STICK TO THE SCRIPT: Billy Bob Thornton Sends a Blunt Warning to Hollywood Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton is drawing a line in the sand, calling out celebrities who use award shows as political soapboxes. In a sharp rebuke, he urged stars to “stick to what it is” — celebrate the work, not push an agenda. His message was simple: show gratitude, not virtue-signaling. “Thank the people who gave you the honor,” he said. “Not the crowd you’re trying to impress.” His remarks have Hollywood buzzing — and sharply divided.

Extended Interview: Billy Bob Thornton on Landman, Longevity, and Living on His Own Terms

In a rare long-form conversation, Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton gives an unfiltered look at his life, career, and latest role in an extended interview with CBS News — and it’s as dry, sharp, and honest as fans would expect.

Best known for Sling Blade, A Simple Plan, and a long list of offbeat, unforgettable characters, Thornton returns to television as Tommy Norris in Landman, a Paramount+ drama set in the ruthless world of the Texas oil industry. Drawing on his rural Southern roots, he says the character comes naturally. “I pretty much am playing myself if I were a landman,” he jokes, describing the series as a modern, rough-edged epic — “like Giant, with cursing.”

The interview traces Thornton’s path from small-town Arkansas machine shops and sawmills to Hollywood outsider, including the formative moment when legendary director Billy Wilder bluntly told him he was too odd-looking for standard roles and asked if he could write. That push led to Sling Blade and a career built not on fitting in, but on creating his own lane.

Thornton also talks about his other great love: music. With his band The Boxmasters, he still tours regularly, half-serious, half-amused about life as an opener: part art, part “killing 45 minutes” while the headliner gets ready.

Now approaching 70, he reflects on aging without sentimentality. Milestone birthdays rattled him more than he expected, he admits, but rather than chasing reinvention, he’s leaning into what feels real — acting, music, and stories grounded in the Southern literary tradition. Asked if he’ll return to directing or writing films, he’s disarmingly blunt: audiences today might not be interested in the kind of deeply regional, character-driven stories he’d want to tell, so he’s not forcing it.

The portrait that emerges is of an artist comfortable on the margins of Hollywood glamour: skeptical of trends, loyal to his roots, allergic to pretension, and still very much working on his own terms.