Watch the actor—sorry, musician—channel Joaquin Phoenix on the CBC
Billy Bob Thornton’s interview with Q host Jian Ghomeshi this morning is destined to go down in annals of CBC history as one of the most memorably painful. The actor and Academy Award-winning screenwriter was in Toronto with his band, The Boxmasters, which is currently on tour with Willie Nelson. From the outset, Thornton was strangely evasive, sarcastic and rude. Finally, the reason for his bizarre behaviour was revealed: he was mightily miffed Ghomeshi referred to him as an actor and screenwriter in his introduction, contrary to an arrangement his people had struck with CBC producers. Seems Thornton was under the delusion listeners would be interested only in his drumming skills. One can only imagine what would have happened had Ghomeshi dared refer to Thornton’s greatest claim to fame: having once been married to Angelina Jolie.