Photograph by Lacey Terrell/HBO.Bill Henrickson, the serial polygamist played by Bill Paxton on HBO's critically-lauded series Big Love—season three was just released on DVD—may seem like a flawed and unsympathetic character. But despite his unorthodox lifestyle, he perfectly embodies everything that Sarah Palin once praised as "the real America": he lives in a small town, he believes in the value of a hard day's work, and with seven children and three wives, he's certainly an enthusiastic husband and father. He has deep religious convictions that he doesn't think should be regulated by Washington, and he sure as hell doesn't like big government, who he's convinced (rightly, it turns out) is trying to oppress him. He believes in god and family, and given his curious decision last season to start his own religion, with himself as spiritual leader and prophet, he may actually think he is a god. You big city liberals can dismiss him and his growing family as a bunch of out-of-touch religious nuts and perverts, but Sarah Palin knows his heart. Bill Henrickson isn't just a misunderstood American; he is America. I called Paxton just as he'd wrapped shooting on the fourth season of Big Love—which premieres this Sunday, January 10th, at 9pm on HBO—and he was, by his own admission, physically and emotionally exhausted. "Art starts to imitate life after a while," he told me. "My body doesn't know the difference between real stress and artificially-induced stress." As it turns out, hypertension isn't the only thing that Paxton and his fictional doppelgänger have in common. Eric Spitznagel: Is there a Stockholm Syndrome for character actors? Bill Paxton: How do you mean? You've devoted four years of your life to playing Bill Henrickson. If you spend enough time in somebody's shoes, do you start to sympathize with them, even if they're kind of douchey? I totally admire the guy. I admire his beliefs and how much he feels he can take on. I'm somebody who kind of avoids responsibility as much as I can. But Bill is an entrepreneur and he has these amazing ambitions for himself and his family. He has a code, kind of an old western code, through his religion and his background. I'm attracted to patriarchal figures. And when I say patriarchal, I don't mean misogynistic. He really is a male leader of his tribe. And I love how much he loves his wives and all of his children. He really does believe that it's a man's responsibility to procreate and bring more good Christian souls into the world.

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