Word: thornton
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Billy Bob Thornton is on a mission to let you know he isn't weird. This is weird in and of itself, since he and his wife Angelina Jolie have spent a lot of time letting you know just how weird they are: wearing lockets with each other's blood around their necks, getting matching tattoos with secret symbols only they know the meaning of, and wearing each other's underwear. But now they want you to know all that stuff isn't so strange if you really think about it--or better yet if you don't think about...
...high school--they describe each other as "intense" and "heavy" and "feeling so much"--but they're also surprisingly smart and laid-back and un-Marilyn Mansony. And besides, if Jolie is going to continue to serve as the goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and Thornton is really going to have a shot at winning the best-actor Oscar in addition to being a respected indie writer-director who makes moody alt-country albums, they need to make sure people know they don't have a dungeon in their basement and he doesn't eat only...
...Thornton's seriousness comes through best in his work, including the three movies he's starring in this season: in Bandits, which opened last month, he plays a Woody Allenish neurotic bank robber; in the Coen brothers' retro film noir The Man Who Wasn't There, he's a poignantly understated 1940s Job; and in December's death-row drama Monster Ball, his depressed prison guard finds a reason for living in a mixed-race relationship with Halle Berry. This guy does all right for himself...
...stoic turn as the cuckolded barber in The Man Who Wasn't There that's generating the Oscar talk, despite the fact that the prize usually goes to more flamboyant roles. "The person who cries and screams at everybody wins the awards," Thornton says. "The hard part is becoming the character so much, you're not noticed...
Still, it's hard not to notice Thornton these days. In addition to the three films, he's all over Tower Records on posters for his first album, Private Radio (Lost Highway Records). He's been in bands since he was a high school drummer in a ZZ Top-influenced band, but his album is stark and John Prinish, with lyrics that may be hurting his current campaign: he sings about wearing women's underwear. Not only is Thornton planning to tour, but he's already writing songs for his third album, the one he'll do after the covers...