously consider a follow-up to 2003's dark comedy "Bad Santa," because filming the first one was so fun.

On the roles he most closely identified with: "Purely from an acting standpoint, `The Man Who Wasn't There' (2001) and `A Simple Plan' (1998) may be my favorite two roles that I've ever done. When the movies were done, I didn't want them to be over. I wanted the characters to keep going."

On his new album, "Beautiful Door," coming out May 8: "Every artist says his latest record is his best one ever, but this really is true in this case."

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It's hard to blame Billy Bob Thornton for wanting to be the All-American hero in the feel-good movie of the year.

In the past decade, he has been a crude killer (in his breakout film "Sling Blade"), a racist ("Monster's Ball"), a conniving air-traffic controller ("Pushing Tin") and one very bad santa ("Bad Santa"). And in recent years, his roles have been lighter and cruder.

When he read the script for "The Astronaut Farmer" he seized the opportunity to have his earnest Jimmy Stewart moment.

"I had done a bunch of comedies in a row," Thornton said last week during a phone conversation from Phoenix. "It seemed like I did a lot of them there for a while. I wanted to get back to a drama. I didn't expect to get a gem like this."

"Astronaut Farmer," which opens nationwide today, tells the story of Charlie Farmer, a Texas rancher and NASA dropout who is intent on building a rocket in his barn and realizing his dream of going into space.

It's a mix of Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams" and Tom Hanks in "Apollo 13." And when the determined Farmer has to make his case before a bunch of stone-faced bureaucrats, we're suddenly in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" territory.

It's truly a family movie and a departure from the darker roles that dot Thornton's r‚sum‚.

He said the tenor of the times calls for a wholesome movie that reminds him of the cinema he was used to as a kid growing up in Arkansas.

"I think it's a movie that we need to see right now," Thornton said. "There's so much cynicism out there. We need a movie like this to show that not everything has to be `Texas Chain Saw Massacre.' "

While "Astronaut Farmer" has quite a sweet tooth, it was created by brothers Mark and Michael Polish, the slightly twisted minds behind "Twin Falls Idaho" and "Northfork." So there's a little spice as well.

Thornton said he was confident the project wouldn't wander off into Hallmark territory.

"I wasn't afraid, because of the hands we were in," he said of the Polish brothers. "I knew that they're odd enough kids that they'd keep an edge to it and make sure they brought something interesting to it."

Another star in "Astronaut Farmer" is the scenery. It was filmed a little more than a year ago around Santa Fe and Las Vegas, N.M., and the Polish brothers use the horizon to great effect.

Thornton shot "All the Pretty Horses" in northern New Mexico (as director in 2000). He said the family home in "Astronaut Farmer" was the same one that housed Matt Damon in the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel.

"I love Santa Fe and Albuquerque," Thornton said. "I love the Albuquerque airport, because they have a nice smoking room with TV sets in there."

He said New Mexico is one of his favorite places, right up there with Oregon and Texas.

"It's a nice place for an old hippie like me," said Thornton, 51. "I love the climate. As long as I remember to drink a lot of water, I'm fine. And the people are always friendly. That's important to me. I consider it one of my honorary homes."

Thornton sounded genuinely enthused even though he was nearing the end of a long publicity tour. (Warner Bros. is pushing the movie hard, and Thornton was hitting places like Kansas to plug the film.)

He recalled once having to conduct about 80 TV interviews from one room in the same day. "After a while you just hate yourself."

A few of years ago, Thornton admitted in an interview that he was tired. Both physically from work and mentally from the tabloid attention.

"I'd been through a lot," he said. "The celebrity end of it was getting to be too much. You just get kind of tired of being in a glass jar.

"I was physically tired. I was just worn out. I don't feel that way now. I'm tired from this publicity tour, but I'm not tired of my life."

He has had a steady girlfriend for a couple of years (with Angelina Jolie a fading memory), and they have a 2-year-old daughter.

Speaking of legacies, he's still focused on "Astronaut Farmer," hoping it has a lasting effect like the classics it resembles.

"I hope it's a movie that makes people feel good and makes Õem hope and dream a bit," Thornton said. "When I was a kid, we had movies that would make you think. During the Depression they made movies that helped us escape. . . . I really hope people get that out of it."