BEVERLY HILLS – It's fair to say Billy Bob Thornton is grateful for his role on “Fargo.”
“As soon as I read the pilot script, I completely understood why they were doing it,” the Best Actor in a TV Drama winner told the press backstage at the Golden Globes. “It was so well written and I heard the people that [they] were assembling after myself, they were getting together, and I thought 'what a great group of people.' There wasn”t really any red flag whatsoever. My only concern is 'Are the Coen brothers on board?' And when I found out they were, that was the last piece of the puzzle for me. It is a joy to be a part of something artistic.”
Speaking of art, is the “Sling Blade” director looking to extend his filmmaking talents to television anytime soon?
“I don”t know, television is a writer producer medium really not so much director, generally the creator is the director,” said Thornton. “So I am not sure I am smart enough to create a show so I won”t be directing much television.”
Oh, and his career as a writer/director of film? With his last movie, the 2012 indie drama “Jayne Mansfield's Car,” making hardly a blip on the radar, he admits his taste may not exactly be in vogue right now.
“[I'm] improbably obsolete as a movie director in the current state of affairs,” he said. “I was under the influence of southern novelists and that kind of thing. I am not sure there”s much of a market for it.”