Hollywood is full of celebrities who love to lecture the rest of us about politics. One star who won’t be doing that anytime soon, however, is Billy Bob Thornton.
While appearing on the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, Thornton had a refreshingly down-to-earth take on celebrity activism. Indeed, the Landman star doesn’t like it when his fellow celebrities use their platforms to become political activists and force their. personal beliefs on others.
Thornton Torches Celebrity Activism
“I don’t know anything about politics,” admitted Thornton, 70. “I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don’t want to force it down somebody else’s throat because I’m not an expert on that.”
“I’m not really big on like at awards shows all of a sudden you start talking about saving the badgers and stuff,” he continued. “Like Ricky Gervais said, you know, it’s like get your little award and [expletive] off, you know?”
Amen to that!
Watch Thorton talk more about this in the video below.
Thornton’s Previous Comments
This isn’t the first time that Thornton has spoken out against celebrity activism. He made similar comments while appearing on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast back in November.
In that interview, Thornton insisted that he doesn’t really “care about awards anymore.” The Oscar-winner added that he’s “got plenty of them” and won most of them “under the wire, when awards were kind of real still.”
“I’ve won a couple recently,” Thornton continued. “But these days I just look at it as like, ‘Oh, OK, we’re gonna go over here and, you know, have some dry chicken breast and green beans, you know, and we’ll listen to people get up there and pontificate about how awesome they are.'”
Thornton went on to say that “there’s a time and place for [activism]” and during award shows, “you should just stick to what it is.”
“Don’t go up there and talk about saving the badgers in Wisconsin or something, you know what I’m saying?” he stated. “And people would argue and say, ‘Well, no, because I have a voice and because everybody knows me. This is a great platform for me to put this out there.'”
“Well, how about this? If you have a billion dollars, and you want to save the badgers, [expletive] save them,” he added. “I mean, you got plenty of money to save the badgers, trust me. That is not, that’s barely gonna cut into your budget.”
Boom!
Watch Thornton talk more about this in the video below.
‘Certain Prejudice’ Against Southerners In Hollywood
Thornton was born and raised in Arkansas, far away from the crazy world of Hollywood. Last year, he revealed that when he first arrived in Los Angeles as a young actor, he found that there was a “certain prejudice” against Southerners there.
“It certainly makes you, at least for a period of time, stay in your wheelhouse,” Thornton told Fox News. “A guy from the Bronx can play a guy from Mississippi in the movies, I’ve found over the years. But a guy from Mississippi can’t really play a guy from the Bronx.”
“There was a certain prejudice with southern actors for a long time,” he lamented. “I don’t know, I actually did an audition once for a student film, and they told me I wasn’t southern enough.”
Thankfully, Thornton was able to overcome this and make it big in Hollywood.
Millions of Americans are sick and tired of being lectured to about politics by wealthy celebrities who are out of touch with the realities most of us are facing. That’s what makes Thornton’s take on celebrity activism so refreshing. If only we had more stars in Hollywood like him.
God bless you, Billy Bob Thornton!