*“Bad Santa 2” opens nationwide this week, and finds Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox reprising their roles as professional thieves Willie and Marcus — who disguise themselves as Santa (Willie) and his elf (Marcus) in order to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve. Mommy issues arise when the pair are joined by Willie’s horror story of a mother, (played by Kathy Bates), who raises the bar for the gang’s ambitions.
“I just think that if you enjoyed the first one, you’ll enjoy this one,” Tony Cox explained to EUR/Electronic Urban Report during a recent telechat. “I don’t know that there’s any surprises…you’re just going to get a lot more laughs.”
The film comes thirteen years after “Bad Santa” — which features the late John Ritter, and the late-great Bernie Mac. An unrated version was released on DVD in 2004 and on Blu-ray Disc in 2007 as “Bad(der) Santa.”
“It’s just pure, adult entertainment,” Cox says of Bad Santa 2. “At Christmas time, not everybody is good. It’s not all turkey, stuffing and all that good stuff. You got people that are out there who are really bad Santas. You got people playing bad Santas that are really like Billy’s character. But we just want people to come out and laugh and have a good time.”
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Cox says Thornton has a “look” while delivering his lines that often times makes it difficult for him to get through filming scenes together without laughing.
“Besides delivering the lines, he just has this look, and that look just drives me nuts. But what do you expect, he’s an Academy Award winner.”
Tony’s credits span nearly two decades, and include “Me, Myself and Irene,” “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie” and “Disaster Movie.” His role in “Bad Santa” finds his character gradually change from the main character’s friend to his adversary. Cox told us that he finds playing off Thornton’s “method” of acting quite enjoyable.
“It’s easy to play off of him, and he is a method actor. A lot of times I watch Billy and I look at him before we do the scene, and you see him over there — his lips are going and he’s thinking about the way he’s going to do it. Those method actors, if the scene requires you to urinate on yourself, Billy wants to really do it. Wardrobe is going, “No, No, No!” They would rather like, put some water on it and make it look like he’s peed on himself. But Billy wants to do it. He’s deep when he gets into character.”
Cox describes his character Marcus as the type who wants what he wants, when he wants it.
“My character is the type like, if I want you to be on time, I want you to be on time. If I tell you something, that’s the way it is. As far as Billy’s character, he doesn’t like me telling him what to do. He doesn’t like to take orders from anybody, and I feel like that makes us work together as a team.”
Similar to the first film, Cox says Marcus’ primary motivation is money, and he can’t get it without Willie’s help.
“It’s all about the money. I need to have him back because I tried to kill him in the first one, and so I need to get him back because… actually, we need each other because he can’t work without me, and I can’t work without him. So the motivation is all about money for me. To get him to come back to work so I can make some money, and we both can make some money.”
Of all the hilarious characters Cox has played throughout his career, which one is his favorite?
“Without a doubt it’s Marcus,” he says. “I just like playing Marcus, even though I’m so different than Marcus, but it gives me a chance to get out stuff that maybe I’ve been wanting to get out. It’s a relief, and I think having Billy on the other side giving it to me, and I’m giving it back to him — we just work. I think from the minute that I went to read with Billy, it was something that just clicked. And we’ve been having it ever since. ”
“Bad Santa 2” landed in theaters Nov. 22.
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