Horses was held up a year for release and got substantially trimmed from a running time of three hours to under two. Does it have a chance?

I really hope so. As far as the [release] baggage, a lot was made of it that shouldn't have been. One of the reasons it didn't come out last Christmas was that Ripley was coming out, and they always wanted to release it at Christmas. Both are Miramax co-productions, and Harvey [Weinstein, top dog at indie distributor Miramax] didn't want to take money out of his own pocket. Billy [Bob Thornton, the movie's director] has final cut at two hours, and this is the movie Billy feels great about. It's the age-old thing between directors and studios; the director will always want it longer. And any time a movie takes a long time to come out, people start speculating. It would really be a shame if that was the rider to every article about the movie. People assume this isn't the cut everyone's proud of. [But] that's just not true.

Why was it so special?

Billy Bob. He's just a miracle of a director and an amazing human being. The way he worked with all of us and the way he runs a set was bliss. The result — I'm so in awe. And, leaving myself out, the acting in the movie — I'm not counting myself in this — but all those actors are flawless, top to bottom.

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