Before They Were Stars: Billy Bob Thornton in “Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade”

In 1994, Billy Bob Thornton was working pretty steadily as a character actor, but didn’t become a full-fledged star until he delivered his Academy Award-nominated performance as Karl Childers in Sling Blade two years later. However, Thornton originally portrayed the character in a 25-minute short film called Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, which is essentially the opening act of Sling Blade before Thornton got the funding to expand his story into a feature and continue Karl’s story after he was released from the mental hospital. The strangest aspect of this short is seeing Molly Ringwald, of all people, playing the reporter who interviews Karl!