Joy Behar lashes out at Billy Bob Thornton for saying celebs should stay out of politics

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Billy Bob Thornton’s plea for celebrities to zip it on politics didn’t exactly land softly with the ladies of The View.

The Oscar-winning actor sparked a heated back-and-forth on Tuesday after his recent comments dismissing political grandstanding by Hollywood stars made their way to the Hot Topics table. Co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin were clearly not buying what he was selling.

Thornton, currently starring in 'Landman,' had said on Howie Mandel’s podcast that he has little interest in celebrities using award-show speeches to make political statements.

“I’m not really big on like at awards shows all of a sudden you start talking about saving the badgers and stuff like that,” Thornton said. “Like Ricky Gervais said, get your little award and f**k off, you know what I mean? I don’t know anything about politics. I have no idea. I mean, and the stuff that I believe about it, I don’t want to force it down somebody else’s throat because I’m not an expert on that.”

The actor had made similar remarks back in November during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Thornton’s comments referenced comedian Ricky Gervais’ infamous 2020 Golden Globes monologue, where the British comic mocked celebrities for turning acceptance speeches into political lectures.

Joy Behar fires back: 'Don’t you read the paper?'

The comments split the ladies of 'The View' almost immediately. While most of the co-hosts appeared more sympathetic to Thornton’s argument, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin pushed back hard.

“Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are,” Behar said.

Co-host Sara Haines attempted to clarify Thornton’s point: “Well, I think he’s saying more like, I’m not an expert. So my opinion —”

But Behar jumped in before she could finish. “No, ‘I don’t know anything about politics.’ You’re an American citizen, don’t you want to know? Don’t you read the paper?” she shot back.

Haines argued that civic participation matters, but insisted that not every celebrity should become a political megaphone.

“I would say that I do think the civic participation, our vote is a privilege that so many have died for and fought for that to be participating in our political structure, you need to inform yourself enough to vote,” Haines said. “I don’t think that every celebrity needs to scream from the mountaintop what their thoughts are because I’d much rather see them march door to door and recruit people voting in your local government, helping people.”

Behar wasn’t persuaded. “No, but they have an influence,” she said. “I mean, [Bruce] Springsteen right now and Robert De Niro, they have big audiences. Wait a minute, so does Jon Voight and Kid Rock, okay? All of them have the right to speak out. Use your platform.”

Sunny Hostin warns America is 'getting closer' to autocracy

Hostin argued that celebrities with large platforms have a responsibility to speak out.

“I actually do think you have an obligation,” Hostin said. “I think we are at a crisis point in this country. I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform, that means you have an outsized voice. And when you are on a platform, I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what’s going on in this country.”

“And my view, silence is complicity,” Hostin continued. “And every minute, every day, it’s getting closer. And every minute, every day, we go closer to an autocracy in this country. We’re about to lose it. I think that people don’t seem to understand what’s going on.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin tried steering the discussion toward consistency, pointing out that the panel itself has criticized celebrities for speaking out depending on the issue.

“If I may say, okay, A, Billy Bob Thornton is one of my favorite actors, I’m never going to say a bad word about him, starting with that,” Griffin said. “But B, a lot of this table criticized George Clooney when he wrote his [Joe] Biden op-ed. That is a celebrity using his voice, saying what he believes; it can’t just be when they agree with your position.”

Behar declared, “He can say it, and I can criticize it; that’s called free speech.”