If we discount the idea that he was eating only orange foods as a ridiculous rumor, is Billy Bob really nuts?

The orange food just came out today, and that's pure fantasy. It's kind of fun, being that I'm a good friend of his, to watch the things written about him, because they're so completely off-base and wacky. We laugh about them. He's got his eccentricities, but we all do. He's not nuts. He's someone I trust implicitly. If I could do every single movie with him as the director, that would be ideal for me. That's not bullshit. I haven't felt this way ever, and I don't know if I'll feel this way ever again, so this is my chance to say it.

Horses has a naturalness and a low-key sense where things are said without being spoken. Were you playing the subtext a lot?

The subtext is what the book's about, and what these guys are about. Whenever they speak, they [actually] have something to say. We're used to a culture where we keep talking no matter what. In preparation for this, it was interesting. I was with a rider, a wrangler — a real cowboy — all day, and I was peppering him with questions, and he turned to me and, not in a mean way, said, "I've said more in the last three days than I have in the last three months." He didn't mind it and it was true, but he wasn't used to talking that much.

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