'A Simple Plan' For Two Bills
Imagine that you find a bag full of cash - $4 million worth. Do you keep it?
That's the starting point in the movie A Simple Plan, which opens Dec. 11 in New York and Los Angeles, and nationwide in January. The brothers who find the money are played by Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton. CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell asked Thornton if there is a "life lesson" in the movie.
"Well, I think the obvious lesson is: Don't take things that aren't yours," he says. "But, you know, it goes much deeper than that. There are many levels to this movie. It deals with greed and fear."
Thornton and Paxton worked together before, in One False Move (1992), in which Thornton played a sociopath and Paxton a sheriff. A year later, they were both in Tombstone. Was it easier to play brothers in A Simple Plan?
"I don't think we could have done this film if we hadn't had a past history, because we had to dive into cold water, as it were," says Thornton.
"We had no time for rehearsals," explains Paxton. "We had to get the characters up and running. We felt so relaxed in these roles that I think, after a while, you think you're watching a documentary."
Since they became friends while making One False Move, Thornton and Paxton have kept in touch.
"Over the years, we've done everything together," says Paxton. "We have the same kind of history. I parked cars at the Beverly Hills Hotel, while he made pizzas to keep afloat during the lean yearsÂ… I've had every kind of job you can mention - and some you can't - over the years, trying to make it. It'll be 25 years for me in the business in January."
Paxton, 43, was just 18 when he left his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, to try his luck in Hollywood. He compares the progression of his career to moving up in the ranks of the military. His movie credits include Titanic (1997), Apollo 13 (1995), True Lies (1994), and Aliens (1986), in which his character, beset by vicious acid-oozing monsters, uttered the oft-repeated line "Game over, man!" He also has produced an independent film, Traveller (1997), in which he costarred with Mark Wahlberg.
Thornton, who is also 43, wrote, directed, and starred in Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay. (He also had been nominated for his acting.) His best known movies include Armageddon and Primary Colors, both released this year. His screenplay for All the Pretty Horses was acquired as a vehicle for Matt Damon, and Thornton also is scheduled to direct it.
Both actors have high praise for the script of A Simple Plan, which is based on the best-selling novel of the same name.
"Within the first 10 pages, I knew I had to do it,"> Thornton says of the script. "It's just one of those characters that you know you have to exorcise some of your demons, or exorcise something."
Paxton was impressed by the movie's depth. "I think the movie is Deliverance meets some classic American tragic play, like Of Mice and Men, he says.
Thornton, who is from Little Rock, Ark., thinks Southerners make the best storytellers.
"I guess it's because we grow up with so much folklore and everything," he says. "That's what you do as a kid. Your grandmother and grandfather tell you storiesÂ… That's how we entertain ourselves."