Thornton: I could relate to Crockett

AUSTIN, Texas, April 12 (UPI) -- Billy Bob Thornton said in Texas he could relate more to his "Alamo" character, Davy Crockett, than to the odd-ball characters he often plays.

"Every now and then you play a character that has some part of you in it and thank God that all the characters I played, a good deal is not me," he explained. "Dennis Quaid said (about me as Crockett), 'It's really weird because you have a hillbilly star playing a hillbilly star.' I always tell people Crockett and I were Leos. We were both born in August.

"He was just a guy who liked people and was a storyteller and sort of a friendly guy, but at the same time he had this crazy edge to him and he perpetuated his own legend. I don't know that I've perpetuated mine as much, but people have done it for me."

Despite his high-profile relationships, obsessive-compulsive disorder and fear of French antiques, Thornton insisted: "Sometimes I'm not as weird as people would like me to be ... I'm a little more normal than what they say and so every now and then you have to throw people a bone. 'Okay, I ate a cat' or whatever."