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Texas Standard had good reason to talk to Billy Bob. Though he’s from Arkansas, he’s lived in Texas on a couple of occasions – and he’s played some classic Texas roles: from Coach Gary Gaines in the film “Friday Night Lights” to Davy Crockett himself in the film “The Alamo.” Billy Bob Thornton has been an honorary Texan for decades. Now, he’s secured his 7th Golden Globe nomination with another soon-to-be-iconic Texas character: Tommy Norris in Taylor Sheridan’s new series “Landman.” This is an extended interview.
The full transcript of this episode of Texas Standard is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Laura Rice [00:00:00] Hello, Texas Standard podcast listeners. This is another Texas extra extended and special content from the show. I’m Laura Rice. I’ve done a lot of interviews, including with some pretty recognizable people. Still, I sometimes get a little nervous and I have to admit that I was for this one. Billy Bob Thornton has a certain aura about him that from afar is a little intimidating. Actually, it’s a little intimidating. Close up, too. I could hear him walking up to the studio before I could see him, and I joked that I thought maybe he was wearing spurs. In a nod to his latest Texas role because of the clinking sound. It was actually just his keychain. He was also wearing several long chain necklaces and his tattooed arms showed underneath his black tank top. My nerves settled pretty quickly, though, because it became clear Billy Bob was down to just have a nice conversation with me. I think we both enjoyed it and we spent more time talking than we can include on air. So this is the unabridged version, so to speak. We had good reason to talk to Billy Bob because though he’s from Arkansas, he’s lived in Texas on a couple of occasions and he’s played some classic Texas roles. Coach Gary Gaines in the film Friday Night Lights to Davy Crockett himself in the film The Alamo. So Billy Bob Thornton has been an honorary Texan for decades now. He’s secured his seventh Golden Globe nomination. We originally miscounted and thought it was eight with another soon to be iconic Texas character that of Tommie Norris and Taylor Sheridan’s new series, Land Man. Our interview begins after this clip from the show.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:01:43] I find it difficult to do business with people who offend me. We see we’re not in business together. We lease your mineral rights, and in exchange for that, we pay you $2.5 million a year and maintain your roads and dig your start tax. So don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re a rancher. You’re an old man who spends the money we give you on cattle. Then. Then for us, your family would have lost that ranch in the 50s. So you just say thank you. Take the 300,000 for the grass, and then I keep sending you $200,000 checks every month. But don’t you dare pretend that I offend you. You smile and say, I’ll take it.
Laura Rice [00:02:26] The actor, filmmaker and singer songwriter is with us in the studio. Billy Bob, welcome to The Texas Standard.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:02:33] Well, I’m happy to be here.
Laura Rice [00:02:34] We got a little taste of Tommy Norris in that clip from Land Man. How would you describe him?
Billy Bob Thornton [00:02:40] Here’s a guy who has just worn out every minute of the day. I mean, you know, driving 3 or 400 miles a day out in two different oil fields. And and then he’s got this eccentric family who’s kind of come in to, you know, add some extra flavor to his life. So, you know, a land man’s busy enough already and then you throw them on top of it. And it’s it’s quite a life. These are guys good. You know, he’s got a dark sense of humor about it, but lives in a pretty dangerous and gambling world, you know? And I think he’s a guy who’s just driven, you know, to, you know, keep things together and make it a success.
Laura Rice [00:03:24] You know, he describes himself as like a babysitter. But it’s almost worse than that, though, right? He’s kind of the cleanup man in a lot of cases.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:03:33] Sure. He’s a fixer, you know, I mean, everything goes wrong. He’s the guy who’s got to fix it. So it’s a it’s a pretty like I said, pretty busy life. And there’s hardly a minute’s peace.
Laura Rice [00:03:47] Yeah. Well, Land Man is set in the oil patch. Really? Midland. Odessa. I know you’ve spent some time in Texas, you said. We were talking. Lived in Houston as a young man. Lived in Austin for a while. What was your experience shooting the series out West?
