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Billy Bob Thorntonwas in his 40s whenSling Blade(1996) catapulted him to fame with an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and a win for Best Adapted Screenplay. As the actor/writer/director/musician, 66, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, he’s happy to have found success when he did.
“If I had made it as an an actor when I was in my 20s or younger, I may not even be here now,” Thornton explains. “I don’t think I was equipped in my early 20s to handle that, because I had a history in my late teens, early ’20s, of certain chemical refreshments and things like that. I don’t know if I would’ve made it through. I’m happy that things unfolded in a way that I didn’t force, that they just happened. I still appreciate that.”
Thornton, who hails from Hot Springs, Arkansas, initially moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. A chance encounter would later change the course of his life.
After arriving in L.A., Thornton says he “ended up in this acting class, because a guy I met said, ‘You ought to try this. I think you could do it.'”
“The next thing you know, you’re starving to death for years and years,” he recalls. “People used to say, ‘Why didn’t you go home, if it was so bad out here?’ I said, ‘Well, I had nothing to go home to. I was poor there. I’m poor here. What am I going to do?’ And then I start getting little parts on something, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I just made $750 for one day.’ I thought, ‘Well, maybe I should try this acting.’ And then I grew to love it.”
One of those parts was a small role inIndecent Proposal(1993) oppositeRobert Redford.
Adrian Lyne’s thriller starred Redford, 85, as a millionaire who offers a couple, David and Diana (Demi Mooreand Woody Harrelson), $1 million for a night with Diana.
Roy Rochlin/Getty; Arnold Jerocki/Getty
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“He said,” Thornton continues, “‘This is a great film. You have a career because of this. People are going to sit up and take notice.’
“But then he said, ‘Here’s what you don’t do. Now that you’ve done this, don’t take the next big [film]. Do these kinds of movies and take supporting roles, and then do your own thing before you take a big movie.”
“And he was right because a few years later we madeSling Blade,” Thornton concludes.
He can currently be seen inThe Gray Man,opposite Ryan Gosling andChris Evans, which is in theaters and arrives on Netflix Friday.
source: people.com
