It was Den of Geeks pleasure to speak with this gifted character actor recently in Los Angeles.
You havent played the same character twice before.
What madeBad Santathe one?
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Billy Bob Thornton:Generally dramas arent as made for sequels as comedies are.
We always knew wed make a sequel.
We didnt know when.
We knew we werent going to do it within the first couple years.
Once all that got ironed out, it took us three or four years to get the right story.
We went through several drafts of different ideas, story ideas.
We knew we would do it if we got the right one.
This one has a more independent film feel than the first one did in a lot of ways.
Its just one of those characters that, first of all, people wanted it.
The fans wanted it, and if they tell you that, then youve got to listen.
Its absolutely a character I love playing.
I mean, who wouldnt?
Its just fun to do.
Then you have the mother character.
You know what I mean?
He sees himself in this poor Thurman Merman.
He clings to some sort of humanity, unlike his mother.
Do you remember some of the other ideas that were tossed around?
Was the mother always involved in some of the early stories?
It was going to be the father, originally.
But we felt that the father would be just like having two Willies.
It would just be too close.
Whereas, if it was the old man, its like pals that hate each other now.
We went through that for one.
It was very good.
At the end of the day, I think this story was just a little stronger.
Whereas the Mexico version would have been more like when did in Arizona.
That came into play also.
Yeah, we got a couple of ideas, yeah we do.
Lets do the ZZ Top of the movie, we could go there.
I thought that we would have Marcus in some form, but maybe not too much.
There was talk of not having the kid at all, and I protested a lot over that.
I said, No.
I said, You dont understand.
This is not just Bad Santa.
Bad Santas not a bad Santa without Marcus and then the kid.
Thats just not right.
You absolutely have to have him.
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed, and it worked out the way it did.
Did you stay in touch with those guys over the years?
Yeah, we saw them a few times over the years.
Then his family came out and saw us.
A little harder to see him, because he is up in Vancouver.
Tony Ive seen over the years.
Hed drop by every now and then.
We had a couple of mutual friends.
Something about wanting the three of us to get together, it was just one of those things.
We just fell right back into it.
Its the same old thing.
Tony is so good at cussing me out.
I just love it.
It makes me laugh.
Do people often come up to you on the street quoting lines at you all the time?
Its one of the more quotable movies of the last 15 years.
Yeah, a lot of quotes from that movie.
Probably that andSling BladeI get the most quotes from, I would imagine.
Theres some other movies that have one or two, but this one has a lot of them.
What did Kathy bring to the mix?
You take a stab at not go for humor.
People dont always know that.
We played it just as if we were that mother and son who had this vile relationship.
Like I said, I think having the mother as opposed to a father really works better.
You get to see a boy with his mother.
Of course she did!
It was real good to be around her.
Shes a lovely woman and all.
Christina (Hendricks), also.
Very, very nice person.
I guess she filled the Lauren Graham part from the first movie.
But we would have been forced to have her in the movie.
We would have had to invent something that wasnt that plausible to have her in it.
In addition to this, you have a TV show out now, Goliath, on Amazon.
Is TV opening up a lot of new doors for you?
Perhaps also in terms of directing again?
Absolutely, thats not a question, sure.
I dont know about directing.
I can see myself doing that.
I just dont think thats the movie audience any more.
Probably television is a better place for it.
Well, Im a Cardinals fan, were rivals.
But yeah, huge.
Its been so long, and you got to tip your hat to them.
Even though theyre our biggest rival, you still have to tip your hat to them.
Bad Santa 2is out in theaters tomorrow (Wednesday, November 23).
