Billy Bob Thornton is the lead of Landman, a popular series now in its second season. Billy Bob has fashioned a stellar second career for himself on television, and he just turned 70 years old. Meaning, he probably enjoys having a regular paycheck for a show he actually likes doing. BBT recently spoke to Rolling Stone about the show, his career, his life and his many marriages. He basically admits that Taylor Sheridan makes soap operas, but Billy is fine with it. He also talks about Angelina Jolie, possibly his favorite ex-wife. Some highlights:

His 70th birthday with his wife Connie Angland. “Connie asked me what I wanted and I said, ‘Nothing, absolutely nothing. As a matter of fact, don’t mention it to anybody.’ We really just hung out here at the house, just me and Connie and the kids, and had a nice time, and they got me a vegan cake, which — I can’t eat wheat or dairy, so that was awesome. Anytime a guy like me could have cake, it’s a great day.”

Taylor Sheridan makes hit shows: “Well, I think he knows that there are people, particularly in the U.S., that are begging to see themselves onscreen. There’s a lot [of people] in today’s society who think there’s so many rules and laws, and that politics is crazy on every side. I think he’s found a way to appeal to people somewhere in the middle. He also writes stories that make you want to see what’s going to happen next. People by nature want that. It’s why people watched soap operas in the Fifties and Sixties and Seventies. They want to know if Muffy’s going to marry Biff or whatever.”

Winning an Oscar for Sling Blade: “It all happened so quickly. But Robert Redford gave me some good advice. He said, “Now they’re going to offer you to write big movies about an alien who lands in Kansas or whatever it is.” And he said, “Just don’t do it. Stay right where you are in this independent film world. Make a name for yourself in that, and then go to the bigger movies.” He was absolutely right. And I’ll never forget that. He was right on the money.

Whether there could be another independent movie boom: “I mean, you always hope and pray that we’ll have that independent film boom that we had in the late Eighties through the mid Nineties. When I started out back there, me and Quentin Tarantino and James Gray and Nick Cassavetes and Ted Demme, we all knew each other. We were outsiders in an insider’s world, as my friend Dwight Yoakam puts it, and it was a popular time for that. I have hope that it’ll come back, but I don’t have a lot of confidence that it’ll come back.”

His sixth marriage: “Connie and I have been together 23 years and married for 12. Our daughter is 20. So, I found the right spot to be. The other times I got married were just like, you had a little too much to drink one night and somebody said, “We should get married.” You go, “Yeah, OK.” I always tell people, at least I was trying.”

His marriage to Angelina: “And of course, Angelina [Jolie] and I had a great time together. That was one of the greatest times of my life. She and I are still very, very close friends. And that was the one that ended up being a really civilized breakup. We simply split up because our lifestyles were so different.

Being a tabloid fixture with Angelina: “It was pretty weird. When we met, I was the more famous one. And then when we got together, for some reason, the people and the media are very interested in celebrity couples, that seems to be a very popular thing. So, it was weird. We couldn’t go anywhere. I mean, we did, and then of course we had times when we would say things that became sound bites or whatever.

The vials of blood. “Which never existed. We each had a little locket, literally with a drop of blood in them. That’s a romantic little idea, and that’s all that was. But by the time it’s over, we’re vampires. We live in a dungeon, we drink each other’s blood, and this kind of stuff.

[From Rolling Stone]

It’s crazy to me that, with everything that’s happened in celebrity gossip over the past thirty years, people still f–king talk about those stupid “vials of blood.” Anyway, Angelina really loved Billy Bob and I think they did fall out for a few years after their divorce, but they later got back in touch and stayed close. He doesn’t have beef with her, and she doesn’t have beef with him. Now, I would pay a lot of money to hear Billy’s thoughts on Brad Pitt and how Pitt treated Jolie. While it’s widely accepted that Pitt “got Hollywood in the divorce,” Angelina has some friends in the industry who know what happened. As for the rest of it… I’m glad BBT has a hit show and he enjoys the work. I genuinely think he’s a phenomenal actor, and I wish he had an even bigger film career though.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.