By Fred Topel | Image property of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Billy Bob Thornton in The Astronaut Farmer
Billy Bob Thornton has really cashed in on the whole Bad Santa craze, playing similarly antisocial characters in comedies. His latest film is a sort of all-American "reach for the stars" (pun intended) inspiration, the likes of which even Thornton's dramas don't tend to approach. He plays the title character in The Astronaut Farmer, a farmer who literally builds a working rocket in his barn and tries to launch it.
Billy Bob Thornton Talks The Astronaut Farmer
"I knew that I was going to do a drama next but I figured it was going to be more like A Simple Plan or Sling Blade or something like that," said Thornton. "I didn’t realize that I was going to get this gem set in my lap and it’s the type of movie that I’ve wanted to do really since I was young. I think every actor wants to have their Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart or whatever and this was that movie for me. It was my Mr Smith Goes to Washington."
Actually, Billy Bob Thornton is a lot more idealistic than the characters he usually plays. "If anybody in the entertainment business or whatever, as an artist or a sports figure or anything like that, you know you’re a dreamer by nature. And so we totally understood characters like this and it was a pretty easy fit really. A guy from Texas who’s part astronaut/part farmer. He’s a dreamer who’s kind of eccentric and lives in a small town in Texas."
Though his character has the know how to turn NASA junk into an operational space vessel, Thornton didn't need to geek out on the research. "It’s not a technical movie. This movie is meant for entertainment. This is the kind of movie we grew up loving because you go in and it’s inspirational and you feel good when you come out. It is like a Field of Dreams or something. It’s The Natural or whatever. This is really what you’re supposed to feel like. In other words, there’s no need for a lot of scrutiny on this movie because in this time of cynicism, it’s meant to just be one of those movies like they used to show during the depression when people would go in and they didn’t see a movie about I’ve only got one apple and a nickel left."
He did get to wear a real space suit though. "Yeah, it is the real one. It’s an old Mercury suit. It’s really hard to get into and the really difficult thing about it is even international superstars have to pee."
The Astronaut Farmer opens to theatres
on February 23rd.
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