Just ask Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC Radio’s arts and culture program. Ghomeshi had a sit-down with Thornton, but the interview quickly veered into territories guaranteed to give publicists nightmares.
When Ghomeshi asked Thornton when his band – The Boxmasters – was formed, Thornton replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But that wasn’t the only non sequitur during the interview. When Ghomeshi asked Thornton about the kinds of music he listened to when he was growing up, Thornton answered by talking about the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.
Furthermore, when the host inferred that Thornton is passionate about music, the actor / musician answered, “Would you say that to Tom Petty?”
While the focus was on Thornton’s music, Ghomeshi did introduce him as an “Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor and director.”
Seems Thornton had a problem with that as well, telling Ghomeshi, “You were instructed not to talk about (expletive) like that.”
Granted, it was early in the morning, the time of day that’s fit for neither musicians nor barkeeps. After the interview, The Boxmasters performed an instrumental without Thornton, mainly because the actor musician didn’t have his instrument.
“I’m a drummer,” Thornton said. “We don’t cart those around at 6 o’clock in the morning.”
The interview has been preserved for the ages, as seen in the YouTube embed below.