Billy Bob Thornton says that when he first arrived in Hollywood, his Southern roots didn’t help him — they held him back. The 70-year-old actor from Hot Springs, Arkansas, opened up about the bias he faced early in his career and how it shaped his view of the industry.

While speaking with Fox News Digital alongside co-star Sam Elliott, Thornton said there was “a certain prejudice” toward Southerners in Hollywood when he was starting out.

“It certainly makes you, at least for a period of time, stay in your wheelhouse,” Thornton said. “A guy from the Bronx can play a guy from Mississippi in the movies, I’ve found over the years. But a guy from Mississippi can’t really play a guy from the Bronx.”

He said he once auditioned for a student film about “a guy from Alabama just off the turnip truck in California,” only to be told he wasn’t “Southern enough.”

“I said, ‘Well, I am just off the turnip truck from Arkansas.’ And it’s like, ‘What do you mean?’ And what they were looking for was that Foghorn Leghorn [accent] — you know, the rooster on the cartoon. That’s the accent they were looking for, and I never really heard that. I grew up down there.”

Thornton said those experiences taught him how rigid Hollywood could be about its stereotypes, but things changed once he became successful.

“Here’s what it is,” he said. “Once you’re successful, I could walk into Universal Studios and say I wanna play Bette Davis. And they go, ‘Oh, that sounds like a good idea.’ And then when I was coming up, I couldn’t get a part as a hillbilly.”

Thornton moved to Los Angeles in 1985 to chase his dream of acting. During his early years, he worked as a telemarketer, offshore wind farmer, and fast-food manager while auditioning for bit parts. His break came in 1996 when he wrote, directed, and starred in Sling Blade, a film that won him an Academy Award for Best Screenplay and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

After years of struggle, Thornton became one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. He later earned another Oscar nomination for A Simple Plan and multiple Golden Globe Awards for his work in television, including the series Goliath and Landman.

His new series, Landman, created by Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace, explores life in the Texas oil fields. Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a crisis manager caught in the moral and economic chaos of the energy business. The show’s first season premiered in 2024 and was quickly renewed for a second.

Reflecting on what he learned while filming in Texas, Thornton said he gained a new respect for oil workers who risk everything to provide for their families.

“I think the thing that I learned that I wasn’t quite aware of before — because I knew some about the oil business — but I knew people more on the sort of suit side of it,” he said. “One of the things that surprised me was how many people who had had broken lives are working in the oil fields.”

“Got ex-cons and all kinds of things working out there because they can make from $120,000 to $180,000 a year to take care of their families when they try to straighten their lives out,” he continued.

“And they couldn’t make that much money anywhere else. So they’re willing to risk life and limb to support their family.”

Thornton’s co-star, Sam Elliott, also praised the series and its creator, Taylor Sheridan, saying it was an easy decision to join the cast.

“Having worked with Taylor on ‘1883’ was one of the great experiences of my career,” Elliott said. “I mean, this man is a genius in terms of putting a pen to the page. And when he asked me to come on and join a cast headed by Billy Bob Thornton, you know it ain’t gonna get any better for me.”

Elliott said Sheridan “just has a way of telling the truth in his work” and praised the realism and depth that make Landman so powerful.

The second season of Landman premieres November 16 on Paramount+, promising more drama and a closer look at the lives of Americans working in one of the toughest industries in the country.