Almost everyone can recall horrifying experiences from junior high and high school. For John Farley (Seann William Scott) and the students at Forest Middle School, mental and physical humiliation was a common occurrence in Mr. Woodcock’s (Billy Bob Thornton) physical education class. Run more like a military boot camp than a gym class, no child’s flaws or weaknesses are safe from the torture and embarrassment that follow the sound of Mr. Woodcock’s despised teacher’s whistle.
In the New Line Cinema comedy Mr. Woodcock, John has become the national best-selling author of Letting Go: Getting Past Your Past, replacing his painful memories with the self-confidence gained from becoming a successful writer and motivational speaker. When a last minute cancellation on his book tour gives him an unexpected day off, John returns home to surprise his mother (Susan Sarandon) with the news that he will be awarded the small town’s prestigious “Corn Cob Key” during its annual Cornival Festival. When he discovers that his mother has fallen in love with Mr. Woodcock, John must endure his former teacher’s sharp tongue and intimidation tactics all over again. Mortified and panic-striken by the inevitability of his mother marrying the one man he truly despises, John discovers that one’s past is often hard to escape.
Co-stars Billy Bob Thornton and Seann William Scott spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about working with each other.
MediaBlvd Magazine> Are you happy with how the film turned out?
Seann William Scott> I was just so excited to do the film. You never know how a movie’s going to turn out. As an actor, I’m a comedy guy who’s lucky enough to be in a film, and I hope for the best. You take everything you can out of the experience. For me to work with Billy Bob Thornton and Susan Sarandon, I’m a small time Minnesota guy and that’s nuts. It’s not even something you dream about. You win the lottery at that point. You just go in there and do your best. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I came away with two amazing friends, not to mention the rest of the cast, who were all great. You just cross your fingers that the film will be good. I remember, doing American Pie, who would have thought that movie would be funny. It could’ve sucked. It was an awesome opportunity.
MediaBlvd> Billy Bob, how did you find this coach character inside of yourself?
Billy Bob Thornton> There are guys like this. Growing up in sports, as I did, I ran into them all the time. I wasn’t tortured to the degree that Seann was in this movie, but I had some pretty rough coaches, who were strict like that. They were intolerant of any human being within 100 miles of them. Plus, my dad was a high school coach, and he had some Woodcockian qualities.
MediaBlvd> Did he ever coach you?
Billy Bob> No, he never did. Thank goodness. He coached a few small schools outside our town. He died when he was 45, so the last few years of his life, he worked at a factory. He had quit coaching. He never coached me. I don’t think it would have worked out very well.
MediaBlvd> Can you talk about your teacher-coach experiences, when you were in high school?
Seann> I had really great teachers, and some really tough coaches. I was the kind of athlete that takes things seriously, and it consumed me throughout my high school experience. I don’t know if I would be here if it wasn’t for my coaches because they pushed me to a point where I wasn’t enjoying playing sports any more. I was really unhappy. And, I loved films, so I saw it as an opportunity to not so much quit sports, but use everything I’d learned, as an athlete, and transition that into something completely different while, hopefully, using the same tools and mentality. I had some brutal coaches that would yell things, kind of like Mr. Woodcock, but not as funny. If I’d had a guy like Mr. Woodcock as a coach, I’d still have the sense of humor to enjoy and appreciate it. I had some coaches that were tough, but in a good way because they pushed me to not want to play sports anymore. I think I probably would have played professional baseball if it hadn’t been for them. So, then I wanted to be an actor. That’s when I graduated early and moved out to LA to do it.
Billy Bob> Oh, I was tortured by all of my teachers. They all hated me. I didn’t have any teachers that liked me, that I can remember. I just told them that I wasn’t ever going to be anything other than a musician or an actor. They told me I needed algebra and geometry, and stuff like that, and I said, “No, I don’t. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it. I don’t know how to add letters.” Y plus X doesn’t make any sense. So they said, “What if you become a building engineer?,” and I said, “I promise you, I’m not gonna.” They just didn’t like my attitude. My attitude was very much like it is still.
MediaBlvd> What sports did you play in high school?
Billy Bob> I was a baseball player.
Seann> I played baseball, basketball and football.
MediaBlvd> Billy Bob, did you have a good baseball coach?
Billy Bob> I had a great baseball coach. The bad ones were usually gym teachers. I didn’t like to go to gym class because, as an athlete, you don’t like to go to gym class. It’s like sports light. You have a lot of people in there that can’t really do anything, so you end up playing dodgeball, or some goofy game like that.
MediaBlvd> Why did you decide to have photos of Susan Sarandon up all over your trailer, when you first met her? Did it freak her out?
Billy Bob> It was just a joke because I’d never met her before. I thought it would be funny. The whole first day, she didn’t say anything. I had all kinds of pictures of her. I had pictures of her when she was really young. I think somebody gave us a childhood picture of her, but it was out of People magazine or something. There was another one from when she was in Atlantic City. Things like that. I had 30 pictures, or so, up all over my trailer. My assistant invited her over for me to say hi to her because we didn’t know each other at all. I said, “I just want to say hello to you. I’m excited to work with you.” I wanted her to think I was some bizarre stalker. It was pretty funny. After a while, I asked her about it. When you pull a joke on somebody and they don’t say anything, it’s no fun. So, finally, I said to her, “Did you notice all the pictures?” She said, “Yes, I noticed the pictures.” In other words, she got it instantly, but just didn’t find it funny.
