The Fast Times of William F@%king Thornton

Brock Goldberg:   0:06
from the land of mystery with dreams become reality Always listening to stories from the past, the present and the future. This is back. So you know, when I asked you to come on the podcast. Ah, I just You know, I've known you now for probably a year. Yeah, maybe you're two years, however long it's been. And every time that we've have met hung out, I've always had a great time. You last time we went out to dinner with your pops, you took us a lot sooner. What was that place called again? So Sunset Marquis? Yeah, that was awesome, man. Listen, I had so much fun.

William Thornton:   1:00
You should check out the history. Okay. Sunset Marquis. Um, it's like a TV getting thrown out the window by the base technician for, you know, Radiohead or whatever. It's like that kind of place. There's always something happening that, um but it's a hotel, but it's also just like a weird hit in little

Brock Goldberg:   1:22
Yeah, that's what I liked about. It was like this hidden gem. I had no idea. Like we pulled up in front of like What the fuck

William Thornton:   1:28
will you go half a block up? Yeah, and then you're at, like, local showcase at the whisky. Yeah. Then you go down the street. You like, I could have a nice dinner.

Brock Goldberg:   1:35
Absolutely nice dinner. And it's just it's gorgeous. Was nice relaxing, and everyone was so cool. And, um, you know, when I was going through people that I was gonna hit up to come on the podcast, I was like, Wow, uh, let me let me hit up. Willie, I didn't know if you were even going to respond to my message, right? Uh, no, no, seriously. I mean, you know, we've hung out in all of that shit, but everyone's got their busy life. I gotta tell you, I used to be the biggest person. Ah, you text me and got my text messages would start stacking up, and sometimes they're looking to be, like, 200 messages missed.

William Thornton:   2:07
And I completely agree with you just playing people like that for me, but at the same time, like, yeah, there's not this. You actually had a question, which is in a vague, like Do we gotta hang out sometime? Yeah. What does that mean exactly? Tell me what that means.

Brock Goldberg:   2:24
Yeah. I have no idea. I

William Thornton:   2:27
don't even know what that means. That's absolutely and so. But when someone says something like that, and that's another thing about like getting older when time becomes more precious. I think I was talking to all my friends about this the other day. It's amazing how much time we spent going to a 7 11 parking lot. Yeah, and just having a good time. Just doing that and living in Burbank Now I see like I get it must be like a cultural thing. But it's amazing how, like Armenian guys just like their company so much. Yes, hang on the parking lot. Bachman. It'll be cool. 2026. I won't even do that. People have for 10

Brock Goldberg:   3:02
years. Yes, I know, but But back in the day was so different right

William Thornton:   3:05
back did it. It's just that was all there was. Yeah, but time you start realizing how finite time is. It is, Um, but when people have something that they actually want to do or accomplish, you cannot turn a shy. I do that. It's not the right thing to do.

Brock Goldberg:   3:19
You know, that's probably the best answer I've heard because I've been racking my brain. Like, why have so many people been very cool? Like, just kind enough to come on. It's not

William Thornton:   3:29
that you have your side already done. That's the point. Thank you. You in this room? This This is why. You know, I'm saying

Brock Goldberg:   3:38
I got it

William Thornton:   3:39
whenever someone was Do we gotta meet for a drink? When I went to a meeting, actually at the marquee guy today. And the only reason I showed up because these guys were so adamant. They had so much already I had nothing to fuck to do with it. They just wanted to show me what they had. I love that I could have been someone else, and they'll swap me out with someone else. But they have their own thing going on. Yeah, that's that. That's what matters.

Brock Goldberg:   4:01
Absolutely, Absolutely. I really appreciate that. And that you've got you saying that. And it is. It's important. Anything that you do in your life, right? It's not about You know how many things you do. It's the quality of the things that you do. And whenever you take something on what? Whatever it is in your life, if you put your full heart into it. If you fucking just do it, uh, the results will be completely different. Eso back to your story is really about an individual story. You know where they came from, who they are. And, um, you know where they're going. Um, you know, for if you could just please the people listening kind of give ah, brief background of you know who you are, and then we'll dive a little bit deeper.

William Thornton:   4:39
Okay, Um so we talked about like everyone has their like, crux is and they're tropes. And, uh, I've had, like, three really common themes in my life, and all three of those things have been nepotism. It has been mental illness and has been self awareness. And those things are the things that have always dominated Anything I do those air, the most dominant factors and anything that's happened to me and the kind of interchange where you go to a place where it's like, Oh, I'm dealing with mental illness and I'm super self aware or I'm dealing with nepotism now and I'm dealing with mental illness, or I'm dealing with the nepotism with mixed with the self awareness, and it's always like it always kind of like goes back and forth and the journey I've had as far as what I've done, I've never been confident. But at the same time, I can look at someone else. A go. How the fuck are you doing that? Yeah, Every single time I see anyone do anything. Like, how the fuck did you get there? What? You Why did you take a chance on doing that? And I hate to say it, but most times it's like whether that person is so reserved the fact that they're painfully self aware, like, fuck it, I'm gonna do this. The airport, because they're just too stupid and not aware they're like this is normal, right? Yes. So those are kind of like the main tropes in my life for him. And I had two lives. No, I lived a life with one parent. And then I lived another life with another parent, and I saw two sides off, literally the opposite spectrums of parenting. And the first side was the typical crazy shed. Who knows what's gonna happen? Kind of like I have a lot of friends who grew up in. No, I'm not gonna say colts but really intense religious families.

Brock Goldberg:   6:35
I get it

William Thornton:   6:36
and you talk to them and you see where they end up and you meet these people in L. A. For some from Mormon families. And they come from boarding and Christian and Christian science and all these other

Brock Goldberg:   6:46
all different walks of life

William Thornton:   6:47
walked absolutely. And even though we weren't surrounded by it, I grew up in a born again Christian household.

Brock Goldberg:   6:53
What was that like, You know, growing up in, ah, religious household, right being who you are. Um, did you always kind of see yourself following that path, or was it something different?

William Thornton:   7:06
Well, it's it's so bizarre because as much as I could believe, because I did believe that hell was a real place, I believe as much as I like, Burma was a real place. It was like all you have to do is drill far enough and you're gonna find help.

Brock Goldberg:   7:20
And that it was really I get it. I don't get it, but I get it as I know it was there. It was a

William Thornton:   7:27
real place and somehow even having that like deep seated feeling of wanting to do things that contradicted the biggest thing. I was afraid of it. Absolutely affected a lot of the choices. I mean, yeah, um, but I always found a way, and I always find a way to find things that I liked and things that went against that fear, things that went against my belief system. But gearing out of religion is a really tough thing to do, because after a while you start asking yourself all the things I've sacrificed to be good for this thing you regret more than you're willing to move forward. And that's what ends up happening. Go. Okay. I didn't do that because I was afraid of that thing. And that was a really weird tipping point for me. Like, 14. 15.

Brock Goldberg:   8:18
So have 14. 15 so prior to 14. 15. It hell was a real place to you. This was everything. That was it for you. Now, um, where were you? The typical type family went to church every Sunday. Or was it something that, you know was preaching your family?

William Thornton:   8:35
I'm not going to give my mom and diagnosis, but I lived in a family. Um, my dad and my mom split up when I was a kid and when they split up. It was a really titular point for not just like divorce attorneys and things like that. But it was also like a weird point because of the whole O. J. Simpson thing. So the O. J. Simpson thing happens. He gets acquitted. You got half the world is angry. Half the world is happy. At that point, something really dangerous happened in Hollywood and and this goes down to divorce lawyers in Ohio, two divorce lawyers in New York and Los Angeles. Is that what ends up happening right now? Even with the accusation on, we're in the point where there's a lot of accusation.

Brock Goldberg:   9:31
So this is in 94 97

William Thornton:   9:33
94 between 93 92 98

Brock Goldberg:   9:36
okay, And you're

William Thornton:   9:37
the span, and that's when this this is happening because I'm born 93 OK, divorce starts happening. 95 96.

Brock Goldberg:   9:44
So you're just a young kid. I'm 34 years old now. Why did the O. J. Simpson thing affect your family so much? But some, you know, for me I mean, it was crazy to watch, but it didn't mean it affected l. A. But it's not you know didn't affect my day to day life.

William Thornton:   9:57
So it's because and you watch this happen with industry to So when a lot of companies had issues with, like we have OSHA now we have unions. We have all these other things when all this stuff happens and there's so many fingers a point because there are real bad guys out there. There's not enough time to look at every single individual thing, and there's a fear that you might go against it and you might be wrong. And so what I'm saying by that is like when my mom, my dad, got divorced. My mom is smart. Mom is crazy, but she's smart. And when my dad, my mom, are getting divorced, what ends up happening right there is that she sees this case okay, and she attaches herself Wow! And becomes almost the embodiment of Nicole Simpson. What postmortem? Okay, and says all the things that you wish that you would have heard by that person and it was, and no one looked at the kids. No one asked anybody what was actually happening or people around. And this divorce case comes and my mom was actually represented by Gloria Allred. Okay, And she's like, she's like Dog, the bounty hunter

Brock Goldberg:   11:09
that cops. Yeah. I mean, it's like it's like this course ashes. If anyone listening, you just look her up. You'll you'll know exactly what it's a. It's a TV personality and she represented your mom because just because it was controversial, not because but how did it affect you? Because I was O. J. Simpson? Not

William Thornton:   11:26
because at the time, ever all the people who were better about the divorce case between a celebrity and whoever it may be the violence. And another thing, a completely unrelated thing was channeled so to kind of like, put that in a place to go. But what if this was what it was like?

