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Did you grow up wanting to be at the Alamo? THORNTON:
“I think everybody did, in my neighborhood anyway. It was one of the main games we played. Davy Crockett in a way was more like a cartoon character, this larger than life bear hunter, who wore a coonskin hat. I always wanted to be Davy Crockett, and I used to argue with my brother over it. I finally let him be Daniel Boone, and he was satisfied.”
John Lee Hancock says he couldn’t imagine anyone else in the role – do you think that? THORNTON:
“I don’t think so. I think the reason John Lee said he couldn’t imagine doing it without me is every now and then you play a character that has some part of you in it, and this character seem to be, from what I read about Davy Crockett, sort of like (me). He was a guy who liked people and was a storyteller but, at the same time, he had this crazy edge to him. He perpetuated his own legend. I don’t know that I’ve perpetuated mine so much, but people have done it for me. So in that sense I relate. What I really tried to do in this movie was to play him as a regular guy, as opposed to the image we usually have, the John Wayne sort of thing.”
Did you do a lot of research? THORNTON:
“I was given some books by historians on the set. Some of them were very dry but helpful, because they had diaries in them. I think they were more important than anything else, these first-hand accounts.”
Were the battle scenes dangerous to shoot? THORNTON:
“Yeah, the battle scenes were very tricky in this movie. One thing that people don’t understand, they think when you do a movie everything is safe. Well it’s not. I’ve probably been injured in movies more than anyone else, and I was an athlete growing up. People always ask me if I ever do my own stunts, and I say, ‘Not on purpose.’”
Did they give you the coonskin hat? THORNTON:
“They haven’t given it to me yet. But I’m gonna get it, I guarantee you. I’m gonna get that hat, and I’m gonna wear it.”
How did they know how Crockett died? THORNTON:
“It was a diary from the Mexican lieutenant. He actually said that Crockett died by execution, and his exact words were, “Crockett died with courage and dignity and was well-behaved.’ I didn’t play it so well-behaved, but I did that for Texas!”
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THE CONCEPT:
