We all know and love the Landman actor Billy Bob Thornton, who plays Tommy Norris, a crisis executive and oil industry expert, and later the President of M-Tex Oil. The rough-around-the-edges Texas man, although fictional, embodies characteristics similar to those of Thornton himself.
Thornton is a creative who is never afraid to say what’s on his mind and is authentically himself, regardless of the chaos that might come with that. Sounds similar to Tommy Norris, eh? And according to Ben Affleck, Billy Bob’s been saying what’s on his mind decades before he embodied the oil tycoon.
During a sit-down with Barstool’s Project Big Screen, Affleck shared an interaction he and Thornton had at the Armageddon premiere at the Kennedy Space Center in 1998. Ahead of the premiere, Affleck won his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. According to Affleck, Billy Bob, who had also won his first Academy Award the year prior for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 1996 film Sling Blade, allegedly gave Affleck a friendly backhanded compliment for the accomplishment.
Affleck shared that at the Armageddon premiere, Billy Bob pulled aside his co-star for a few words.
“Before ‘Armageddon’ came out, I saw him at the premiere, and he was like, ‘Hey, I saw that you got that, uh, you won that Oscar, didn’t you?’ I was like, ‘Yeah…'”
Affleck then says that Billy Bob chimed in before he could finish his sentence:
“‘So what, they give you like half an Oscar? Feels like you only wrote half the picture, right?'”
HA.
I mean, the interaction between Affleck and Thornton is worth hearing to begin with, but as Ben Affleck tells the interviewer this, he delivers a flawless impression of the Landman star. Thornton has a monotoned cadence to his dialect with an Arkansas twang, and Affleck has Thornton’s delivery down.
It’s honestly impressive how much he sounds like Billy Bob Thornton while recalling this story. Entertainment Tonight, which reported on his impression after the Barstool Project Big Screen episode went live, followed up with clips of Thornton speaking, showing how spot-on he is.
Could this be Ben Affleck’s unofficial audition to play Billy Bob Thornton in a life piece? I think yes. While Billy Bob’s comment is a backhanded compliment at its finest, Affleck did not appear to hold onto the comment, as he noted earlier in the interview that Thornton’s one of the funniest guys he has ever met. I believe it.
Check it out:
