Billy Bob Thornton ad-libbed his famous 'Friday Night Lights' speech after being betrayed

In more than four decades on screen, Billy Bob Thornton has played nearly every role imaginable, from a man trying to save Earth in "Armageddon," to a drunk thief in "Bad Santa," to a high school football coach in "Friday Night Lights," to a hitman on season one of "Fargo." But for his latest role starring in the Paramount+ drama "Landman," Thornton was tasked with a new, unique challenge: playing a version of himself.

It started when "Landman" creator Taylor Sheridan struck up a friendship with Thornton after the 69-year-old actor did a cameo in his "Yellowstone" prequel series "1883."

"He told me one night at dinner, 'I'm writing this series for you, it's called 'Landman,' and I'm going to write it in your voice, the character is essentially you,'" Thornton tells Business Insider, recounting the moment in his familiar Southern twang. "I thought that was intriguing."

In the series, Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a crisis executive at an oil company in West Texas. But Norris is certainly not a buttoned-up corporate type. Sporting a cowboy hat, worn jeans, and a tattered shirt with a cigarette usually dangling from his mouth, Norris looks like he's just come from some kind of confrontation. And often, he has.

The opening scene of the pilot episode finds Tommy with a burlap sack over his head as he awaits a negotiation with the Mexican drug cartel that owns the land his company wants to drill on. When the negotiations commence, he hits his combatant with a flurry of one-liners and profanity. It's an introduction to Tommy's signature blend of grit and charm as he peppers any interaction, whether it's with his ex-wife Angela (Ali Larter) or his oil tycoon boss Monty (Jon Hamm), with his sarcastic quips.

So this is the real Billy Bob?

Thornton ponders for a moment before answering.

"It's pretty close between this and the character in 'Goliath,'" he says of Billy McBride, the troubled lawyer character he played for all four seasons of the Amazon series. "But there's been a little in 'Bad Santa.' Some of the innocence in 'A Simple Plan' I still have because I have a childlike nature sometimes. I think there's 50 of me."

For the latest interview in Business Insider's "Role Play" series, Thornton discusses how a chance encounter with legendary director Billy Wilder changed his approach to the business, how "Landman" brought him back to the setting of one of his most memorable roles, and why he never wants to direct again.

On Billy Wilder telling him he was 'too ugly' to be a leading man and squaring off with Kurt Russell

Like many actors, you had to do a lot of different jobs to get by while starting your acting career. In the early 1980s, you had a stint as a caterer, and during that time, you encountered a very famous director who gave you some advice.

Yes. And you say my catering career, I think that lasted like two or three days. [Laughs.] But it was worth it. A friend of mine knew I was broke and he was working this party at some rich person's house for Christmas Eve. And because it was Christmas Eve, they paid you double. So normally you'd get $150 but on that night you get $300, which to me was like a billion dollars at the time.

I showed up to the party, it was a mansion out in Bel Air. After a while I found out this is Stanley Donen's [director of "Singin' in the Rain"] house. So I'm going around passing stuff out. Dan Aykroyd and his wife Donna were there, and years later, I told Dan I waited on him, and he couldn't believe it. Dudley Moore was playing the piano, Debbie Reynolds and her husband were there, and Sammy Cahn, who wrote for Sinatra, was there. It was star-studded but more old Hollywood, other than Dan. So I was impressed because I had read about these people.

I walk over with my tray to this short guy with an Austrian accent and he says to me, "So you want to be an actor?" And I said, "Yes sir, how did you know?" And he said, "Forget about it." I said, "What do you mean?" And he said, "Just forget about it. You're too ugly to be a leading man and you're too pretty to be a character actor." [Laughs.]

But he also said, "Don't wait on the sidewalk for these people to pick you, there's actors everywhere. Can you write at all?" I said, "Actually, I do write." He said, "That's what you do. Write and create your own characters, create your own stories, and make them yourself." And sure enough, that's what I did.

So after I talked to this older fella, Stanley Donen chewed my ass out for not mingling around with my tray. I go back to get more food and the bartender says to me, "What did Billy Wilder say to you?" And I was like, "What?" And he goes, "That was Billy Wilder you were talking to." I had no clue.

That advice brought you your first big break, which was writing and starring in 1992's "One False Move." But that also marked the first time you're on screen with Bill Paxton. You two would go on to star together again in 1998's "A Simple Plan." What was it about working with Bill that brought out great screen chemistry between you two?

Well, we hung out together in the '80s. He was one of my first friends out here. I used to hang out with him and a guy named Rick Rossovich, and Jeff Fahey; we all ran around town together. Also, we were both down from that way. He was from Fort Worth, I was from Hot Springs, and we just became natural pals.

In 1993's "Tombstone" you have a very memorable scene opposite Kurt Russell where you two square off in a saloon. What are your recollections of doing that movie?

I remember I ad-libbed a lot of the stuff at the card table. Like when I said, "This is like playing cards with my brother's kids." The dialogue on the page was okay, but it was pretty straightforward stuff. So I acted like a frustrated sour guy and just started saying stuff. When Kurt and I did the scene where he slaps me across the face and makes my lip bleed, it was brilliant what the stunt guy told us. I was wearing this derby hat that was really tight to my head. I had a blood capsule in my mouth. So what Kurt did is he hit the brim of the hat, and that way, I knew exactly when to pop the cap in my lip. So that's why that slap looks so realistic. It looks like he really hit me.

On his mistake of showing Harvey Weinstein his assembly cut of 'All the Pretty Horses'

In 1996, you got your huge break with writing, directing, and starring in "Sling Blade," which won you the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. It's released by Miramax Films, so now you're working with Harvey Weinstein and that leads to you doing "All the Pretty Horses" in 2000 with him. You have never been shy to talk about how that movie was ruined by Weinstein in post-production. Looking back, although what was released it's not the movie you set out to make, do you appreciate that it's at least out in the world?

Well, I was actually proud of the movie we put out. I thought it was a very good movie. All the stuff they have said about another cut being five hours long, that was never true. I made the mistake of showing them my assembly, where it was literally everything I shot. And I was doing it because I thought they would get where I was headed, and I prefaced it with both Sony and Miramax by saying, "Listen, this is the assembly; I'm cutting this down." The actual length of the movie is two hours and forty minutes, which is exactly the length of "The English Patient," which Harvey won an Academy Award for.

But also, they marketed "All the Pretty Horses" as like "Titanic," because that was the big hit then. I said, "Can we just not have a poster that has Matt [Damon] and Penélope [Cruz] all airbrushed." I actually showed them a picture of Matt and Henry [Thomas] and Lucas Black on horseback in silhouette going up this mountain. It was this beautiful picture. Are you kidding me? There's your poster. And they just went, "Mm-hmm." So I said, "Just don't make it look like the 'Titanic' poster."

Since then, you directed the little-seen "Jayne Mansfield's Car" in 2013. Do you think you'll ever direct again?

The stories that I write and want to tell as a writer and director in the movie business these days are probably irrelevant to people. With "Sling Blade," it hit during the independent film boom.

After that, I did one called 'Daddy and Them," which I love. It's one of my favorite things I've ever done, and that was a casualty of the argument over "All the Pretty Horses."

Harvey said, "I'll put your little movie you love so much on the shelf," because we made it right before "All the Pretty Horses." And sure enough, he put it on the shelf. Years later, it will play during the middle of the night, and people love it. So that really got to me, that experience on "All the Pretty Horses."

On ad-libbing his famous 'Friday Night Lights' speech

2004's "Friday Night Lights" is a beloved sports movie, and a big reason for that is the locker room speech your character, Coach Gary Caines, delivers. Is it true that you ad-libbed a lot of it?

That is accurate. And that speech has become a thing they play at college games, Jerry Jones played it on the Jumbotron at a Cowboys game. It's become a famous speech. I went to director Pete Berg and I said, "Can I go off the book a little bit?" There were lines that were in the script and some that weren't.

And you did this because the night before something happened to you.

Yes. I was very very upset and felt sort of bullshitted by someone. So I was just thinking about this thing and about the truth. And also the real guy who was the running back, Boobie Miles, was in the room. He played one of the assistant coaches. So when I saw him, I was pretty emotional about that too. I started the speech and I just winged it. It was exactly what I wanted to say.

That's one of the things people come up to me and say. They say, "That speech meant a lot to me." Me saying, "Don't worry about that scoreboard, if you can look at your friend lined up next to you and look in their eye and they know you're doing the best you can do," all that stuff was winged.

In the pilot episode of "Landman," you film a scene at the high school football stadium in Odessa, Texas, where you filmed "Friday Night Lights." What was that like?

It went up my spine. I walked out there and spent all that time there, and here I am again. I saw the field and it was the same. I ran into extras who were the children of extras on "Friday Night Lights." It was a great moment. I'll never forget it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.