The only four actors Billy Bob Thornton knows he’ll never match: “The bar was set too high”
Most actors get into the business with designs on becoming the best they can be, because it takes a certain kind of egomaniac to enter such a cutthroat and competitive arena believing they’ll end up as one of the all-time greats. Billy Bob Thornton isn’t that kind of egomaniac, so he knew where the bar was.
To be fair, there aren’t many folks who’ve grown up in rural Arkansas hunting squirrels for sport and sustenance who went on to win Academy Awards and become fixtures of film and television for decades while earning their stripes as one of their generation’s more unsung character actors and occasional leading men, which makes him a fairly unique case, all things considered.
There’s only one Billy Bob Thornton, unless there’s somebody else in Hollywood who’s petrified of Benjamin Disraeli’s facial hair and finds antique furniture to be particularly traumatising, so there’s always going to be a place for him onscreen, despite the legendary Billy Wilder telling him he was too ugly to make it in front of the camera.
He did take that advice to heart, though, and caught his mainstream break when his Sling Blade script netted him the Oscar for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, as well as a ‘Best Actor’ nod. Since then, he’s flitted between smaller, character-driven productions, mindless blockbusters that pay well, and long-form storytelling on the small screen, and it’s fair to say things have been going pretty well.
Thornton has won an Oscar from three nominations, been shortlisted for two Primetime Emmys, claimed a pair of Golden Globes from seven nods, and never been in the running for a Razzie. He was also a promising director until Harvey Weinstein torpedoed his passion for filmmaking, so he’s not going to be found losing any sleep over the things he hasn’t achieved.
Then again, you don’t start from where he started and make it to where he’s made it without being incredibly ambitious, which makes it fitting that the only names Thornton knows he’ll never be able to match are all ironclad icons. Since he also dabbles in music, there are both recording artists and on-screen performers who’ll forever remain out of reach, but the positive is that they’re so legendary, he’s in the same boat as almost everyone else.
“The bar was set too high for me, so I never will make it,” he told Esquire. “The bar was set for me by Elvis Presley and The Beatles and Buddy Holly. I’m never going to be any of those things. So I’m reaching for a bar that I can never grab. Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracy and Frederic March; the bar was set too high that I’m never going to reach it. As a result, I’ll never retire.”
In his defence, how many musicians can say they reached the same heights as Elvis, The Beatles, or Buddy Holly? Along the same lines, how many actors can justifiably say they’ve exceeded everything that Bogart, Stewart, Tracy, and March have accomplished? Not many, and at least he’s not reflecting on 40 years in the industry wishing he’d been able to emulate a raft of one-hit wonders and B-list flavours of the month.
He got pretty close to ‘Bogie’ when he made out with Lauren Bacall, though, which is something.