Billy Bob Thornton [00:04:03] Well, it was actually really great. We mainly shot on Land Man in and around Fort Worth. Like Fort Worth, Weatherford, Denton, you know, all those areas. But we did go out for a couple of days to Odessa, which was pretty chilling for me because I had done Friday Night Lights. Yeah. And we actually shot at the Permian field again. And it was we happened to be there on a 20 year anniversary, not to the day, but it was 20 years. And it was really interesting. I walked out in that field and I was just literally got to chill because I spent so much time there and I saw people. The funny thing about it, like a 25 year old background actor would come up to me, you know, and say, My mother and my dad were both background, you know, on Friday Night Lights and stuff. So it’s like the next generation of people out. There were a lot of the extras, you know?
Laura Rice [00:04:58] That’s amazing. And have you heard from Real Land Man or other folks out in West Texas about, you know, being represented and in this way?
Billy Bob Thornton [00:05:09] Absolutely. And the ones I’ve heard from or rent or run into just in public or whatever, that come up to me. So far, so good. They all love it. So I think it’s a great thing that they’re being, you know, represented. You don’t see a lot of movies or shows about the inside of the oil and gas business, you know, So I think it’s an interesting world to take a peek behind the curtain on. And it’s a it’s a great time. I mean, Taylor wrote such good scripts that it was it could have been about anything. But this happens to make it even more interesting because people don’t know that much about it, you know. And when he first told me about it, I was like, Well, no, nobody knows this world. This is cool. And and one of my favorite movies was Giant.
Laura Rice [00:05:59] I love it.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:06:00] It’s a great movie and has some similarities. You know, like the Dennis Hopper character with his relationship with the Mexican girl and all that kind of thing. And, you know, some of the wariness and which some people around him approach that, you know, blossoming relationship. And I say it’s it’s like giant with cursing.
Laura Rice [00:06:25] A lot of that a lot of that from your character people might not be surprised but I mean it’s what you say about really an inside peek into the oil industry. It’s so interesting. I mean, obviously your Texas standard, we talk about oil and gas, but I learned a ton just in the first 15 minutes of the first episode. And it really it’s so it’s so big and it’s so everywhere that you think it’s sort of like we take it for granted. It’s almost like tap water. When you turn it on. You just don’t think about where it comes from.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:06:57] Absolutely. I don’t think people understand that. The danger of it and like I said, the gamble. I mean, you can be a billionaire one day and not the next. You know, it’s a it’s a it’s an interesting world. And, you know, the good thing is, is that, you know, Taylor didn’t approach it from a partizan point of view or really I mean, even though there are speeches about, look, here’s where this stuff comes from and here’s what everything that you use every day is made out of this. He he basically just says, here’s how it works. You know, this is your like I said, looking behind the curtain at this business. And I don’t think we realize every day. Of our lives. What we’re using that is made from oil or needs oil. To keep it going or whatever it is around.
Laura Rice [00:07:47] Now, you’ve worked with Taylor before. It sounds like he’d just call you up and tell you he’s got I’ve got another role for you. Or how did that work?
Billy Bob Thornton [00:07:55] Well, I had done that cameo 18 in 1983, Jim Courtright, the marshall down there, who’s a real guy and who was actually killed right outside the White Elephant Saloon, which is still there.
Laura Rice [00:08:07] Gosh.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:08:07] And. So when I had the premier of 1883 in Las Vegas, I sat by Taylor at dinner afterward. He said, I’m writing a thing. I’m going to write it in your voice. It’s called Land Man. Show’s going to be around you. And told me what it was about. I was instantly intrigued when I got the first 3 or 4 scripts. I was like, Wow, he did. He did get the voice to me and I just loved the scripts. And they’re so well-written, so tight and so interesting. And then they had the SAG strike and the Writers Guild strike. And so he had to lay off writing for a while. So we were actually going to shoot it a little earlier than we ended up shooting it. But I think it came out at the right time, as it turns out, probably for the best. And so, yeah, which we sat around for months and months just waiting to do it.
