Thornton said he was approached to play Norman Osborn, aka Green Goblin, in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man.” Years later, he was up for the role of the villain in “Mission: Impossible 3.”

Billy Bob Thornton does not want to be remembered as a villain. Sure, he'll play characters who have a questionable morality, but when it comes to the world of big franchise films, he'd rather skip it.

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 kill Tom Cruise.