Billy Bob Thornton criticises actors for giving political speeches at award ceremonies
Actor Billy Bob Thornton has lamented the rise of actors using their victory speeches at award ceremonies to be political.
Thornton made the comments on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience to promote the new series of Taylor Sheridan’s Landman, which he stars in alongside Demi Moore.
Over the course of his lengthy career, the 70-year-old actor has won plentiful awards, including the Academy Award for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for Sling Blade in 1997. He was also nominated for ‘Best Leading Actor’ for the same movie.
However, he now has little interest in glitzy Hollywood ceremonies in 2025. “I don’t care about awards anymore,” Thornton explained, following a conversation about avoiding online comments. “I got plenty of them. And because I kind of got in under the wire when awards were kind of real still, you know, and, and I’ve won a couple recently,” he continued.
The Landman star then elaborated on why attending award ceremonies is no longer an activity he’d enjoy, bemoaning the menu of “dry chicken breast and green beans” and to “listen to people get up there and pontificate about how awesome they are.”
He continued, “How about if you’re going to get one of these things and you truly are honoured by it, well, you honour the people who gave it to you.”
“Don’t go up there and talk about saving, you know, the Badgers in Wisconsin or something,” Thornton said, picking out an elaborate example.
Thornton then claimed “there’s a time and place” for political arguments, before responding to a hypothetical counter-argument that award ceremonies are a “great platform for me to put this out there”, stating, “If you have a billion dollars and you want to save the Badgers, fucking save them.”
For his performance in season one of Landman, Thornton was nominated at the most recent Golden Globes for ‘Best Actor – Television Series Drama’, but lost out to Shōgun’s Hiroyuki Sanada. The first episode of the second season of Landman is set to arrive on November 16th, 2025.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.