Brock Goldberg:   11:45
So for people are are listening. You're your father's Billy Bob Thornton. And so at that time, your parents were, you know, getting, you know, divorce.

William Thornton:   11:53
They were gonna divorce like most other couples with, but this is different. But it was. It's on Lee, bizarre in the sense that, like my mom, is just a CZ wacky as she may be, mom's smart woman. I mean, I've had plenty of conversations with her She's very self aware. She's very smart, but it was a perfect timing thing. And this just happened and we got to this place and I was too young to figure out what was going on. Before I could even figure it out. It was too late. But what happens with all of us? We turn 13 or 14. Yes, we find Motor Head or yes, whatever. And we want to go drink in the parking lot, and we want to figure ourselves out. You start looking. You're asking yourself what is to happen as Holmes, Maman. Asshole is

Brock Goldberg:   12:36
all that shit by an asshole at 14. I mean, a me growing up in a household with an alcoholic father, abusive father. Um, and and that's what I turned Teoh, right? Because every single day I come home, it's the same bullshit. Yelling, screaming, fighting. Um, So what did I do? I put my life and every all my free time and, you know, smoke and we even getting drunk in the park. So ah, lot of kids around the world, they're going to that same thing. And at 14 you're no different. Although you have, you know, a father who is a celebrity. That does not make it any different. We're all human beings.

William Thornton:   13:12
So it was almost like the same way. And the only way I can compare this is it. Whenever my mom told me when I was sad that God loved me, he was there for me. Jesus heard my thoughts or whatever. That's no different to me than having this mysterious other person out there who did care about me because it wasn't there. It wasn't in my face. It wasn't by choice on that party or by my party. I was too young, and he was court ordered, so I I didn't have that opportunity. Um, but I do think it's an interesting thing of when you get kids. And I always ask the question when we talk about like cults, when we talk about things like that, like you get told for so long, something's real. Somehow, human beings always find reality. Of course, unless you're completely and utterly deranged, you could be told your whole life that in the closet there's a gigantic squid who's going to eat you? We all figure out it's not our parents, man. We figure out Santa Claus isn't real on her own. Of course, that's not because somebody it's not usually

Brock Goldberg:   14:21
well, that's life, right? We're always told him for for the most part of human beings, you know, we're told this and then we figure it out. You know, there are people out there that even if they're told that wait a minute, this is bullshit. They still continue toe, you know, look at it.

William Thornton:   14:35
And that's the denial, of course, And it because it's comfortable. It's easier to believe that that's true. And you know what? I wish I had it in me to feel more comfortable saying, like, You know what? Santa Claus is real. I wish I had that. It would make this place a lot more whimsical.

Brock Goldberg:   14:50
Of course, I wish. I'm absolutely We wish that the way we thought. You know, as you know, our brains and the things were going through his Children. Right? Uh, if we still had that life would be completely different. But, uh, this is really this is reality. We get older and and shit happens,

William Thornton:   15:08
it's It keeps happening. It doesn't stop.

Brock Goldberg:   15:10
No, and not at all. But But I want to kind of bring that back because he did say something your mother embodied a Nicole Kidman. Was that because you know Gloria was her defense attorney?

William Thornton:   15:22
Well, it's market ace. It's marketing end. And what ended up happening for me? It was the scariest thing to me because I believed it all up until a certain point. And if I if you gave me a couple more falls as a kid or maybe like, just didn't give me a book or something, maybe that would have been absolute. Not a reality. Um, but we talk about phases. If I didn't have the chance to go from 14 to 26 I would be angry because between that time, I was angry. And now that I'm here, I can look at something. And you were in a new age. We're in an age of self acceptance, of course, until illness and information in Israel and information, that's it. That's it. And when you get to that evil kind of starts fading away,

Brock Goldberg:   16:11
absolutely. Imagine if you were 14 years old going through this, all of this, and you had the Internet right where you'd be able to read a lot of shit. You know. Ah, you know stuff about your father, your mother. You know this, that and the other. But we do live in an age where there's a lot of information. How does one decipher between what is factual and what is bullshit? Um, so for you, there had to have been a tipping point because you're 14 years old, you're starting toe realize. Wait a minute. Everything I've been told is ah is a lie.

William Thornton:   16:43
Well, there's that, but it's also it's the I think the most interesting part about that was that I didn't know because I thought you'd. Everyone doubts themselves. When you make a big decision where you're about to quit your job, you're gonna move across the country, you're gonna pursue a dream. You're

Brock Goldberg:   17:00
gonna propose whatever it is. Whatever it

William Thornton:   17:02
is, there's two sides and all of those things. And if you have a suspect, any of that mind about you, yeah, you will see an experience both of those outcomes you have to. So and it's it's almost more rewarding when you get the good one. But you have to be prepared for that and whatever. Like I've died a 1,000,000 times. I always say that I've experienced that death. I've experienced what's like to see everyone that I know and love not be there with me. I've experienced my dad dying, my mom dying, my brother dying, my best friend dying. I've lived through it when I'm there and I'm alone or I'm there and I'm with people. I think about it, mate. I try and get there in that headspace as best as I can. I gotta, um, in that moment when you're making, like, a really, like, titular decision, it's like it's so scary and foreign. You only have in that situation for me. I only had two opportunities. It was everything I know is a lie or everything I know is true. And I just fucked up really bad, okay? And the way I left wasn't good. I didn't I didn't call you go. I'm gonna leave. I'd have had a physical altercation I had with your mom. Er, yeah. I had a really bad way of leaving that good. And what I think it showed me that it showed me that no matter where you are, you always have a choice. Because even as I like you, I can't tell us to a kid because I know that they won't believe me, cause I wouldn't believe me. But you could walk up to a 13 year old whose dad is a fucking alcoholic and beating the shit out of you and your mom is a cokehead. And she's a stripper. And what? Whatever horrible thing and you're living in Oklahoma, the walk up to someone who's just like walking to the corner store and buying their parents beer and their their biggest crushes their cousin Lizzie to walk up to them. Go

Brock Goldberg:   19:01
out. Everything's gonna get better for you because you could make it better. Yes,

William Thornton:   19:05
it's impossible. Yeah, it's impossible to say, because and there is that opportunity, but that's just a CZ. Much is like I have the opportunity and maybe be like the greatest youtuber of all time. It doesn't mean I'm gonna go fucking do it,

Brock Goldberg:   19:19
of course, but there's possibilities, and at that that is endless. When you're young and you're told things, it's you're like fuck that, you know, I have to figure it out on my own

William Thornton:   19:28
breaking out of that and there's it's It's almost to the point where, like and I don't want to get, like two religious on this, but I'm surprised at how normalized born again Christianity is in with the youth aspect. Because I was there and I saw how it was and how it was treated, and it was so aggressive because it's it's It's a California Catholicism's. It's what you have, you

Brock Goldberg:   19:58
know, for me. I grew up. I'm Jewish, right? I grew up Jewish. Ah, but I was the Jewish, you know, family on the block who celebrated Christmas bigger than anyone else, right? I am not religious. You know, quarter we were in

William Thornton:   20:10
some way by the

Brock Goldberg:   20:11
same way. But you I don't know. There's kind of like this stigmatism for some of these religions because of their thought beliefs. You know about gays? This that and the other. Um, it was this stuff that was pumped down. Your you know, your head you were brainwashed with, You know, some of the bullshit that these religions have, you know, over and say

William Thornton:   20:34
those that was bullshit that we talked about

Brock Goldberg:   20:37
because there's good and on all of it. But there's also dark

William Thornton:   20:40
Well, what it is a moral People need a moral compass. Yeah, And religion, I believe, is there for people who cannot self aware themselves to a point of finding a moral compass.

Brock Goldberg:   20:51
You're just needed mushroom a CZ long as you're 25 older. Yeah,

William Thornton:   20:57
it's, I think, when you instill something that is so based in and eternal damnation fear it's fear and fear is not love. Um, and then when you get back to another side of that, which is old, I don't even have to say this. It's like you can always find the source of why you can't wear purple on a Thursday because you're going to go to help this the same way that you can look at the law in Michigan and be like You can't drive with 13 Pumas in your back seat while you're playing a Kenny Chesney song and wearing a cowboy hat. It's because one guy fucked it a 12 spying methods, but not 13. And there's all these, like, really specific laws we have. And they're always because one person fucked it up for the one person and then, like churches, like born again Christianity. For me, especially, I think it is a perfect timing, though it's it's between 1999 and 2007. It was the doomsday religion where every single person was either all in and they were ready to die because there was a tsunami coming. It was the end times We lived in the end times. That's grand. There was drills and there was talking about the end of the war. Did you go through any of this? Oh, yeah, Well, it's all, like, really based in we won't be here that much longer because we're gonna be swallowed by the sea. And when you think that way, like, repercussions don't matter. But you have to be so good and knowing that it's about the end. It was a very

Brock Goldberg:   22:30
so scary and I just have so scary. All of this is like, um, built on fear, like you were saying And so, ah, being a young kid, going through all of this, going through these drills, which is fucking nuts, there was I want to get to that tipping point, right? You had that fight and then what happened? You walked away. You left. Your mom's dad is where with the hex girls.

William Thornton:   22:54
So it wasn't particularly like a kosher transition because I wasn't supposed to be there. Um and I know it's troublesome because that this is like a law thing. But I went from a place that I was supposed to be that I shouldn't have been. And I went to a place I wasn't allowed to be that I should have been and whether I had grown up in one of the other, and I would have been different person. I take happiness knowing that I had the experiences that I did. Because I am who I am today. And I'm happy with way

Brock Goldberg:   23:26
respect. I get that. And that's a good share of no, absolutely.

William Thornton:   23:30
Um, but when I got to the next place, it's It's almost so important. By contrast, that I had the other side because I wouldn't have been noble appear, appreciate what I had. And if you don't have that contrast, dude, then you never know how good it is. I get you wake up and you're always okay. You don't know what bad means. You don't. You can't handle it.

Brock Goldberg:   23:51
No. Especially even when this smallest Uh, you know, the smallest bad thing happens to an individual if you've never experienced it. is fucking

William Thornton:   24:00
tear it. An inconvenience can be life shadow.

Brock Goldberg:   24:02
Yeah, yeah, it's so important to see both sides, right?

William Thornton:   24:05
And you have to.

Brock Goldberg:   24:06
So you went from this doomsday, you know, just

William Thornton:   24:09
And I love my mother. I do, Yeah, but I know what she's dealing with. And I understand the mindset and the fear and all that other things, but it's not who I am. And so when I left, I just knew that that wasn't me, and I move and I show up and it was bizarre because I go from there is the ocean is going to eat us sometime soon. Yeah, when? We don't know. But it soon. Um, so we go from that into, like a really accepting anything is a possibility. Whatever you do is good. And and that's what I'm gonna say the most that I love about my dad is that he has an ability, too, because he came from a bad place and he saw that there was a bad thing that happened. And he grew up with people who didn't do shit incurable people who I literally did nothing with their lives. And he just went out there and he took a chance and it showed me that that was possible.

Brock Goldberg:   25:09
Your dad? Where did he grew up?

William Thornton:   25:11
He grew up in Arkansas. Okay, And Arkansas is like a weird thing. We're like, I think it's like nine out of 10 people work at the gas station or something. But there's like no one to get gas. Everyone works at the gas station already. They're already there. It's like a really weird thing. And so he leaves. There he comes L A. He makes mom. He has us. Everything goes bad, you know? It's life story. It's a break up. Um, but when I moved in, it was so different hearing from you have to do this in order to be OK to do what makes you happy. That's huge. Huge. The first thing I didn't know, though, was I didn't know what made me happy. So for a long time I did nothing and you weren't happy. But that was on me. Well, it wasn't that I wasn't happy. It was just that, like I didn't even know what that meant. If someone gave you the world right now and they said, and this is a question I've asked myself if someone said You could have a perfect career and be the best in your class right now. Pick it. What is it? Podcasting. Casting, See? And for a long time, I didn't know what that meant. I get it, and I didn't even know. Like there's so many, like Anthology horror films and movies and genies and stuff like that that pop up and like, You can have everything you want. You want me like there's always something wrong with it, Of course. And I didn't know what happiness even meant because I was just so happy, too. Be able to make my own decisions. I didn't care what happened.

Brock Goldberg:   26:40
You were 14 or 15 of this

William Thornton:   26:42
Fort was a couple weeks before my 14th birthday, a

Brock Goldberg:   26:44
couple of extra very 14th birthday going through all of this, leaving your mom's place going to your dad's. And at this point, your dad was a with a well known celebrity. Um, was it was there a huge cultural change for you? I mean especially, you know, religion to Dad. Um, your mom, I mean to your dad. It's definitely got to be a massive difference.

William Thornton:   27:07
It was a huge difference because I would, you know, go down to the kitchen, and, uh, it's horrible. Horrible thing happens. I move in, and I'm thankful, but I felt like I went to a shelter. Okay? I didn't feel quite comfortable. You know, actors like the towel feels a bit wrong. Get out of the shower and you don't know, like, yes. Should I put this here? Is this toothbrush? Is that okay? They use that was very like that. And he was very careful with me and very caring. So I get out and it was like, the second night I was there. And, you know, this is a big deal. And I called my mom, and I said I left in the middle of night. I'm not coming back. I wish you the best. That's how I left it. I told my dad Hey, I know I'm not supposed to be here, but this is the right thing to do. And you know, it's the right thing to do. And I know it's the right thing to do. And whatever she brings up, I will go. I will talk. I will do anything because this is a court thing. and I was like, I'm willing to do this. And they came to some kind of agreement aside for me. But I felt uncomfortable. I felt like I was overstaying my welcome and all the reassurance. It's so new. And, uh, it was such a came from such a caring place that my step mom was amazing. Connie her and my dad came into my room and they said, You know, hey, we're happy you're here. Whatever you need, you let us know when you go to sleep, call us. Come knock on the door of whatever you need. So I go and Mike never like you should take a bath. So I go when I run the bath And I was so tired from everything that's going on. I went, I sat down, my dad gave me a Jimmy Cliff CD on Jimmy. Cliff is I don't give a club is a great reggae artist, and he gives me a Jimmy Cliff CD and put it on you. That's gonna make you feel better. Jimmy Cliff started sitting fallen asleep. I don't have any idea how long went by, but it must have been like 78 hours and I woke up just like absolute mayhem because I was on the second floor houses built in authority. So it's not? Yeah, some sound. Yeah. And, uh, I just left the bath running for seven hours, and I flooded the kitchen Jim and the side room and the living room and know everything was running within 48 hours and me moving in, I destroyed, like, $60,000 worth of property. And I was just like, That's it. Yeah, you're done. I'm done. Yeah. And it wasn't that.

Brock Goldberg:   29:35
No, it wasn't.

William Thornton:   29:35
It was. Accidents happen. And that was, like, the first lesson in patience. I learned fucking and all these amazing things that come from those stupid and things don't matter. We matter thinking. Exactly. And it was gorgeous, man. It

Brock Goldberg:   29:47
was me that did that, you know, going through something like that. Especially this very short transition. Not really feeling welcome now, ruining all of this shit. But they didn't get upset.

William Thornton:   29:59
No, they didn't get it.

Brock Goldberg:   29:59
I mean, attorney, for sure, like I just little fucker, but is your son. Yeah, I love you

William Thornton:   30:05
know, it was unconditional love, in a sense that wasn't based out of fear, and that's an important lesson for me,

Brock Goldberg:   30:10
and that's huge. And that's something that you hold today, especially being able to. I kind of just share word for word visualizing. I can see that the way that you're talking about it, um, that was a pivotal moment in your life. This is where your life does start to change in your brain, starts to open up

William Thornton:   30:28
to, you know, ideas. And and I think the point of all of that is what I'm trying to get at is that whenever you do something, whenever someone else, we're gonna put quotations on this of fucks up. The way you treat them when they fuck up is how they're going to treat someone else when they fuck up. When you keep that going, when you know howto handle that and you do it the right way, it's you do something that you don't even know happens later on. That's great.

Brock Goldberg:   30:52
That is amazing. That is amazing, so good. It doesn't matter who you are, who this happens to. Um, the way that we treat others can be a direct reflection to the way that they treat others.

William Thornton:   31:04
It's hard. It's hard to do because you don't see a direct result. People want whatever you put in. You always want to see something back. It's an investment. And his life, an investment with no return of a good investment with no return is Who the fuck wants to do that? Yeah. If I can't get something out of it, why am I going to do something good about it? Like And that's a hard thing, man.

Brock Goldberg:   31:24
It is. But I do believe it's built. It's inside the individual, right? Not everyone's built that way. A lot of people, when they give something, they want to get something in return. Right? But there are people out there when they want to give something. There is no, you know, questions whatsoever. Right on dhe. Those are the type of people that you should definitely surround yourself with because they're good, wholehearted individuals s Oh, we're going to kind of bring it back. Right? So you're You're 14 15 years old now you're growing up in your dad's house, right? This is completely different. Um, what was that like those first few years?

William Thornton:   32:00
Well, that's what's so funny about it Is that when you're so used to something, and you get to something else. You still act like you were where you were before. You're not acting like it has changed. So it wasn't like, okay. And my mom is whatever problems she's got, a lot of it was like, We're gonna watch a movie, and then we're gonna drive to a parking lot and we're going to talk to my friend who works at Subway. It wasn't like we were, like, doing anything crazy. Of course, it was very mundane. Yeah. As intense as it is, it was very mundane. When I go to my dad's house. If that's all I had known, maybe I would have been like going snowboarding and meeting crazy people and doing weird. Now that's not what happened. It was incredibly an utterly mundane, because that's what I knew, s So it was in my room thinking, doing things, watching things. I just watch movies. I listen to albums. I would go, played, start playing music. It was very simple. It was It was what a 14 year old kid would do. Um,

Brock Goldberg:   33:06
you don't know any different. You know, at that point, it doesn't matter. Um, you know who your parents are. Who? Your brothers. Who? There. That's just what you know is what You know, Um and so but But there is this point where, you know, things are different. This household is different. Um, there had to be a point where you definitely started to change.

William Thornton:   33:25
Well, it was changed because I saw when I was afraid to try something, and I was met with acceptance. Yeah, that's what pushed me to do more things because I went and I thought, you know what? I'm gonna make some friends that maybe my parents would be proud of and they were fun. And we did stupid stuff and I pierced my ears in the bathroom of Starbucks and my hair was not longer than yours. And somehow I tried to hide my ears, act that house on. I had both my shoulder out, and I was like, it was just booze or what I was trying to do, and I would bring more attention. Absolutely. I could've just walked in and just been like, How's it going? I'm gonna sleep. Of course. We're like, Hey, by the way, got my ears pierced. But I had this fear And still

Brock Goldberg:   34:05
that's kids. I mean, but especially, you know, 14 years prior,

William Thornton:   34:09
it was a very strange thing. And I go up to my room and I fell asleep, and I got my fucking Huddy on and try it. And my dad knocked on my door and walked in what had come out here and he hadn't had an earring and probably 20 years, and he shoved one through his ear. Anyone? I just want you to know it's okay. I've had my ears pierced. It was just like hockey. Yes. What? Yes, and I just I was so afraid for two days I was I was chilled. I could barely think about anything else. I just thought I'm gonna get kicked out and I'm gonna This nothing. No. And he wasn't bathing, you know? Like what? What do

Brock Goldberg:   34:44
you think That because he saw that. I'm afraid he saw that your shoulders up. Come on. You

William Thornton:   34:50
care that they what they thought fillers. When things little things like that start happening over the years, it pushes you to not be afraid to try. And so there was. And there is a lot like I as much as I might have someone across the country who goes well, I'm so jealous of your job. I'm so jealous of your life or whatever. I I'm terrified of every single thing I do every single time. I try something. I don't think I'm gonna be good enough at it. I don't think I think Well, someone else could do it cause they'll be better at, you know, you're always passing someone off like Can you fix this? Oh, no. This guy knows more than me. You always want to do that. Of course. And sometimes you you have to be that person you do. Who is good at it,

Brock Goldberg:   35:30
of course, but I I can't speak for everyone. But as you're sharing this, um, I relate to you, man. I second guess everything on the outside. People think I'm confident, outgoing, talkative. This that the other. And on the inside, I am the shyest. Ah, I second guessed everything. Most of the times, I just want to be in a fucking small room with not a lot of people. Um, but there is something inside of me that is like, Okay, well, if I fucking do this Well, this is the results, it's gonna happen. So then something eventually kind of pushes you to the front. Because if you don't get yourself out of that shell, if you continue to kind of bring yourself in, you get into a dark hole, man. And, you know, mental illness is what you're talking about earlier. And I suffer from, um you know, I'm bipolar. Bipolar is Fuck. You know, today was a rough day for me. Um, I just had a lot of shit on my mind. The podcast is about to launch and 10 million other things. And I wanted to lock myself in my room, and I did. I did for the first half of the day. And then, um you know, my wife, she gave me my space. And then, you know, eventually she came and we talked, and she got to drag my ass outside, and, you know, slowly but surely that came out of that. But if you don't have that support system, um, you can fall down really, really quick.

William Thornton:   36:52
And it's also about accepting that, like, the support system. Yeah, and not feeling like a burden, because if someone accepts you and they're willing to be there for you. That's a beautiful thing. You have to accept it.

Brock Goldberg:   37:04
I know, But it's hard, man, because I do. I feel a lot of times like I am a burden, right? And I'm sure maybe you go through those same feelings or you have in the past. So, um, you yourself have, you know, gone through some mental illness issues, suffered mental illness issues. I don't even know how to say it correctly

William Thornton:   37:22
with that person. What it's that it's experience with it. You touch it when you see it. It's It's not this, like, tangible thing. Yeah, so you can't hold it. You can't fix it, you can't get rid of it and it's around you. And we're in a new era of man and things are not just you go back to 16. 42. Someone can say the alphabet backwards. There the devil you go. 100 years passed, that other professor, everything changes. And when we talk about, like what affects us and how we feel and how you treat people, someone's not always doing what they're doing because they want to hurt you absolutely doing it because they can't help it. And they're hurting themselves and your collateral damage. When you accept that you stop being so hurt by everyone around you, it's a very important and there's

Brock Goldberg:   38:11
still that one more time. So that one time

William Thornton:   38:13
when you start accepting that other people, how they treat you isn't about how they're treating you. It's about how they're treating themselves. That is the biggest life lesson for me because there is no a fear ical evil floating out there. There is no devil influencing the hand. It's People want to hurt themselves, and in turn they hurt you. When you can get behind that and you can see that it's their own thing, you can either help them or you can set a boundary, and you can walk away from it. Those

Brock Goldberg:   38:43
your options sound trees abound. Force so important, but but helping to. But but But

William Thornton:   38:48
if you're willing to help, your help is not making you and turn hurt. You should be there, man. If there's someone in your life who's hurting themselves and you're not gonna hurt yourself by helping them, you should be there. That is what love is that service and unconditional love. This concept of unconditional love where you will stay in a relationship, you will stay at a job. You will do this because you feel bad. That's you hurting yourself. Because if someone doesn't care enough about how it's hurting you, it has nothing to do with you to begin with. It's about them. It's just it's all about learning when to take a step back and and see it for what it really is.

Brock Goldberg:   39:30
Absolutely is. And, you know, for anyone listening out there, we all go through it. And, you know, I have some more, some less. And it is how we, you know, look at these things. I mean, this is life. It is reality. There is no doubt about that. You know, some people, um, you know, or like this some people like that. Some people are like everything. There's so many different shades of individuals. But the acceptance part and the boundaries part, not everyone is going to accept it. Right. And that's life, right? But if you do decide to accept it, right, if you do decide to go, Okay, I'm gonna help it. You still have to set those boundaries. I do know for for me and the people that are very close to me. If they don't set those boundaries, it fucks with me even worse. Like,

William Thornton:   40:20
is it really interesting what you said about like bipolar friend? Since bipolar is when you say bye like Polack polarity in itself and you're on opposite ends of a spectrum and it could be two different people because a mood kind of defines like what you are. If you're an angry person, you're an angry person. If you're a happy person, you're a happy person. We've met plenty people who are a one lane kind of person. Yes, dude, I love hanging out with John because he's so happy with time there. What would you say when you love hanging out with John? Because he's so happy sometimes. And he's such a dick sometimes, Yes, you don't ever say that.

Brock Goldberg:   40:56
No, not at all.

William Thornton:   40:56
Um, and in that contrast, man, it's It's so hard to be ableto like love yourself in that, and if you have self awareness and you know that you're in it, but you can't help it, it's terrifying. It is. It's awful, but you have people. You meet those people, you show what you are and that's their job. When you show, what I'm gonna say is that as an adult, the biggest thing I've learned is to confront everyone with what I am because I'm gonna give you all of everything I am. That's your decision to accept it or not.

Brock Goldberg:   41:29
That's it. That's it. Right there.

William Thornton:   41:31
If you can't handle it, I'm not gonna put anything on you.

Brock Goldberg:   41:34
It's fucking it right there, you know? Ah, ah. Lot of times I would think in my head. Right. Brock, maybe you're too open, You know, about your life and just things like that, and very straightforward. But now I have this philosophy. It's like, Okay, this is who I am. If you don't appreciate you don't like it, then that's fine. The fuck out. I do not care. I do not have enough time in the day to waste on people that, um you know, we're very short sighted and look at things one way. Um, thank you. Said a lot of great things, and they're things that I'm going to digest. Ah, just internally. So but let's kind of bring it back. Right. Uh, it's kind of bring that shit back. No. So you're now at this point, let's say 16 17 18 years old. Um, what is it like? You're kind of you're you're out of your shell. You feel very welcome in the house. Um, how's your relationship with your father?

William Thornton:   42:25
It's great, Everything's good. And the biggest thing was like me and my dad speak one really common language more than anyone I've ever met. It's It's an appreciation for subtlety and for art. And whenever we watch a movie, we can watch an hour and 45 minute movie. That is fucking terrible, but they'll be like one line that's worth it. And then we'll, like, have a T shirt for where we go. And it's like we always found ourselves in our sense of humor and in our sense of music and appreciation for character. And there's a guy named Captain Beefheart. You should look up

Brock Goldberg:   42:59
okay and be far. I love that

William Thornton:   43:01
Captain Beefheart, Warren's Yvonne. There's all these guys who are just like they're just fucking characters. My dad's best friends got him J. P. Shelnut. You can't understand a word he's saying. Game that ridicule. Yeah, J. P. Shelnut is showing the this big old guy, and he's laughing and drinking and stuff he owns, like a health food restaurant. I've never seen anything but bread, but he's okay. That's great, all right. But you meet all these characters in this appreciation for these, like really specific personalities, because that's the truth. There's we live in Los Angeles. There's like four million people here or whatever. It may be, uh, finding five people who are this, like mod squad of bizarro specific. That's what it's about, man. It's variables, and it's beautiful to find something and appreciate something that no one else can understand. It's the best feeling in the world,

Brock Goldberg:   43:51
and so you and your dad have that.

William Thornton:   43:53
We share that sense of like I have my little squad of bizarro people and he's got his and we trade playing cards with that. Oh, my buddy Carl that I work with. He's like 37 years old, but he looks like he's, like, 50 and he rubs his hands when he talks and

Brock Goldberg:   44:10
do that Theo all the time.

William Thornton:   44:12
Just like a creepy little villa. And

Brock Goldberg:   44:14
Valerie Well, I gotta stop mouth.

William Thornton:   44:18
See, you're self conscious now. Just doesn't

Brock Goldberg:   44:20
mean I have, but not on that

William Thornton:   44:21
ugly shit. But like Carl, I'm obsessed with Carl. When I When I look at him, I can't think anything but, like how fucking lucky I am out of this many thousands of years of human consciousness. I got to meet Carl. I got to keep Carl and Carl is my thing.

Brock Goldberg:   44:38
Yes, yeah, and my dad share

William Thornton:   44:41
that. We'll call each other. We'll tell each other about our characters, and that was a great thing to have. And even when my friends were weirdos that they were drunks or band dudes or whatever, I had my characters, he trusted. I picked my characters and we always shared that together and music started happening and I got into bands and I got into socializing and I got into the idea, and that's when social Media picked up. And it was my space, and it was seeming, and it was all that other stuff and you had to compete and you had to be something. I took a bit of a back seat. It worked out for me. I did it. I hung out with these people and I was so apathetic, and I just I didn't care. But I was in it and it still worked out somehow. Um, but I think that's why it worked out because I didn't want it to work out. I just wanted to be there, and the scene happened and the hard core scene happened, and the dancing and the girls and the bands and the whole deal. And when it all kind of started dying out, I didn't know what the fuck I was gonna do. And I love movies, and I've heard my entire life. Oh, you should be an actor and I can't remember 15 words. Aiken talk endlessly forward and I cannot do anything backwards. Your job is an actor on a technical ability is to have to be able to remember what you're supposed to say and give it feeling. I don't even know what I'm supposed to say. How the fuck am I supposed to give it feeling? And I can't do that. I love movies. Movies are my passion. When I watch a movie every single time I ever felt bad as a kid, and this is this is why I love what I do because there was an escape. I don't think it was I think it was an appreciation for creativity and a different world. When I didn't feel okay when I was lonely, I go somewhere else. It's a beautiful thing. It's a human creation. I go into movies, my step. Mom knows someone who knew a guy who had a place and I couldn't sleep and I set up. I was 17 years old. I stayed up until eight o'clock in the morning and I showed up at a special effects studio. I talked to a guy and I got a job sweeping floors. $8 an hour. It was what it was.

Brock Goldberg:   47:00
It wasn't like a handout. It was like, literally, you had

William Thornton:   47:02
to put the looks and it's no difference. And nothing, too, is like I mean, you can see me on the camera, but then I'm just gonna describe it. That's the funny thing about the concept of nepotism. Yeah, is that I call. I asked my dad even and I said and help tell, Say it to anybody. Hey, if I want to do this one thing, If I said I wanted to be an oil rigger, he'd go. I've never met anyone who does that and they won't give a shit that I'm asking, because when you get into a craft, when you get into, like, a specific niche of like, this is our art form. Manned is a is a cutthroat thing. Yeah, I know people. I know a guy who his dad owns an effect shop. One of the first. He can't get a job because he's a dick. That's it. That's it.

Brock Goldberg:   47:52
That's it. It's not because his dad owns effect. You know, he's a dick. I mean, maybe the door would be open, you know? Ah, a little bit wider than the the next individual, but it's still your your approach to things. If you're a dick, your dick. It

William Thornton:   48:05
might not be in L. A. But I do know a guy in L. A. And his dad doesn't even affect shop. And he's fun and he's cool to hang out with, and he works all the time and he's doing great right now. It's just it's so specific. And so when I got into this this world, I love movies. I couldn't help but love it. I've always loved movies

Brock Goldberg:   48:25
and what you've been surrounded by. It makes sense,

William Thornton:   48:27
and even when I did good things for myself. I always had that doubt. But the only reason it was happening was because

Brock Goldberg:   48:34
of your dad would help me, right? Did you thought that? Do you feel that? Um, you know, growing up that people have looked at you as just kind of your father's son, when and what I mean by that is like, you know, people like, Oh, you should act. You should act. You should act.

William Thornton:   48:50
Well, I can sniff it out because after you do something for so long, but I don't know how. How many girlfriends have you had before Your wife before listed a few. So something I've dealt with is that I've always had two types of friends. Two types of friends who were happy for me and two types of friends who just wanted to fuck my girlfriend. And they were nice to me because

Brock Goldberg:   49:12
it was fucking great friends, really good friends kill him.

William Thornton:   49:15
But you can hear it. Yeah, people you can hear. Intention, man. Can I believe that you can I really do feel it. You can tell when someone thinks you're an asshole. Yeah, and I've always had a good radar for that and most of time growing up men. I would meet someone, and I really like them. And right towards the end of the night, one comment and

Brock Goldberg:   49:36
soured. That's it. That's all it takes, though

William Thornton:   49:38
it's all it would take.

Brock Goldberg:   49:39
That's all it takes because that that individual, maybe they had a couple drinks. They finally opened up a little bit to who they are. And, you know, people look at celebrities, Children as, ah, you know, they're just giving things. They're just handed things right. But, you know, at the end of the day, maybe some are and I don't fucking know. But, um, you still have to put the work in,

William Thornton:   50:01
and that's that's what I was gonna end this with was, when you're given an opportunity, because I know so many people who either have in every field when you haven't in take it absolutely do not feel guilty about it, because I did that for a long time. I did it for a very long time. And whether you go, people go toe in effect school to do effects makeup so they can meet a teacher who knows a guy they usedto work with back in l. A. So that person context that guy and get them the job. That's how it fucking works. Absolutely. It's just the way it is. And if you have any sense of yourself, you can sniff out the people who are only there because they want to be by proxy. And if I'm guilty of it, I get excited. Still, I get excited about shit. Like I met the fucking drummer from like I set to kill or whatever. It doesn't fucking met one of my closest friends, and I'm gonna send this to her. Electra beause hee. I love you, sweetheart. Amazing electors. Dad, is Gary Abuse? See, Gary was my neighbor growing up by happens, dancing with my mom. I don't meet her for years. I joined the scene and I start hanging out in the scream. Oh, bands and shit. I need Electra. Everyone starts telling me about her dad. I go. Ho, it's crazy. I got this thing with my dad and she goes, I've never met anyone who has that too. I'm leaving him super close

Brock Goldberg:   51:24
because he was able to connect on a level

William Thornton:   51:26
like a familiar. But you know what she is. She's a fucking She's a better photographer than half the fucking people I've

Brock Goldberg:   51:30
ever heard. Say I'm a photographer. Has nothing do with her father? Nothing. Nothing at all

William Thornton:   51:36
or all talent and what she does. And for some reason, that's that is the dominating thing that you'll hear, dude. Oh, yeah, Electric her dad over. Brooke socks. She's better than What the fuck did you do? Yeah, you don't do fucking anything.

Brock Goldberg:   51:51
That's that's gonna be hard, though, as you know, as a kid, you know? And as you know, younger Dole going through this, right? I mean, because that's what everyone thinks. And if you don't say it, uh, their new just lying to yourself. Right? Um, your Billy Bob Thornton's son. That is something that you've had to wait on your chest, your fucking back for a long time. And this is like when When I asked you to Come on, the podcast was like, I really wanted to know how you felt, because what you're saying is exactly how I would feel

William Thornton:   52:23
Well, if I wanted to do this. I'm telling you right now, if I wanted to look it like if I wanted to capitalize, but that the pinnacle of that success I'm gonna move back to Arkansas. I'm gonna buy a house for $13,000 or whatever the fuck it's Yes, probably. And I'm open a barbecue shop, and I'm gonna exploit the living shit out of that. Well, that's that's actually fucking really smart, right? But no, it would be smart. I would be very smart, right? I'd hate myself, of course. But if when we talk about effects, yeah, my job is mainly because I'm a lab technician. What I do for a career is technically working in a lab. If you cannot complete the task at hand, you cannot work there. That is it. That that is a simple fact.

Brock Goldberg:   53:09
Your dad didn't give you that?

William Thornton:   53:10
No. And there's no colony of people who it's It's also when we talk about celebrity to, like, even with, like, Electra and me And, uh, I mean, even to the extent of like, uh, Jack Osborne, Jack Osborne became a volunteer sheriff. It's amazing. That's what Jack always wanted. Yeah, it's amazing. And he loved it. Yeah, that's and he's always loved it, and he still does it, and it's great um uh, God damn it. What's his name? Um,

Brock Goldberg:   53:42
I have a question. Ask you though, you know, for anyone that's listening that went through the same things that you went through. And your parents are. You know, if some stature, um, what would you say to them? They're young. Like, uh, what would you say? You know, if you could say anything to your younger self,

William Thornton:   53:59
Um, if I could say anything to my own younger self, Honestly, is that it is a good thing. Because if your parents or your friends, if you love your parents, I love my dead. I'm so happy for him on his own to do what he did. That's amazing. That's more than most people could ask for Any other prints. You want your parents to be okay, And you want them to be happy and do what they want to do. It's fucking amazing, man, but at the same time take be suspicious, man. It's okay to be suspicious. It's okay. It is absolutely okay when you're If you're a really attractive girl, you're a really attractive guy. You're really successful. Barber. You own a car shop. You're the manager of Walgreens whatever you're doing, there will always be at some scale someone who is looking at what you have, and they're playing just a cz Muchas. There's people, but do not let that fuck with your head and assume every single person is out to get you. That's the most important thing I could have told myself, because when I was younger, I looked at the few times I got burned. I applied it to everybody and I was closed off. I judged everyone. I assumed everyone. It's a go with your gut. Find your balance. Look for the keys. That's the most important.

Brock Goldberg:   55:23
That's it right there, man. Respect and thank you for saying that. And I'm done talking about that because there's a lot more shits talk about. We're gonna bring it back now. You are 17 18 19 years old. At that time, were you thinking even about, you know, special effects makeup by any means?

William Thornton:   55:40
Well, I didn't know, and you'll hear this a lot with people who do special effects. One was common. It's you'll hear it from people who went to school who work with it now. People who did it 30 years ago. I never even knew it could be a job. And there was a big thing. And that's that was a big thing for me. Is that I heard. So my step mom for a couple of years did a hair work on animals that they would use his animatronics And she would tell me You love movies. You love horror movies. You love action movies. Hell of fantasy movies. Why don't you do special effects? I have to go to college. I'm going to do this home. There's a flat out say this right now. I don't like the whole new thing of Well, Bill Gates didn't go to college thing because Bill Gates didn't go to college because there was no college course to do what Bill Gates wanted to do because no one had done it before him. Correct. I believe in school. Yeah, if you can make it work. Beautiful. But the whole I can't do school. I shouldn't do school because this Elon musk dropped out of high school. You on musk Isn't savant Yeah. Don't tell me that you should be not doing it because someone do. You have an idea like him? Worse. You don't Absolutely. So

Brock Goldberg:   56:59
I see. I see both sides. I don't mean to cut you off. I see both sides of the coin. Right. Um, if you're going to school to become a doctor, a scientist and yet you've got to go to fucking has to go to school and even the person that's going to school for business, right? You don't have to go to school. But there's something that happens while you're going to school, right? You've went through high school, and then all of a sudden you're at this point in your life where you got to make this decision. Well, the people that decide to go to college for those 2 to 4 years, what I believe is the biggest thing that they take out of it is the experience, because you are at that next phase in your life where you're an adult. But you can still fuck up where if you start hitting the real world, so many things were different. Where you're in college, the people you surround yourself with your living on your own, all of these different things. Um, kind of incorporate the end result of who you are as an individual

William Thornton:   57:55
Well, it's also the concept of structure. And I did not go to public school as a kid. Okay? My mom homeschooled me, and it was all the earth was 3000 years old, and dinosaurs were just iguanas and the end. Now,

Brock Goldberg:   58:09
do you believe that?

William Thornton:   58:10
Oh, yeah. Well, because I didn't know anything else.

Brock Goldberg:   58:13
I get it, I get it.

William Thornton:   58:14
And that was it. That was the end of the line. The earth was 3000 years old. That's it. That is incredibly sourcing out here. That this bullshit it's this evolution doesn't exist. All these other things,

Brock Goldberg:   58:25
right? You get into fights with people about it, Or is it?

William Thornton:   58:27
Later I just read it and I was like, That makes more sense. Yeah, that's But before that, it was like That was it.

Brock Goldberg:   58:33
It's like Santa Claus.

William Thornton:   58:34
It's Santa Claus. Yeah, you only know until Yeah, and so I wouldn't talk about education. No. Education is only a nice aspirin. I used to ask my mom this question all the time. So what about the tribe on the on the fucking island? Who doesn't have the Bible? Because they don't have fucking leather printed back books with the fuck happens of them. They just burned an eternity with the dog because he can't read. Of course. What happens?

Brock Goldberg:   58:56
Ah ha ha.

William Thornton:   58:57
That was it. And she got Well, no, it's a special exception. Oh, okay. Well, I don't I don't agree with that because it doesn't make any fucking sense. Education is important depending on what you want to be educated. And if it is a craft, I am a craftsman. I picked a thing I wanted to be good at. There's plenty of people were better at than me. Trust me, if you want to talk to special effects people, there's a lot of other people you could talk to. But I pick something I wanted to be good at. And I'm in a subcategory of what most of those people want to be good, and I run specifically, I run silicone encapsulated appliances. That is what I'm good at. There's a 1,000,000 people out there who can do it. I've worked with people who are specific who have done it so many times. They know what they like. And what I mean by that is like the guy I work with. Vincent Van Dyke. Yeah, great at our studio. He's amazing, dude. And he is. He's found a way to be effective. Yeah, there's that scale of you want it fast. You want it good and you want it cheap or you can't get this. You can't get that. You can't get that. And that dude could make that work. That's the point. He can always find an alternative he does not submit to. Well, this is the process and this and that. We find different ways after and and he's not stopping there. He keeps going, we keep going. And when we work with artists who show us things, it's amazing how this works and technical ability men to be good at something I'm not even see the best but to even be close to being the best at something out of how many people are on this planet at one place. And fine, uh, is a good feeling.

Brock Goldberg:   1:0:44
Fuck, yeah, absolutely. Just really good mastering your craft. No, no, it right. You know, I saw Elissa, my wife, as she's kind of grown up in the makeup industry, And I remember when she first started, she was not super confident. And then, like confidence comes a little bit a little bit. And I'm never going to say that she's the best in the world because I don't think there is one best. I think it's a scale, right? But there does come a point where you master your craft. You know, if this happens, this is a captive that happens. This could happen if something bad happens is so I'm gonna fix it, right?

William Thornton:   1:1:15
Second, nature exactly Know something so well, yeah. And it's like knowing a person. Yeah, snowing up. I'm gonna say this, you're gonna feel that way. If I do this, you're gonna react that way. And it's like it has this tangible personality to fucking awesome. It's cool.

Brock Goldberg:   1:1:31
So you you, um you said that you work with silicone, encapsulated what? It's because I don't know that appliances. Okay, so what is that?

William Thornton:   1:1:40
In the eighties most of the eighties, we used foam latex for makeups. That was the deal. So what we did. And when you watch movies like Fright Night and Total Recall and Robocop and the thing And also it's this old Robbo teen was kind of like the man for that eighties heyday. And there was all these appliances and makeups, and they're foam latex. That's what we used. Um, and if you go for the, we could go back to history from where makeup effects began forever and ever. And we could talk about the first guy who did this makeup and did that did. But that's a whole other story. But when we talk about what inspired a lot of the guys, I know my age. I'm 26. A lot of guys I know are between my age and 38. Most effects guys. I know those guys look at the seventies eighties nineties. They appreciate movies from the sixties in the fifties, but what inspired them to do special effects was from the eighties and from the nineties. Something changed, and it was amazing because cameras changed the way you had to do. Things changed. Affects changed somehow in there we started gearing in two and some of movies that you'd think about movies like I think it's like Sahara or something like that. There's a lot of movies that came in like the early two thousands silken makeup. It happened long before that. They tested it out and they've done it and been movies. But something shifted is the norm, and a lot of medical shows popped up. Things like Nip Talk, Grey's Anatomy,

Brock Goldberg:   1:3:12
all of that shit

William Thornton:   1:3:14
and silicone popped up. And it's It's a medical grade thing and we use it. And it looks really because it has has a GE has the opacity of a human arm. So it's not. It's not. It's not super opaque. It looks like a human arm. It looks like a nose looks like a face Onda. We learned how to paint it. We learned howto make it, and that's my specialty is that I cast these pieces that all the sculptor come in. They'll sculpt the cheek. The mold maker, normal cheek. Give it to me, I figure out a color. I cast the cheek to give it to the makeup artist, and I'm It feels good because I am so attached to the actual makeup process. I am one of the closer steps. Yeah, to the makeup artist. Definitely give it to them. I asked them what they like. I asked the color that like, and that's a really good year of

Brock Goldberg:   1:4:02
the last Marco T ous. Far

William Thornton:   1:4:05
as a shop ghost most the time. Yeah, when you're in a special effects shop usually starts with the sculptor that it ends with me. So some between that, there's a mold makers in their fabricators and there's that. So the other day,

Brock Goldberg:   1:4:16
I don't think about that. When you see this stuff on TV.

William Thornton:   1:4:18
Well, you don't see a guy wearing a nose for a BBC thing about some king. No one gave a shit about how you don't think that there's 19 people. I just had to make that one note.

Brock Goldberg:   1:4:29
That's so fucking crazy, man. And, uh, but But where that started from for you and your life, At what age was that?

William Thornton:   1:4:39
So I moved out of my parent's house when I was 18 Okay, a couple of weeks before his 18 and I moved out with my like, high school sweetheart girlfriend, Um and ah, it was interesting because she had a craft work, too, and she wanted to be a horse trainer, and I wanted to work in movies. It was this really, like we're starting out close toe around 20 and we have things that we want to D'oh and I specifically moved a studio city to be right next to in Effect shop and something about effects shops. If anyone doesn't know this, they're almost all in the Valley, their Studio City, Burbank, Van Nuys College, Chatsworth that they're all up there. And that's where you know Warner Brothers is and you got universal right there. And that's why, um and they're all individual shops now. They used to be on site, but people just moved a couple blocks down the road. Open their own thing. Yeah, whatever. Sure, but I moved out when I'm around 18. Was fucking terrifying. My parents sold the house that I had second grew up in, and that was heartbreaking and weird and had so many memories. They're from the past, like, three or four years, and I get an apartment and I'm in Studio City, and it's scary

Brock Goldberg:   1:5:53
that first time living on your own man and

William Thornton:   1:5:55
first time about your own to go into a shop and I have so much respect for the first shop ever worked at was not where I wanted to end my career or be with forever. But it was a huge learning curve, and I had jobs in between that but I would do really worked at that barbershop.