MediaBlvd> Do you guys have any favorite scenes together?
Billy Bob> They’re all favorite scenes. In terms of the experience of making them, when we did the carnival scenes, we were shooting at night, out in the Valley. You know when you get stupid in the middle of the night because you’re up till 4 in the morning and you feel like you’ve smoked a joint? That’s what it felt like.
Seann> We were laughing and giddy. We were hugging and kissing. But, not Billy Bob and I. I really had a chance to hang out with Billy Bob Thornton. I can say he’s my friend now. We were laughing and talking about funny stories.
MediaBlvd> What was doing the physical comedy like?
Billy Bob> We rehearsed the stuff with these expert stunt guys, and then, we shot the scenes in a couple of days. It was pretty physical. It was funny sometimes, but there was also the work part of it.
MediaBlvd> Did you have stuntmen for the wrestling scene?
Seann> We did. It wasn’t really fun. It was really brutal. It was physical. You shoot everything in pieces, and I was getting my butt kicked. He didn’t want to hurt me and I didn’t want to hurt him. After the first day, his foot was broken. I went home and had to tell my friends, “Guess what? I broke Billy Bob Thornton’s foot.” I lost friends because of it. Some of my friends didn’t talk to me for about 3 weeks, as if I’d intentionally done it.
MediaBlvd> What do you think of self-help authors?
Billy Bob> I think they see an easy way of making money off people. I guess psychiatry and pills, and certain things like that, can help people out. And, maybe some people get something out of self-help experts. If it helps them out, that’s great, but I don’t know. Sometimes, they’re telling you pretty elementary things. You could boil 290 pages down to 2 pages that say, “Treat everybody right and don’t be selfless.” With 10 sentences you could write the whole book. They change the name each time, like Women Who Like Men Who Like Grilled Presses, or whatever. It’s silly. I think life happens the way it’s going to happen. If you need to read a book for you and Roger to stay together, then you and Roger shouldn’t stay together, anyway. That’s the way I look at it.
MediaBlvd> What are each of you working on now, and what’s next for you?
Seann> My next film coming out is called Southland Tales. It’s Richard Kelly’s (Donnie Darko) next film. I have another film, called Train Wreck: My Life as an Idiot, coming out next spring. I have a movie, called Quebec, that stars John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer, and comes out next spring. I have another movie called Gary, the Tennis Coach, that I produced, that’s a rowdy comedy. It's very funny. And, I’m shooting \pard fs24 Little Big Men with Paul Rudd, for Universal. It’s an R-rated comedy from the same producers that did Knocked Up and 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Billy Bob> There’s a bunch of stuff that I’m attached to for the next three or four years. It's about getting them in order. I was starring in what was to be Robert Altman’s next movie, but he passed away, literally, just before we started and that changed everything. We had to rearrange everything. I’m about to do this movie, Tulia, with Halle Berry, and we’ll see when we start that. We were going to start at the end of October, but now I’m not sure about that. It may be a few months later. And, I’m doing another movie called Citizen Vince, where my character is in a witness protection program. It’s really good. And, there’s also Peace Like a River, which Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing. That’s a great book. So, I’ll be doing dramas for a while. I was telling I’ve got the comedy box set, for now. I need to go back and do some dramas.
MediaBlvd> Had you and Halle been looking for something else to do together?Billy Bob> We talked about it years ago. And, when we run into each other, it’s always like, “Hey, we’ve go to do something else together!” But, we haven’t been actively pursuing anything. When this came up, it just seemed like the right thing. It’s a really good script. Plus, it’s for Liongate, the company we did Monster’s Ball for, so it’s a reunion, in a lot of ways. John Singleton is directing it.
MediaBlvd> Since Southland Tales has been done for awhile, do you know what the final cut will be like?
Seann> I don’t. I haven’t seen it. I saw a bit of the long cut and I thought there were a lot of really cool things in it. It definitely seemed like it needed to be shortened up a bit. I think it’s a movie that you’re either going to love or hate. I think it could be really interesting. People are either going to think it’s really cool, or they’re going to think it’s pretentious. I may actually work with Richard Kelly in the fall, with Cameron Diaz, in The Box. We’ll see if that works out. We made it for such little money, and there are some really beautiful things in it. It’s weird, too.
MediaBlvd> The Box will be more straight forward, right?
Seann> Right. It’s based on a Twilight Zone episode. I play a father and a husband, so we’ll see. The premise is about this couple who’s been presented with this box, and this guy says that, if they push this button, they’ll receive money for it. It’s kind of based on Pandora’s Box. It’s a horror/thriller. The script is amazing. It’s unbelievable.
MediaBlvd> Billy Bob, how is The Informers going?
Billy Bob> It’s pretty new. I just signed on to do it, very recently.
MediaBlvd> You haven’t met any of your co-stars yet, like Ashley Olsen?
Billy Bob> I don’t even know who’s in it. I just agreed to do it because it’s really good. The script is terrific and the novelist is really good. In terms of the way it’s made, everybody’s got a cameo, in a sense, because it’s all these stories that are intertwined, but that all link up somehow, just like this movie I did, Love Actually, where I played the President. It’s that kind of movie, so nobody works forever on it. I’m on it for about 10 days. The only talk I’ve heard is that there’s a possibility that Kim Basinger will play my wife.
