Billy Bob Thornton opens up about 'very restricted diet' as he shares his bizarre go-to snack
Billy Bob Thornton has opened up about the reality of living with a diet so limited that even a standard green room spread can become a problem.
The actor who led the Christmas movie Bad Santa, who stars in Taylor Sheridan’s Western drama Landman, discussed his health-related food restrictions during a recent appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast.
Whilst a pre-interview snack table filled with crackers, cheese, and deli meat would be an easy win with most people, it turns out Thornton has very few options left for the celebrity to actually eat.
He said on the May 5 episode, as reported by The Independent: “My diet's very restricted…Well, I'm allergic to wheat, dairy. I have type AB negative blood, which is the rarest type in the world. It's like less than one percent of the population of the world has it.”
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That is how Thornton ended up discovering his now-favourite snack: white grapes dipped in spicy Dijon mustard.
It is not exactly the sort of pairing you expect to see at a dinner party, but the TV & film actor said it came about after he became bored with eating the grapes on their own.
Thornton said his blood type makes it harder for him to digest certain foods, while his allergies mean wheat and dairy are off the menu. He also said he cannot eat shellfish or any meat, including ‘pork or beef or any of that stuff.’
The unlikely food moment happened while Thornton was in a green room before a Landman press event, where the available platter was mostly made up of foods he had to avoid.
He explained that after finding some white grapes, he started looking for something that could make the snack more interesting.
He explained: “Then I saw some spicy Dijon mustard, and I thought, I wonder..." as Mandel then exclaimed, “No!”
Thornton continued: “I dipped this grape in the Dijon mustard. It was one of the best things I ever had in my lifetime. So now it's become a thing for me.”
The actor also admitted that, despite growing up with allergies in Arkansas and Texas, he did not always understand how much food was affecting him.
He said: “I just assumed everybody felt like s**t after they ate. I didn't know.”
Before filming the podcast episode, Thornton said he had a bowl of blueberries and some decaf coffee for breakfast.
He said: “But when I get home, it's, like, wide open…I'm going to have some gluten-free chips with some dairy-free cream cheese. So, I'm really looking forward to that... Every now and then I’ll mix a little ketchup into it.”
Earlier in the episode, Thornton also recalled feeding Mandel’s son a ‘hillbilly bagel’, which was made with a bagel, cream cheese, and ketchup.
He said: “I make all kinds of junk like that because I don’t know how to cook”.
Ben Williams