That lovable ol' Billy Bob

I'm sure he's a charming drunk.
From Ebert:

"One question involving the conditions of performance:

Is it true that Billy Bob Thornton was drunk during most of his scenes for 'Bad Santa,' the Terry Zwigoff film that plays Tuesday in the festival? (It opened in the States last year.)

'Absolutely,' Thornton told me as we did a Q&A session at the American Pavilion. 'There's one scene where I'm supposed to arrive late to work as Santa Claus, with a cut face, holding a broken bottle. I get to the top of the escalator where all the kiddies are waiting and attack a papier-mache donkey.

'Well, I had overprepared for the scene, let's say, and I was supposed to wait at the bottom of the escalator until the director said, 'Action!' Then a crew member would start the escalator. I laid down on the steps and went to sleep, the escalator started, I didn't know a thing and I arrived upstairs, still passed out.'

The actor said he rarely drinks on the job, 'but this role seemed to call for it.'"