Billy Bob Thornton turned down Green Goblin and ‘Mission: Impossible’ roles

Billy Bob Thornton is more than happy to play a foul-mouthed Santa (“Bad Santa”) or a high school football coach (“Friday Night Lights”) or a NASA scientist (“Armageddon”), but one thing he won’t do on the big screen is to kill Tom Cruise. During an interview d The Playlist’s “Bingeworthy” Podcastrecalled the actor turning down two major Hollywood villain roles: the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” and arms dealer Owen Davian in “Mission: Impossible III.”

“I don’t have much interest in those kinds of roles,” Thornton said. “With Green Goblin, I didn’t want to get up at 4 in the morning for five or six hours of makeup. And with ‘Mission: Impossible III,’ I didn’t want to be the guy who tried to kill Tom Cruise. If you’re the bad guy guy in a big movie like that, the audience remembers it forever. I prefer to keep things looser and less predictable.”

Willem Dafoe famously took on the role of the Green Goblin, while Philip Seymour Hoffman was cast to go head to head with Cruise in “Mission: Impossible 3.” Both films were box office successes, with Dafoe’s turn as the Spider-Man villain considered one of the most iconic turns in a comic book film. Dafoe reprized the character in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and has expressed interest in playing the Green Goblin a third time.

“If everything was right, of course,” Dafoe shared Conversely last year. “I mean, it’s a great role. I liked that it’s a double role both times. Twenty years ago, and very recently, both times (were) very different experiences, but I had a good time with both .”

During his press tour for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Dafoe said his main condition for repressing the villain was that he not make a cameo appearance.

“I really didn’t want to do a cameo,” Dafoe shared Mary Sue then. “I wanted to make sure there was something substantial enough to do that wasn’t just a tip of the hat. And the other thing was I said I really want there to be action – I want to participate in action scenes. Because it’s really fun for me. It’s the only way to root for the character. Otherwise, it’s just a series of memes.”

As for Thornton, he’s currently headlining the Paramount+ original drama “Landman.” He has stayed away from Hollywood cartoon movies for now.