Laura Rice [00:09:01] I mean, how can you say no when it’s like, I wrote this thing for you? But that’s cool. But what do you think it is about? Taylor Sheridan He’s really I mean, he’s really branded Texas and made these stories, but he’s doing it in a way that continues to compel audiences. It’s just it we hear from so many people, I hear from my in-laws about all all of this and and they’re really enamored. What do you what do you think it is about that? Is it is it Texas itself or is it the storytelling or a combination of it or.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:09:32] Well, I think he’s just a great storyteller to begin with. I mean, you can see that different types of things. He does. He doesn’t just do things about cowboys, You know, it’s like he’s got, you know, lioness and all all that kind of stuff, you know, and. So he’s he’s a great storyteller to start with. But I think people who feel maybe underrepresented in the entertainment business, you know, we’re not in an airtight business and within the audience in the country and other places, too. I feel that he strikes a chord with people who kind of see themselves maybe not in the business that he’s talking about there, but just in general as people. And he tells people stories they’re not about. Superheroes and stuff like that, because we’re kind of inundated with that kind of thing these days. And. And also, he writes in a way that makes you want to see the next one. It’s like, I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen here. I think it’s human nature. That’s that’s why, you know, serials on TV and stuff, you know, they’re so popular because people. You could start watching something out. When I was a kid, you know, I would start watching something that maybe I normally wouldn’t have watched. And next thing you know, I want to know if Mandy and Jeff are getting married. You know.
Laura Rice [00:11:02] That should be. Well, I would know spoilers here if you haven’t seen them. But yeah, some of the way some of those episodes ends, you do, you’re just like, Well, you got it. You got to know what what happened to get you get your heart broken here and there. I will say that you really have an all star cast, too. And I think one person certainly stuck out to me. Is the actor playing your son, Jacob Loughlin, to many might recognize star in along side Matthew McConaughey in the movie Mud. But you guys really shine in in your scenes together and in the early episodes. We’re just getting a peek at that. But I’d like to play a clip from one of the latest episodes, if I can hear.
Speaker 3 [00:11:44] Her husband just died. I’m. She called and asked for help and I gave it.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:11:53] She’s not my concern. You are. And at the moment the put you in this hospital for my main concern.
Speaker 3 [00:12:01] If my father steps in.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:12:02] This is not your dad talking. This is a general manager of oil company talking. And when my employees break into another employee’s company, provided housing and beat the dogs around them to the point where a surgeon has to reinflate as long a step in.
Laura Rice [00:12:17] I wonder if you can talk about working with younger actors.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:12:22] Well, I kind of have a history of it. You know, I’ve worked with a lot of younger actors over the years. I mean, starting, you know, as far back as Sling Blade with Lucas Black, who I worked with three times. You know, he was ten years old. We did Sling Blade and then he was 16 on all the pretty horses and 21 on Friday Night Lights. So I was kind of his movie Dad and, you know, Heath Ledger and all the Kids and Bad News Bears and Bad Santa.
Laura Rice [00:12:48] My.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:12:49] Gosh.
Laura Rice [00:12:49] So I love that movie.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:12:51] So, you know, I worked with a lot of younger actors and I, I guess I was since I have kids, maybe I have more of a connection than I would have if I didn’t have kids. And the thing is, Jacob is from Arkansas, too. Yeah. And so when we talk to each other. It’s pretty natural, I guess. I mean, he grew up about an hour and a half from where I did, so it was pretty easy to do that. And yeah, Jacob did a great job as well as Paulina, who plays the girl is his becomes, you know, his love interest. And it was just we did it with ease. And, you know, the relationship is very difficult because when you’re a kid, I mean, I know a lot of people in the entertainment business when their kids want to get into it, the parents don’t do that.
Laura Rice [00:13:52] And you’ve seen the worst of it and you want to protect your kids.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:13:57] For sure. I don’t want my kid up on one of those rigs, you know, And I know exactly what he’s going to have to go through, you know, and it so a lot of times, I mean, you know, when when you have kids, sometimes your first instinct when they hurt themselves as you get angry, Why did you do that? Because you care about them so much that it just lights you up. You know, it’s like, don’t stand on the coffee table. I told you not to stand on the coffee table. And but it comes from love, you know, That’s what it comes from. And so I think that’s that’s sort of the basis of that relationship is is that deep love for your kid and the fear of what they’re going to get into in their life.
Laura Rice [00:14:44] Well, you nominated for another Golden Globe for this. And and I know audiences have already been responding really positively. An Oscar winning filmmaker, actor and singer songwriter Billy Bob Thornton is starring in the new series Land Man, streaming on Paramount. Plus, new episodes come out on Sunday. Billy Bob, thank you so much for stopping by The Texas Standard.
Billy Bob Thornton [00:15:07] I’m always happy to be here.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
