BlinkD

Billy Bob Thornton sat down for a lengthy discussion with students at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & Television last week. THR transcribed the entire discussion – go here to read. BBT talked about his filmography and it seems like he was extremely generous with his time, talking about the years he struggled and worked odd jobs in Hollywood and then going on to discuss his favorite films and film experiences (he says Bandits is a favorite, which is awesome). But the big headline is that BBT talked about Angelina Jolie and whether they really kept vials of blood around and whether she was really into knives. Here’s the Angelina section:

You were married to Angelina Jolie. How did you like that kind of celebrity life? You were in the news everywhere. He’s got a dungeon, he’s got a vial of blood, he’s this, he’s that…Did you have a vial of blood? A dungeon?

THORNTON: I don’t know how the vial idea started. We did not have a dungeon. It was, I mean it was a crazy time. I mean from ’95 or so when we were making Sling Blade on through the time Angelina and I split up which was 2003 I suppose, that whole time was quite a whirlwind and that was, you know, an amazing time. And I’ve never been fond of it. There’s so many things that you can say about this stuff and you know why I like to do this? I mean if we had three hours it would be so much better. Because I could actually….

Well whether it’s popular or not popular I think it’s your duty to kind of tell people the truth about this stuff and the truth is not encouraged anymore. People want the truth but they only want the truth so they can talk bad about you on the blog or on television. They want you to tell them the truth and it screws everybody. It screws journalists and the actors and stuff too because people clam up. You know, we’re clamming up a lot more these days. And it’s because you know you’re gonna get your ass handed to you. So anyway, during that time the reason I brought that up is because I know people like to say oh he says it’s hard being famous, sure, these over privileged… Well I’ve told you what my life was like. I was hardly over privileged…. I became a movie star overnight. From a working actor and working writer to a movie star by playing that guy. That doesn’t normally happen. Normally you’re 21 years old and you look like Tom Cruise and you do a couple underwear commercials first and then you’re a movie star. That didn’t happen for me. So it was all quite overwhelming.

And then when Angie and I got married and we were friends before that for quite a few years and it was an amazing time and all the stuff that they said about us, I mean it had some basis in fact. I mean you know we had a basement. [LAUGHTER] Which I had a recording studio in. So it was a recording studio and so when I tell a journalist I stay down in the dungeon all the time, you know, recording music and they don’t hear recording music, they hear dungeon. You know. Because it makes a better story.

Vial of blood is very simple. Angie came home one day with a kit she bought which is a… You know those lockets you buy that are clear and you put a picture of your grannie in it or something like that and wear it around your neck? That’s what it was. She bought two of those. We were apart a lot because she’s off making Tomb Raider and I’m making Monster’s Ball. We were on opposite ends, we see each other for two weeks and whatever. She thought it would be interesting and romantic if we took a little razorblade and sliced our fingers, smeared a little blood on these lockets and you wear it around your neck just like you wear your son or daughter’s baby hair in one. Same thing. From that we were wearing quart jars of blood around our necks. [LAUGHTER] And we were vampires and we lived in a dungeon. [LAUGHTER]

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Yeah, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before – obviously, the whole vials of blood thing and the dungeon and all of that got played up a lot circa 2000-01 because Angelina and BBT were so “weird” and “unconventional.” And looking back, I think it’s mostly because neither of them had mastered PR. Like, they didn’t know how to present themselves in interviews and such. But maybe that’s my old-school Angeloonie speaking. I’ve loved her for so many years!!

Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbHFjaYR3e8Gio6Wxj5e8o6vToaarpqSku6C7zZiYp5%2BVobavrb6jpqWhlZS1qr%2B%2Bnaynn5Wku6C91JqprZealr%2B0q86flpukn6SxcA%3D%3D