Billy Bob fulfills his childhood dream

Billy Bob Thornton has fulfilled a childhood dream by portraying the frontiersman hero Davy Crockett in The Alamo, Disney’s retelling of the landmark Texas battle.

“As a kid we all wanted to be Davy Crockett,” Thornton told USA Today. “I had a Davy Crockett outfit and a coonskin cap. I’m no stranger to this character. Like Crockett, there are legends about my life. Some are true, some aren’t.”

Thornton hopes to paint a more realistic portrait of Crockett than those given by Fess Parker on television and John Wayne on film.

“He’s not just some macho man swinging a rifle and killing all the Mexicans,” he said. “He wasn’t sure what he had gotten himself into. It’s a case of someone who tries to live up to a legend his whole life then inadvertently becomes it.”

The film, currently shooting in Austin, Texas, co-stars Dennis Quaid as hard-drinking Sam Houston and Jason Patrick as knife-wielding Jim Bowie.