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Bill Paxton talks about being a leading man — times three
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HBO
For a television show, 'Big Love' seems to have an awful lot of movie actors in it.
PAXTON
It's kind of unique situation, because just about all of the major actors have never done television before. Jeanne's never done a series or Chloë or Ginnifer. I don't think Harry Dean or Bruce Dern or any of those guys have done one. That's kind of cool.
You know, usually you turn on a new series and you kind of have to get to know the actors as new characters, but viewers are gonna see me and put me on like a pair of old slippers.
HBO
[Laughs]
PAXTON
I'm excited about it. This is the best role to come down the pike for me in a long time. Some of my favorite films growing up were movies like "Splendor in the Grass," and "Romeo and Juliet," the classics, you know? And that stuff was kind of denied to me for most of my career. I've had some leading ladies over the years, but usually the love story was the subplot, you know, while we were running from a twister or getting eaten by a gorilla or whatever. So it's kind of crazy for me to have this love story times three.
HBO
How has that been on set? Do you get along with the women personally?
PAXTON
The actors are so good, you know, I feel like we've all kind of got this kooky chemistry with each other.
I gotta tell you, when I met Jeanne Tripplehorn, I didn't know she was from Tulsa. I'm from Fort Worth. They're culturally kind of twin cities. I thought she was from some blueblood, Main Line Philadelphia family. And we got on like a house afire.
And then when I met Chloë, you know, she's got a great personal style, a great sense of humor. And she grew up in Connecticut and New York, and I was a student in New York, and lived there for five years. And then, Ginnifer from Memphis, a southern gal who's coming up as a younger actor, it kind of reminds me of when I was that age. She's very positive and effervescent and just genuinely sweet.
I guess I'm kind of a Peter Pan character. There are different aspects of my own personality that find all three of these women really charming and sexy and just fun to be with.
HBO
You've mentioned that you're all still in the honeymoon phase. But were you surprised that everyone gets along so well?
PAXTON
Good work is hard to come by in this business. If you're smart enough to realize that, you're going to have a good time when you're working. And I think all of us are hep to that.
And there's an equality to the roles. I guess art imitates life. It's a polygamist marriage. So all three are very important. I get along with all the gals. There's something about each one of them that I find appealing and relatable to. For example, when I wanted to get the gals a little gift, you might think it sounds crazy, but I really wanted to be impartial. So I got 'em all these really cool bicycles and I got myself one. But I had each one detailed slightly differently. So they're the same, but they're different. That's kind of the way it works on the show, you know what I mean?
HBO
How would you describe what's going on with your character this season?
PAXTON
Mark and Will have created almost a Corleone-type saga for Bill Henrickson, almost something out of Greek myth. This is a guy who's always getting pulled back into his fate, because it's his destiny.
HBO
Did you have any particular feelings about polygamy before you started on the show?
PAXTON
You know, going back to the beginning of time, it's all through the Bible — a lot of prophets of the Bible were polygamists. And there are still cultures today where polygamy is allowed.
We get so far from the idea that we are just part of the natural world. But if you were a healthy apple tree, aren't you supposed to make apples? You can imagine how people settling the West, facing high infant mortality rates and having to live off the land, might be drawn to it. And if you're trying to grow a religion, even more so. I think in a way it's kind of conceit of modern man to think, "Well, I can only have 2.2 children," and all that stuff.
If I lived a thousand or two thousand years ago, and I was a healthy buck...[laughs]...I probably would have had several wives.
HBO
You can see some of the upsides of polygamy?
PAXTON
[Laughs] Well, God, yeah. I mean, it's a fantasy. It's funny, I think there's something in each gal that is definitely appealing and all three gals have incredible sex appeal on the show. And for a forty-something guy like that to be able to kind of have a little variety in his life, uh, gee...[laughs] Again, though, I'm talking on a fantasy level.
HBO
In fact you've been happily married a long time.
PAXTON
Yeah, I have. In fact, I kind of relate to Jeanne's character personally, because my marriage to my wife Louise has been about the same length of time. It's something you work at, you know, but the rewards are really great if you hang in there. And we're really enjoying raising our two kids; we're just nuts about them.
So on a fantasy level is one thing, on real day-to-day level it becomes super-problematic. That's why I like the idea on our show that everyone is completely open about it. There's no betrayal in it. They've all got one guy they can talk about and they've got each other's support. They're sister-wives. The show becomes almost four people married to each other as opposed to one guy with three wives.
HBO
Did you find it hard to commit to a series when you're accustomed to individual projects?
PAXTON
You know, when it's time to pick the peaches, I'm out there picking. A lot of times as an actor, you're just walking around with your thumb up your ass. It's tough to stay disciplined and to have a life, and not to be miserable between jobs. I love spending time with my family, but after a while, if you're not working, you feel like a bum.
For me, this came at a great time in my career. I've been an itinerant film actor for my whole career. I've always had to fight for my jobs and my screen time, so I've always fancied the idea of finding a great character that I could play on an ongoing basis, the idea of the subtleties you could get into.
I don't feel like I've devalued my movie stock by doing an HBO series. In fact, I've probably done just the opposite.
HBO
And you've been developing a directing career — you had already committed to directing a big Disney movie, 'The Greatest Game Ever Played,' when you got involved in 'Big Love.'
PAXTON
When I got the call from my agent to look at the pilot, I was already in pre-production. But after I read it, I knew we had to figure it out. Talk about having some plates spinning. But in a weird way, it worked for my character to have so much on my plate. I really felt like the guy.
HBO
Does directing change your outlook as an actor?
PAXTON
I think sometimes actors get too wrapped up in their own stuff and we don't quite realize how hard everyone is working to make us look good. We really are the fighter pilots — you know, there's a fifty-man ground crew putting you up in the air.
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Video
Watch the promos and interviews for the show.
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