Billy Bob Thornton said he was never interested in using his celebrity status to press his political or personal beliefs on his fans.
“I don’t know anything about politics,” the 70-year-old “Landman” star said.Howie Mandel does thingspodcast last week while discussing the impact of being a high-profile public figure.
“I have no idea. And the things I believe in, I don’t want to impose on someone else because I’m not an expert in that.”
Thornton joked that keeping quiet about his opinions may be exactly the reason he doesn’t attend the awards show as much as he did earlier in his career.
“I’m not really interested like at award shows, all of a sudden you start talking about saving badgers and stuff,” the “Friday Night Lights” actor said.
“As Ricky Gervais said, you know, it’s like you take your little prize and walk away with it, you know?”
This is not the first time Thornton has spoken about this topic.
appear on “The Joe Rogan ExperienceIn November, he revealed that he had been skipping award shows over the years after winning “a lot of them” in the past.
“We’re going to go up here and, you know, eat some dry chicken breasts and green beans, you know, and we’re going to listen to people get up there and talk about how great they are,” he told Rogan.
“Those are the ones that get me. It’s like if you’re going to get one of these and really honor it, well, you’re honoring the people who gave it to you. And you don’t go out there and talk about saving the badgers in Wisconsin or something.”
Thornton also went to the defense of “Landman” creator Taylor Sheridan, accusing award shows of repeatedly ignoring the series due to political bias.
“I think a lot of it is political. I really do,” He told Variety in January. “I think some people assume that Taylor is some kind of right-wing guy or something, and he’s really not.”
Thornton, who stars in “Landman” as oil executive Tommy Norris, explained that awards voters may have the wrong idea about the show’s message.
“Even though this show is about oil trading, it shows you what it’s like. It doesn’t say ‘rah, rah, rah for oil,'” he explained.
“It’s just the people who work in this business or are affected by it, the people on the margins and within the families in the business; that’s what happens.”
Yellowstone, Sheridan’s hit series, earned just one Emmy nomination during its five seasons – Outstanding Production Design for a Contemporary Fiction Program in 2021.
Thornton appeared on Hollywood’s radar in 1996 with Sling Blade, a film he wrote, directed, and starred in, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Writing and a nomination for Best Actor.