Yesterday’s Bloggery dealt with a topic that few film blogs were addressing — yet. So, in this post I’m going to focus on something everyone has seen and is talking about today (rather than tomorrow): the Billy Bob Thornton interview on Canadian radio (and Qtv). Hopefully he won’t be too pissed off at me for highlighting comments from FILM blogs responding to something involving his MUSIC career, though I have a feeling he’s not quite as serious as he lets on. Is it just me, or does he seem like he’s about to crack up at certain points when he’s attempting to look annoyed?

This is, of course, just the latest movie star embarrassment, of which we literally have seen a bazillion this year alone (hooray for another excuse for a slideshow). The one that it most resembles is the Joaquin Phoenix Late Show interview, and that only adds to why I thought Billy Bob was feigning his ire. Nobody can be as oblivious and serious as this. He had to know that such behavior hurts the band more than his fame helps them. While I somewhat agree with his initial requests, I believe that in his case he has to sometimes let this “shit” happen and deal with it in a more productive manner.

Here is what the other blogs had to say about the incident:

• Elisabeth Rappe at Cinematical also suspects the whole thing is an act:
  

  “strange” probably isn’t the right word for Thornton’s behavior. Many words will come to mind when you see it, but “strange” is probably too polite of one, as is the phrase “under the influence.” It reminds me of a surreal, unfunny SNL skit.

• “What is Billy Bob Thornton’s problem?” asks Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere. “What a sullen asshole.” Some commenters are suspicious, but director George Hickenlooper chimes in twice with his views on the actor/musician’s personality. Here’s his first response:
  

  This is definitely not an act. It’s the same kind of creepy shit I had to deal with while directing Billy Bob in the original SLING BLADE short. While the world was charmed by his faux hilly billy hokum, the guys is really nothing more than a sad, unhappy, bi polar misanthrope. Wath the guys in the band in this interview. They are shell shocked. Like kids who pretend everything is okay in an abusive alcoholic family. Abusive is the key emotion I remember from back in 1994. Seeing this makes the hair stand on the back of my neck. This guy has put out so much bad karma it’s eventually going to catch up with him.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba has some fun with word play after mistakenly (?) calling Thornton’s band “the Boxcutters.”
  

  If you mention that he’s an actor, he will cut you. Or, at the very least, become the biggest fucking toolbox you’ve ever heard: A petty, belligerent, stupid, loutish, despicable man.

• The Superficial compares Billy Bob to a “two-year old who didn’t get a Happy Meal,” and adds:
  

  You gotta love the balls on Billy Bob Thornton. I mean, he actually thinks anyone would care about his band if he wasn’t the guy from Mr. Woodock or The Astronaut Farmer. — Okay, I’m starting to see why he wanted to keep that on the down low…

• Michael K at Dlisted calls Thornton a “fucking dick” and tells the actor what he can do:
  

  Billy, if you don’t want to be there, just slither back down the snake hole you came from and spend your days fucking yourself with the vile of Angie Jo’s blood that you always keep up your ass crack. When you go to interviews, they will ask you questions. Imagine that!

• “Either Thornton is high, a fucking asshole, or both,” writes Peter Knegt at The Lost Boy after reminding that “unlike Joaquin Phoenix on David Letterman, this ain’t for a mockumentary.”
• Lucas Jensen at Idolator points out that Qtv tagged their YouTube video of the incident with “‘Joaquin Phoenix’ as short hand for ‘crazy celebrity interview.’” Also, Jensen’s reaction:
  

  it’s unreasonable for him to go through interviews expecting nobody to ask him about his more successful—monetarily and aesthetically—career? Thornton suggests to Ghomeshi that these questions were declared off-limits before the interview, but Ghomeshi says he never heard such a thing. Later, Thornton’s own spokesperson confirmed that they didn’t tell anybody what questions to ask. In my view, Ghomeshi wins this round and Thornton comes off looking like a turbodouche.

• Ryan Adams at Awards Daily hints at the similarities between the stars of Thornton’s latest film:
  

  Not that The Informers was ever going to be anybody’s ticket to an Oscar, but damn, I’d really like to have seen Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Rhys Ifans and Winona Ryder on Oprah’s couch.

• Lane Brown at Vulture addresses how wrong Thornton was to pick Tom Petty as the rock star to compare himself to:
  

  bloggers on the Internet are laughing about the incident, as if to imply that Petty’s seminal, double-platinum 1979 record Damn the Torpedoes is somehow superior to the Boxmasters’ recent self-titled LP, which, according to one of the more positive reviews it’s received on Amazon.com, is a “very nice album.” But take heart, Billy Bob: You have an Academy Award, and Tom Petty’s only real screen credit of note was in Kevin Costner’s The Postman, and a few of his scenes are nearly as embarrassing as your hilarious outburst yesterday.

• Possibly even more embarrassing than Thornton’s behavior is Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter’s admittedly stupid parody from the Michael & Michael Have Issues blog:

• And now, in case you somehow missed it earlier, here’s the interview: