Billy Bob Thornton leaves Kathy Bates surprised with role he almost got

Kathy Bates and Billy Bob Thornton could’ve worked together in Misery, but things didn’t align for them.

Now, the duo, who co-starred in Primary Colors, have thriving careers with lead roles in Matlock (Kathy) and Landman (Thornton).

During a chat for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, the duo realized that they almost worked together in Misery, which won Kathy her Oscar for Best Actress.

“There was a time I went in and read for Rob Reiner for ‘Misery,’” confessed Thornton.

“You did not,” cried Kathy in surprise.

He replied, “I swear to God. Originally, Richard Farnsworth, who played the sheriff, had a deputy. I saw Rob Reiner for it. And Rob said right in the room, ‘You’re the guy. We can send everybody else home.’”

“I was very excited. And I got a call from Rob Reiner — not many directors would do this — he called me and he said, ‘Listen, I’ve been looking at the script and been planning out what I’m going to do with this movie.’”

“He said, ‘You can come up here and shoot this for the money or the insurance or whatever you need, but I’m just telling you, it’s not going to be in the movie.’”

The Titanic actress responded, “Oh, wow.”

“He said, ‘I don’t want you to come up here expecting that this is going to be in the movie. And I didn’t want you to be disappointed.” He said, “But I’ll leave it up to you. Do you want to come shoot it anyway?’ And I said, ‘No.’”

“I thought that was very cool of him,” he remarked, with Kathy agreeing, “Yeah, very cool.”