Staying Fit
Billy Bob Thornton, 62, who won fame (and an Oscar) at 41 as writer-director-star of Sling Blade in 1996, has found new life on TV, winning Golden Globes for FX’s Fargo and Goliath, the smart, Hitchcock-esque crime show whose second season premieres on Amazon on June 15. He plays hard-drinking L.A. lawyer Billy McBride, a legal David up against a Goliath-sized conspiracy involving a mayoral candidate he’s dating, a drug lord with a buzz saw, a dirty detective and a sexually psychotic real estate developer. Thornton tells AARP about Goliath, which Amazon calls its most-binge-watched Prime original series ever made in America.
—Billy Bob Thornton
Your friends call you Billy. What do you like about your Goliath character, Billy, who shares your devilishly suave goatee?
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I try to play the part as if it’s me, and it’s not that terribly far from me, anyway. He may be a mess personally, but he owns his flaws. He believes in justice and fairness — probably more than he does the law. It’s an age-old story but different than you’ve ever seen before — the last two or three episodes are even stranger than last season.
You still look rather youthful — you’re a sexagenarian dreamboat!
Well, I don't know about that. It gives you a certain peace, once you get to a certain age. You accept how you look. One of the greatest things about getting older as an actor is that you settle into who you are and you don't begrudge everyone else what they have. It's not like being a young actor full of piss and vinegar, where you're competitive and thinking, I should have gotten this part that guy got. I am very happy with where I am.
You also get to find your friends jobs, like Paul Williams, 77, who plays Billy’s informant living on the streets.
He plays an old friend of mine, an old law partner who now lives off the grid, and I go to him for advice and information. They asked who I would see in that part and I said “Paul Williams.” And they were like, “The songwriter?”
Williams wrote “Rainbow Connection,” “Evergreen” and “We’ve Only Just Begun,” but he’s also a terrific actor, recovering addict and healthy-living activist. How do you stay calm and fit?
I always have a guitar or ukulele in the trailer, and I write songs. That keeps me in an artistic mind-set . And I'm kind of a healthy eater. I take a lot of turmeric and cayenne pepper. And I have to do a lot of stretching. Growing up, I was an athlete, and I've also had a couple of accidents and a horse fall, so I need a real good back-and-shoulder routine. I'm lucky when it comes to remembering lines, though. Other things I can’t remember at all. I do have obsessive-compulsive disorder, so maybe it’s a savant-like quality I have.
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