Billy Bob Thornton is calling out celebrities who bring politics to award shows.

During a recent interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the 70-year-old actor shared he doesn’t really “care about awards anymore,” saying 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,” he said. “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.’”

He explained that if someone wins an award and is “truly honored by it,” he thinks they should take their time on stage to “honor the people who gave it to you,” rather than bring awareness to a cause.

Billy Bob Thornton at an event for Landman in Los Angeles in June 2025.

Thornton said people should honor those who gave them the award rather than bring awareness to a cause. (Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)

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He said, “There is a time and place for that,” 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 said. “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, f—ing 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.”

The host, Joe Rogan, agreed, adding it is like “saying how special you are because you’re really concerned about people in Sudan or whatever” and is their way “to let everybody know that you’re an amazing person.”

Billy Bob Thornton at the 1997 Oscars after he won.

Billy Bob Thornton holds an Oscar he won for 1996’s “Sling Blade.” (Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

Thornton got his big break in Hollywood in the 1996 movie, “Sling Blade,” which he wrote, directed and starred in. The movie earned him an Academy Award win for best writing and a nomination for actor in a leading role.