Robert Duvall & Billy Bob Thornton

Interview, March, 1998 by Elizabeth Weitzman

RD: See, Billy Bob, he jumped into directing and everything far younger than I did. You know, I'm a late bloomer. But when he met me, he was all ready to write for people and write for himself, and act for himself, and direct for others, and direct for himself. I call him a triple threat: a hillbilly Orson Welles. [laughs] I think I like Sling Blade even better than the great thing Orson Welles did - what was the name of that movie about Rosebud? I think Sling Blade was pure.

BBT: Yeah, it happened very naturally, and like I said, Bobby was somebody who had been a hero of mine for a long time.

RD: Now he's become a hero for me.

BBT: What I respond to in Bobby is that he does things very real. It's all about being naturalistic and not contriving anything, not pushing it.

RD: People talk about things that are "bigger than life." There's nothing .bigger than life. Life is big and beautiful as it is. You just have to take selections from life and put it in fiction form. When you see that, it's just great.

EW: Thank you both very much.

BBT: OK, thanks a lot.

RD: Thank you, ma'am.