B.L. Billy Bob, you are absolutely a scream in this movie.
B.B.T. (laughs) Well thank you very much!

B.L. I don’t think I’d ever want my kids sitting on a Santa’s lap like this guy. I was wondering back when you were a boy did you ever encounter a Santa like him?
B.B.T. Sure, a few times I’d meet one that was a little questionable but one that really stands out for me though was when I took my kids. This was several years ago, they are nine and ten now but this was probably when they were about five and six. We were actually in another state visiting and I took them out to the mall and put them on Santa’s lap and I think Santa was about halfway in the bag; he might have had a few cocktails just before he sat on the throne because he was a little extra jolly.

B.L. You must get so many scripts given to you but I am dying to know what your first reaction was when you were approached to play Bad Santa.
B.B.T. I just thought it was hilarious. It’s a great character and a hilarious movie and I liked the people involved. Terry Zwigoff directing it, the Coen brothers producing it and I thought, "Wow you can’t beat that." As you know, I try to play a different person in each movie and this was another different person and a real acting challenge. I actually loved doing this movie and the truth to it was trying to keep the same tone throughout the movie and to never get over-sentimental with it. Even during the sentimental parts of the movie, to still remain in that character. That’s what I think made the movie work, was that everybody was able to do that.

B.L. It’s a very different Christmas comedy; did you have any concerns at all about the edgy content?
B.B.T. I’ve been in movies with much more edgy content that this.

B.L. That’s true.
B.B.T. This is just a funny movie with some cursing. No sex, no major violence except for some people shooting at us a couple of times but really there is nothing in this movie that you haven’t seen. I don’t think there are any words that we used that haven’t been heard before. Plus it’s an ‘R’ movie.

B.L. Exactly, parents have to adhere to that and should be responsible. Your partner in crime, Marcus, played by Tony Cox, was also hysterical.
B.B.T. Yes, he was. What a great guy.

B.L. I understand that you played some practical jokes on him.
B.B.T. The thing is that Tony doesn’t have a bad bone in his body; he is just the nicest guy in the world. The scenes where he had to get mad, sometimes he wouldn’t get mad enough so I would say things about his wife and that made him mad; that was great.

B.L. The young boy in the movie too, Brett Kelly, it seemed like you had good chemistry with him. How was he to work with?
B.B.T. He was fantastic. He’s a Canadian kid from Vancouver and he was just a great sport and I loved working with him. My kids would visit the set and he would play with them and have lunch with them and stuff like that. It was a real good time making this movie and the kids were just a delight and totally understood what we were doing so it was never a problem.

B.L. Did you ever get tired of wearing that red Santa suit?
B.B.T. Sometimes it got a little warm because we were shooting in L.A. and it was in the summer. Some of the outdoor stuff when I had that Santa suit on was not fun, it got a little hot in there.

B.L. Of course this film was in memory of John Ritter who also has a role in it and was a very good friend of yours. It must have been heartwarming to have seen the dedication to him at the end of the film.
B.B.T. It sure was. Actually his wife (Amy Yasbeck) went with me to the premiere and I just thought that it would be good if she were sitting by a friend when she saw it. She laughed her head off. It was really good that his last movie was something that was so brilliantly funny, like he was.

B.L. So, Disney has put The Alamo on hold for a few months. Are you a little disappointed about that, you must be anticipating great things for that movie.
B.B.T. I’m not disappointed at all and yes; I am anticipating really great things. I’m delighted that they put it on hold. They didn’t have time to edit the movie and they were trying to rush it out for awards season and they finally came to their senses and said, "No, we can’t do this. We’ve got to actually cut the movie like you are supposed to." We finished shooting at the end of June and they were planning on putting it out on Christmas Day; I wouldn’t even try to put out an independent film that fast. So it was ridiculous to try and put an epic out that fast. We are going to put it out in April, which is great because now it won’t be up against every other big movie in the world and that’s a big plus for it. So I’m glad they are taking their time and are going to do it right.

B.L. And as for your music career, are we going to hear something new from you soon?
B.B.T. Well I have a record out now, "Edge of The World" which came out a couple of months ago so probably won’t have another one out for at least a year but we’ll come back around again.