Billy Bob Thornton
Montreal, Canada 2016
Billy Bob Thornton, Montreal Canada, 2014. Billy and I worked together a few times before we shot Bad Santa. We’re pretty similar guys—skinny little rock-and-roller types, so we just hit it off. When we went to shoot Bad Santa 2 we were up in Montreal in the winter, three feet of snow on the ground, shooting in an old Shriners—one of those dark, private men’s clubs. Imagine a secret society for middle-aged guys in fezzes, drinking whiskey and doing whatever mysterious “man stuff” they did back in the day. It was straight out of the thirties or forties—it had this great character to it.
A lot of times on movie sets, I have to wait around for hours for the opportunity to get time with talent, and I mean, they are making a movie at the same time, so I get it. Throughout the day, I get time with different actors. Kathy Bates, Tony Cox, and I get my pictures. Billy Bob is the star, so I’m waiting around for him all day long. But by the time I finally get him, the men’s club has lost its edge for me—it just feels like a set—but off to the side here’s this old weird 1940s bathroom with these dirty original porcelain tiles.
The end of the day comes, and the director yells cut, and his publicist wants to send him home. But because of our relationship, he comes up and says alright, let’s get some pictures. So I tell him, Billy, look. The set is great and all, but there’s this bathroom…I have to show it to you. He’s like…okay? So I bring him to the bathroom, and I tell him, a real drunken bad santa would probably be passed out on the tile of this beat up bathroom floor. He goes, Oh fuck yeah! And he gets right down on that dirty old floor.
It was the best shot we did for the movie. It became this image that he and I really love, and people love it too, especially around this time of year. So each year, Billy and I sign one, and we raise money for St. Jude’s Hospital. And the wild thing, Shriners donate to St. Jude’s too, so it came full circle with us raising money for the hospital through those prints. But in keeping the spirit of our work, Billy Bob always writes ‘Merry fucking Christmas’ right on top.
Each photograph is produced as an archival pigment print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper. All prints are hand-signed by the artist and offered as editioned Artist Proofs (A/P).
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