Brock Goldberg:   1:6:13
Okay, The one that was not the proper barbershop. Yep.

William Thornton:   1:6:15
Venue and Trent shot out of shadow to Vinnie in Trent on and they were super supportive and they were awesome to me. And I worked with them and work for a jump company called TRX sometimes. And I sold drum Cymbals, drummers that played pop punk music lover did, um

Brock Goldberg:   1:6:33
and that was between you getting into the industry and just kind of feller jobs if you

William Thornton:   1:6:38
was filler jobs. But it was when you love something, even for a moment. You think that's forever for sure, for sure. And I was like, I'm gonna be a barber. I'm gonna be in the music industry. I'm gonna do this and all at the same time, I'm still trying to be in a band here, and I thought that that was the thing because all my friends wanted to tour forever. And I was like, I don't want to leave l A county with the fucking can. We just play and Van Nuys, like, 10 times a year and call it quits. And they all wanted to be on the road and do this other shit, and I just It took me a long time to admit to myself That's not what I want. Um, well, yeah, I end up. I'm working at the effects shop. It's crazy. It's interesting, it's strange. And then you start meeting the characters, and that's what I'm talking about. It's like when it comes to craft work, man, you meet specific types of people. I'm always amazing people. I met a guy name Jim Low Pro, Okay. And Jim will pro stuck with me. I've met him 20 minutes in. I was like, I'm gonna remember this do for the rest of my life. I met a guy named Brian Sides. I was like, Brian Side's gonna stick with me for the rest of my life And you learned so much from these people because they're such individuals and they pick such an individual craft. And did I love effects? Makeup? I do. But

Brock Goldberg:   1:7:49
I can tell even while you're talking about it. Just just seen your facial reactions, those micro facial reactions that I've been trying to study a lot more. Um, it's it's awesome, though, you know, to be able to do something that you love because so many people in this world, unfortunately, you know, punch in and punch out for shit that they really don't care about. It's just to make some money, right? And that's kind of the name of the game, but firm for me and then the people that I try to surround myself with is individuals that understand that life is truly a blink of an eye. It is fucking we have this finite amount of time We were talking about this earlier. Why waste your time doing things that you don't truly appreciate

William Thornton:   1:8:37
well and something I remind myself all the time? You could be the main character in your story, but you don't have to mean the main character in the broad story, perhaps, And so, like everyone gets obsessed with these small worlds. And I'm I know this is so stupid, but let's just say like, Lord of the Rings, it's something that's bouncing back that much and forth, and you see this huge world in this vastness. Do you really need to be the main thing? No, you don't. You can have your own arc, and you can be in a bigger thing than you. And there's a huge selfishness that comes with this generation. If we all have to be the main character and you are the main character for you, but for the hod spectrum of everything, what we're doing, then we can create influence. Have a Parton. It's okay to be a part of something that's bigger than you, of course. Absolutely. It's gorgeous. It's amazing.

Brock Goldberg:   1:9:28
You don't have to be the leader, you know, and you have to be the number one person. That's what you know. It's all about back to your story. Everyone has a story and right, if you can be, you know, a supporting role. Even in your story. That's fucking fantastic.

William Thornton:   1:9:44
It's It's a great thing. And also most the time. Your influence has more of an outcome for the ending than it is if you're the person who's in front because that person has so much other things that worry about and your craft. Whatever you're doing podcasting right now for you. You don't have to be number one in the world winner of all time, because that is a childish mind set. It's about how effective it is, who you're trying to effect and how effective it is. And when it comes to film and effects make up and all what we do, we make stuff because we like it when we send it out the door. We're proud of it. There's a lot of things that and this is so specific and we wanna make up effects. Podcast. We could talk about this for like, two hours. When you go on Instagram, you go to the Discover Page. Every single thing is a wax buildup. It's like, you know, cuts with, like, fake teeth and, um, and kittens. You don't do that on set. You don't do that in a movie. You do what, and you take pictures of it and a bunch of people go. That's really gross. And then Buzzfeed picks it up and they go like girl with one arm, who lives in Vietnam, makes special effects makeup out of household products, and then she'd show up on set and go. You want to go this chick down to be like I don't even know what you mean? Fuck now, Now I can turn this mango into a lump it through. That's what it is. But it's like It's like the singers who make videos on YouTube or like a menacing like Chris Cornell and then Lizzie McGuire for 20 minutes. And everyone's like, What kind of band did you gonna be in? It's true. It's true that the bizarre it's like it's juggling fish. Yamashita. It's not reality. It's not reality. It's a It's a fun. It's a Venice beach, I'm sure, spray painting myself. Silver. It's Ah, it's like a It's an attraction.

Brock Goldberg:   1:11:30
It is. It's also a facade because, you know, social Media is, um it is what it is, but at the end of the day, I don't know. You know, a lot of people take it for face value, and people will be posting pictures over in this place. All I'm in that place, you don't understand what took place before that what took place after that or any of the things only any of the variables that, um, are are required to to kind of hit these key things to get people excited about, Um, but as a whole, social media, I don't know. I've taken a huge step back from it because I got sucked into that life. I got sucked into Oh, my God, This is so amazing. Oh, this is how it has to be. Oh, I gotta, you know, Snapchat my entire thing. I gotta do this right. But it then consumes you, right? Why?

William Thornton:   1:12:22
It takes over Because there's so many other the foam. Oh, thing. The feeling of missing out. I mean, man, we are over saturated. We everyone will always And I'm saying this putting this out there for when I listened this later. There is always going to be someone who is doing something in your perception. More exciting, more successful. Better looking than what you're doing. 100. You'll always see that because of what it is now. When I was younger and van when we're talking about our parents, our generations from the seventies the eighties were talking about people who only knew a band like a dude. Thin Lizzy is the pinnacle of success for me because it's That's what I knew what was up. That's what I'm introduced to. If you go on Instagram right now, you'll find an 18 year old. I look at Sheila, I play video games. I love video games. I played gears of war for years I competed. I did all this other stuff. That's awesome. There's fucking 15 year old kids who are making plain fortnight and like it's like Oh, yeah. Okay, so we're gonna have ah, up next for the pro am. We're gonna have this guy. He's 15 years old, he's from London, and his partner is like, chance the rapper, and they're playing for the fortnight a M, And then you have ninja. And you have these guys you compare yourself. Vincent, for instance, I'm 26 Vincent's 29th. If I want to look at that and go, what the fuck am I doing? No,

Brock Goldberg:   1:13:47
no, I could do the same thing because I'm 33 I'm like, What the fuck

William Thornton:   1:13:51
am I doing? But you can't do that. It's already do it. It's so relative. And we were so competitive with people who are doing things that we're not doing. And you just got a look at what you're doing, man.

Brock Goldberg:   1:14:01
But it's so thrown in our face these days that, um how does this change like it? Because people get so caught up into this social media type world and even the things that they say the negativity that people will spew. It would be nothing that they would say in real life, but But online. You have this. You know this cloak around you where you just feel the need, that you can talk shit and say these horrible things that where does this even I'll go like

William Thornton:   1:14:29
it's about making. Who do you want to oppress? And when you ask yourself who you want to impress it, do I want to impress? You're married, You have friends, you have roommates. You have the things around you that you care about. I have a best friend. I have a mom. I have a dad. I have close people I work with. I have relationships that I have. If you can impress the things that are necessary to you, that will make you happy. That's what you have to who, what what? What end is what you want to impress. If you won't impress the world, you're fucked. You're you're fucked because then you're in a crap shoot. It's like I want to impress the world because I mean, like, there's amazing people who impress the world like the girl who and they all have criticism but like the girl who does the U N stuff with

Brock Goldberg:   1:15:11
Brad if Emburgh Yes, number. How do you pronounce your last name? Yeah,

William Thornton:   1:15:13
she impresses the world. She impresses me

Brock Goldberg:   1:15:15
is she's amazing. But the criticism that young girl faces on a day to day basis blows my mind because she is truly amazing. She does stand up for what? Some of us. But what? I think a lot of us would hope that they could even you know who would say right. But at soul, that's my school. Now it is, That is, it

William Thornton:   1:15:36
is the world has turned into high school.

Brock Goldberg:   1:15:38
Put in her hands though we've put it in her hands and a 10 year old girl,

William Thornton:   1:15:42
we've created that and that's all that happened. Is it this scale of everything when you grow up in your small town and you're in Wisconsin and you go and Tommy and his friends are assholes in there, like so uh, yeah, you know, Becky's my girlfriend. Now. Look, you're like, God damn it, I want this ogre on swim team.

Brock Goldberg:   1:16:02
That's exactly how it is or whatever, but it actually

William Thornton:   1:16:05
happens in the small town. Dare you say the bowling thing. It's just expanded now, and we just were so more much more affected because it's it's You can go online. You can feel bad about yourself in five minutes. How many times did it? And this is me asking how many times to someone I actually know in my life make me feel bad? And the chances Not a lot,

Brock Goldberg:   1:16:26
a lot

William Thornton:   1:16:26
the people, the things that can make me feel bad or outside of my actual realm of reality?

