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Billy Bob Thornton has worked pretty steadily for the last 30 years, but he’s had something of a late career resurgence lately thanks to “Landman.” Created by “Yellowstone” mastermind Taylor Sheridan, the show has found a huge audience on Paramount+. Despite reports to the contrary, Thornton has no intention of leaving “Landman” any time soon. While this show has changed his career more recently, the actor, writer, and director credits one Oscar-winning movie with changing his life decades ago.
In a recent interview with Esquire following the “Landman” season 2 finale, Thornton touched on the legacy of his 1996 feature directorial debut, “Sling Blade.” While Thornton has sadly indicated he doesn’t expect to direct again, this movie was a true game-changer for him, as he wrote, directed, and starred in what became an awards season darling as well as a commercial hit. Upon reflection, Thornton views it as the closest thing to an overnight success story one is likely to find. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“It changed my life forever. It really did. I’ll always have a place in my heart for that film. I mean, I had been working for years before that. I had a movie that Tom Epperson and I wrote called ‘One False Move’ that got us a name within the business, but not with the public. ‘Sling Blade,’ it was literally overnight. They always talk about this overnight success thing, and that actually was. It was something that was close to me that I did all by myself, initially — writing it, creating the character, and directing the movie. It was a vision that was pure because there were no middlemen. I feel very proud of it, and yet it seems like we only did it three or four years ago.”
Sling Blade changed Billy Bob Thornton’s career
“When I think about it being thirty years ago, it makes me feel really good that I can look back and say that I actually do have a legacy,” Billy Bob Thornton added. “My kids can look at that one of these days. And who knows? Fifty years from now, maybe that movie’s still in the history books.”
The movie centers on Karl Childers (Thornton), who, after spending most of his life in a mental institution for killing his mother and her lover, is released. He soon befriends Frank (Lucas Black), a young boy struggling in the aftermath of his father’s suicide. Karl is then taken in by Frank’s mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday). Linda’s abusive boyfriend Doyle (Dwight Yoakam) becomes hostile towards both Karl and Frank, and Karl becomes determined to protect the boy at all costs.
Thornton won a Best Screenplay Oscar for “Sling Blade,” while also being nominated for Best Actor. The movie was a hit at the box office, taking in $34 million worldwide against a comparably tiny budget. While Thornton had been working for about a decade leading up to that movie, it was definitely a line in the sand; there was a clear difference in his career before it and after.
In the years that followed, he appeared in movies like “The Apostle” and “Primary Colors.” He caught a huge break appearing in Michael Bay’s “Armageddon” alongside Bruce Willis, which was the biggest movie of 1998. His notable credits throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s are numerous, including “Monster’s Ball,” “Love Actually,” and “Bad Santa,” among many others. All of that, in some way, is thanks to his little movie that could in 1996.
You can grab “Landman” season 1 on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon.
