{"id":443736,"date":"2026-05-11T19:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/443736\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T19:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:23:11","slug":"billy-bob-thornton-slams-celebrity-activism-at-awards-shows-on-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/443736\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Bob Thornton slams celebrity activism at awards shows on podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Billy Bob Thornton believes there&#8217;s a time and a place for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/billy-bob-thornton-calls-out-celebrities-bringing-politics-hollywood-award-shows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">celebrity activism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">During an appearance on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aupKrNsLDc4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8220;Howie Mandel Does Stuff&#8221; podcast<\/a>, the &#8220;Landman&#8221; actor, 70, explained why he&#8217;s never been one to use his Hollywood platform to force political or personal beliefs on others.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know anything about politics,&#8221; Thornton said. &#8220;I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don&#8217;t want to force it down somebody else&#8217;s throat because I&#8217;m not an expert on that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/the-night-agent-star-gives-blunt-message-actors-who-want-political\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8216;THE NIGHT AGENT&#8217; STAR GIVES BLUNT MESSAGE TO ACTORS WHO WANT TO BE POLITICAL<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/billy-bob-thornton-landman-hat.jpeg\" alt=\"Billy Bob Thornton at the FYC Los Angeles screening of Landman in April 2026.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Billy Bob Thornton pushed back on celebrity activism in Hollywood. (Matei Horvath\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not really big on like at awards shows all of a sudden you start talking about saving the badgers and stuff. Like Ricky Gervais said, you know, it&#8217;s like get your little award and f&#8212; off, you know?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time Thornton has been vocal about his disdain for celebrity activism.<\/p>\n<p>During an interview on &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0loSsJ1mHVE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Joe Rogan Experience<\/a>&#8221; in November, Thornton shared he doesn&#8217;t really &#8220;care about awards anymore,&#8221; saying he&#8217;s &#8220;got plenty of them&#8221; and won most of them &#8220;under the wire, when awards were kind of real still.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve won a couple recently,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But these days I just look at it as like, &#8216;Oh, OK, we&#8217;re gonna go over here and, you know, have some dry chicken breast and green beans, you know, and we&#8217;ll listen to people get up there and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/cnn-panel-erupts-after-guest-calls-out-hollywood-jacka-over-political-lectures-award-shows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pontificate about how awesome they are<\/a>.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/billy-bob-thornton-oscars.jpg\" alt=\"Billy Bob smiling\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Thornton said there&#8217;s a time and place to share your personal beliefs, and award shows are not one of them. (Jim Smeal\/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/amanda-seyfried-questions-oscars-importance-expert-likens-awards-show-the-tire-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">AMANDA SEYFRIED QUESTIONS OSCARS\u2019 IMPORTANCE AS EXPERT LIKENS AWARDS SHOW TO \u2018THE TIRE INDUSTRY\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thornton said &#8220;there&#8217;s a time and place for [activism]&#8221; and during award shows, &#8220;you should just stick to what it is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t go up there and talk about saving the badgers in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/midwest\/wisconsin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Wisconsin<\/a> or something, you know what I&#8217;m saying?&#8221; he said. &#8220;And people would argue and say, &#8216;Well, no, because I have a voice and because everybody knows me. This is a great platform for me to put this out there.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, how about this? If you have a billion dollars, and you want to save the badgers, f&#8212;ing save them,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I mean, you got plenty of money to save the badgers, trust me. That is not, that&#8217;s barely gonna cut into your budget.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/brian-gazer-says-he-received-blowback-hollywood-after-voting-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">HOLLYWOOD POWERHOUSE SAYS HE RECEIVED &#8216;BLOWBACK&#8217; AFTER VOTING FOR TRUMP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last year, the actor opened up about the challenges he faced as a rising actor in Hollywood years ago.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/billy-bob-thornton.jpg\" alt=\"Billy Bob Thornton smiling\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Billy Bob Thornton thinks Hollywood is prejudiced toward people from southern states. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>While appearing alongside his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/billy-bob-thornton-says-hollywood-told-him-he-wasnt-southern-enough-i-am-just-off-turnip-truck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Landman&#8221; co-star Sam Elliott<\/a> in a joint interview with Fox News Digital, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/midwest\/arkansas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Arkansas native<\/a> shared his view that there was a &#8220;certain prejudice&#8221; when he first arrived on the scene in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters?cmpid=fnfirstnl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It certainly makes you, at least for a period of time, stay in your wheelhouse,&#8221; Thornton said. &#8220;A guy from the Bronx can play a guy from Mississippi in the movies, I&#8217;ve found over the years. But a guy from Mississippi can&#8217;t really play a guy from the Bronx.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/billy-bob-thornton-hollywoods-extreme-body-transformation-health-concerns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">BILLY BOB THORNTON ABANDONS HOLLYWOOD&#8217;S EXTREME BODY TRANSFORMATION DEMANDS AFTER HEALTH CONCERNS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was a certain prejudice with southern actors for a long time,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, I actually did an audition once for a student film, and they told me I wasn&#8217;t southern enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778527391_307_billy-bob-thornton.jpg\" alt=\"Billy Bob Thornton onstage during an event\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Thornton has been open about his disdain for celebrity activism in the past. (Jon Kopaloff\/Getty Images for Paramount+)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was about a guy from Alabama just off the turnip truck in California,&#8221; Thornton added. &#8220;And I said, \u2018Well, I am just off the turnip truck from Arkansas.\u2019 And it&#8217;s like, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 And what they were looking for was that Foghorn Leghorn [accent], you know, the rooster on the cartoon. That&#8217;s the accent they were looking for, and I never really heard that. I grew up down there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thornton later noted that while he initially struggled, he could later have his pick of roles after he rose to fame and established himself as a bankable actor.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s what it is,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Once you&#8217;re successful, I could walk into Universal Studios and say, \u2018I wanna play Bette Davis.\u2019 And they go, \u2018Oh, that sounds like a good idea.\u2019 And then when I was coming up, I couldn&#8217;t get a part as a hillbilly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fox News Digital&#8217;s Larry Fink and Ashley Hume contributed to this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Billy Bob Thornton believes there&#8217;s a time and a place&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,922,93,61,60,270],"class_list":["post-443736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-news","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}