Brock Goldberg:   1:16:32
Exactly. And this younger generation, it's like kind of that is reality reality. And so we have, you know, and what I was saying, It is not to take away from what Greta is doing because she's fucking amazing, right about part of sad, that criticism at such a young age. Unbelievable. You know, these these major media companies are putting all of this honor, but you had to bring it back. It's like, yeah, this younger generation, it's all they fucking know. And so we look it, especially here in the United States of America. There are a lot of mass shootings, and it's become normalized on how much does social media in your thoughts and your opinion to have to play in all of this.

William Thornton:   1:17:08
Um, it's a beautiful thing that we have this much connection, but men gotta wake up every single day before you go do something. Just am I doing what I want to do? And you don't look at other people because I'm telling you right now, man, most the reason and this is a very vulnerable, insecure thought most the time. I don't want to go out there and just be like I'm gonna do a makeup is because I can go. And I could look at 5 10 of my friends who would help me do said makeup. And I go, Well, they're better than me, and I won't fucking do it just because of that, it doesn't make any fucking difference. And I could just as much as I could have gone and done it. And those people I was thinking about that have been like, he doesn't even do it that much. And that thing looks pretty good. Or man, that thing looks like shit. It doesn't fucking matter.

Brock Goldberg:   1:17:59
It's all the reality that people think it was you

William Thornton:   1:18:02
Korea. Yeah, it's what you're creating, and that's what's happening and you cannot compare yourself. Age wise, success wise. Money wise, it doesn't. It doesn't exist, and it's it's gone, and it's here that fast. And that's what I'm also talking about. Looks like the whole thing. When I bring up like nepotism, everyone thinks that I like my job is not easy. I put on a face mask and I spray acid tone and encapsulated a plastic into a negative and positive. And then I pour a slimy gross material that gets all over fucking everything. Then I go eat a cookie in the front office. I come back and I pop said thing, and I put it on another form and I handed off to a guy who's going to go on set with it. What the fuck am I getting out of that? Yeah, besides the fact that I love doing what I'm doing exactly, it's you know what I mean? I get it, I get it, and that's that's if you have some something you want to do and you have an opportunity to do it regardless of how you get there, what you might have to pull to get there. Just do it Absolutely. If you suck at it, you suck at it. But if you're good at it, it'll show.

Brock Goldberg:   1:19:10
And most of us suck it everything when we start doing it. And that's OK. It is good. It is one of you. You have to learn. I mean, because no one is good overnight. Yes, There are few out liars, right? But anything that you start in your life, you have to learn

William Thornton:   1:19:25
Well, exactly what you just said, man. Savants and people who are and Nate Lee talented are the ones who scare us the most. Of course, we should appreciate them. Re sure I should learn from them. Appreciate

Brock Goldberg:   1:19:36
that shit out of you on muscular earlier. I mean, what this man is doing for the world. Uh, it's just that blows my mind

William Thornton:   1:19:43
of someone like that and be like, Well, I'm 27. And when he was doing, his thing was 25. Yeah, so I guess I'm just gonna go work a express auto lube, or whatever the fuck.

Brock Goldberg:   1:19:52
Now, don't Don't put yourself be the best to you that you

William Thornton:   1:19:55
exactly cannot compare. No, you should not compare.

Brock Goldberg:   1:19:58
So, looking back, you know a 26 years of age, you're you're at this moment in your life where you're doing what makes you happy. You've gone through this road of ups and downs, ups and downs. But if you took this bird's eye view, you're definitely going up. Man, What's the next five years looking like for you

William Thornton:   1:20:16
next five years? I mean, there's the side of my brain that goes, The world is going thio fall into the sea. There's gonna be a huge black squirrel with a long hand. You never know you never out. But, um, you have to come to a point where you ask yourself, what makes you happy? And if making other people makes you happy, what is it that you have to do to make them happy? All I want to do for the next five years it's going what I know I'm good at and you should do that, man. You have a gut feeling when you're good at something, whether it's like I'm good at being this person's friend. I'm good at managing this store. I'm good at being a dentist. I'm good at doing special effects makeup. I'm good at investing. I'm good. Just lean into it and you you don't know where it's gonna end. And I just wanna I want to go with my gut more and I want to shed the doubt of what I might be bad at. And just if I feel like it's going good, I just want to really going into it. I don't want to be that person because we have our abilities, man. Whether it's nurture or nature or whatever. We have things that we're gonna We're good, we're talking or we're good, but we're writing or good. It were walking or good it we're running, and you just have to, like, hone in on that. You need to, you know,

Brock Goldberg:   1:21:35
have to hone in on that. You know, um, like I was saying earlier is like life is a blink of an eye. So if you can hone in on these these these feelings and push forward on that, regardless of all the shit that's going on in your life, you're gonna end up a lot better than the people that just fucking ran away.

William Thornton:   1:21:57
Yeah, don't run away. It's so forth to it is find your self worth.

Brock Goldberg:   1:22:01
It is. And you also said the other thing, though, which is going with your gut feeling for the longest time, I was like, Oh, you gotta go with your heart. Fuck that. Your heart has a lot of emotion. Go. If you got a feeling that fucking instinct inside of you follow that through. There's a huge difference between the two that I think people get mistaken.

William Thornton:   1:22:21
Well, yeah, because your heart, your heart and guides you in a lot of sense is yeah, but it's also incredibly influenced. And it's when we're talking about we're trying to be realistic here. We're not talking about, like, good old work hard, Good things will happen. Also, we're accepting or mental issues. Now we're going OK, maybe if I just went and talked to someone, some of the doubt I might have had about doing this one thing. I couldn't just talked it out. We explicitly ignore that. Absolutely. And this whole like old world, like I moved here from fucking Belarussia and I opened up the trunk company with my brother in the fifties. And then I had my son in the seventies, and then he had his son in the nineties, and then he told us. I'm just the work hard. What the fuck happens when the kids schizophrenic? Yeah, you just tell him. Don't work hard because someone 40 years ago opened a truck company. Mel,

Brock Goldberg:   1:23:16
no. No sense times are changing and changing its understanding. You know that everyone is created differently. And, you know, mental illness is a real thing and understanding that bring it to the forefront. And as a society, accepting it and being able to help, he's in defib. Individuals grow because we are not all built the same. We're not little tiny boxes. This is not the fifties. The world is a vastly different

William Thornton:   1:23:45
but an individuality in a age of existentialism and over saturation is impossible because every single time you tell yourself, I can't believe I feel this way. My little life matters so much. And then you think about how many fucking people live in just the area you're on when you will get a picture. An aerial view of Los Angeles. I have this happen to me every single time. I'll be upset about something and then I'll go like Disneyland for the weekend with one of my friends. L see how many people are walking around, and the first thought I have is, What the fuck am I doing exactly? I can't I just be eaten meat in the woods. We were running around a rabbit, biting everyone who pisses me off because what the fuck matters. But you can't do that. That's not how this it's it's not about the scale of it. And, uh, big cities are a problem. I think I think that there's a lot of there's so much more importance. Why do we talk about like, even like the best stories do when we talk about Stephen King, David Lynch? We look at these like, really controlled small town stories, because that is a world when the world is too big to comprehend. How how can you appreciate it?

Brock Goldberg:   1:24:55
It's so hard and it's growing at a massive rate. And that

William Thornton:   1:24:59
theory What matters if if it's all that if everything is a blank and everything is that what the fuck matters? But as far as like career wise and influence and Dr I just want to go to bed every night and no, I did the best I could at what I'm good at, that's it. That's it, that's her. And whether it's being a friend or it's being a massage therapist or it's being a special effects technician or it's working at the Vaughns that I just went down the street and picked this up from that. I just want to know that I did the best that I could it what I'm supposed to be doing and and to have this grandiose idea that you have to be the hero of the story you are, you absolutely are because there are always going to be people who rely on you that you are the hero, too. But you do not need to save the world. You do not need to be a crusader on. You don't need to be bigger and better than any other story you've ever heard. It's not really now we create these stories because we like to hear them. But man, we're not ever You're not Luke Skywalker and the Homer into that This is about that. It's just not realistic, and I'd rather know that I made a difference to two people who love me, then make no difference and negatively influence of 1,000,000 people said. I just I want a matter to who matters to me, and I want to matter. Do I matter to

Brock Goldberg:   1:26:34
did? I'm gonna end it like that, because what you have shared during this past, I don't know, a couple hours, however long it's been is from the heart. It is truly from the heart. And I appreciate you coming on here sharing bits and pieces of your story. And I, um I look forward to the future. I look forward to checking back in with you and getting you back on here. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate it.

William Thornton:   1:26:59
Horse and and as faras all the work stuff going on the past stuff, man, life can start out tough. You find your stride and then you just perfect it. That's it. And that's my story Is that I just I don't know where it's gonna end because it hasn't ended. And I'm very young you, But it's important. Go from where you started. Have all of your insecurities keep them because they're important. But find where you're comfortable and just work on that. That doesn't have to be the

Brock Goldberg:   1:27:27
end Does not love that love that thank you brought up. All right, All right, all right. Thank you, everyone, for listening to back your story. Have a good night. Peace. Our mother.