Actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton has been open about his diagnosis with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and recently, he candidly shared how this illness had intensely affected him in the past by sharing a funny and crude anecdote. The actor also discussed his overall mental health journey and restrictive diet, sharing his newfound love for grapes, oddly paired with a condiment.
The actor opens up about his OCD
In an episode of the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, Billy Bob Thornton, 70, opened up about his mental health, specifically his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which host Howie Mandel is also diagnosed with.
While chatting with Mandel and his co-host, his daughter Jackelyn Shultz, Thornton recalled a moment from the late ’80s that highlighted his obsessive-compulsive thoughts. “Want to hear a funny, but scary and disgusting one?” » he asked, before telling his story.
Thornton shared that he was at the West Hollywood Market Pavilions, waiting in line behind an older man, who had a “leathery, wrinkled neck” with “200 black spots.” There was one particularly large one that Thornton compared to the head of a pin. “Did you blow it?” asked Shultz, to which the actor replied, “No. It wasn’t that bad, but it’s close.
Billy Bob Thornton hit a stranger’s blackhead
Thornton said that upon seeing this giant black dot, he had an obsessive thought that just wouldn’t go away and he had to touch it. “Are you saying you want to touch him?” » asked Mandel. Thornton explained that he didn’t want to touch it, but his obsessive-compulsive thoughts made him think he had to.
He decided to use a magazine rack near him and the man as a ruse. Thornton said, “I went ‘boink,’ and then I looked at People magazine and I got it.” When the man turned around, he apologized, saying he was just looking for a magazine. “So anyway, I have to hit the black spot and get through it, you know.”
Mandel and Schultz burst out laughing, seemingly both disgusted and amused. “Did you say boink?” » asked Schultz. “It’s hysterical,” Mandel added. “I got over it a long time ago. I’ve had therapy for blackheads,” Thornton joked.
Thornton publicly shared his OCD diagnosis in 2004 during an interview with Ann Curry. The actor opened up about his physically and emotionally abusive father and said his upbringing could have triggered his OCD. “It wears you out… You’re constantly doing math in your head,” he told Curry. Thornton shared the same sentiment on the podcast with Mandel, saying, “It’s so emotionally and mentally draining that it’s one of the things people don’t really say.”
His symptoms began at a young age and he remembers counting down with the clock while waiting for his father to come home. “I would usually hear the car coming into the driveway around 4 p.m., and I would say, in my head, if I could count to one hundred and five times before I heard the car coming into the driveway, everything would be okay,” he said.
Thornton shared that he did similar things even though he knew it was “stupid,” but was not able to control the compulsion.
Howie Mandel expressed his gratitude to the actor
Mandel has been open about his own OCD diagnosis, but that wasn’t always the case. During an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” in 1998, his diagnosis was accidentally revealed. Mandel, who is a germophobe and known for not shaking hands, had an anxiety attack when he couldn’t leave the studio because he didn’t want to touch the door handle.
Thinking it was a bit, the crew jokingly stopped him from leaving, which increased his anxiety. He then told Stern that he was seeing a psychiatrist for OCD and that his panic attack was real, not knowing that the show was still airing live.
During the podcast, Mandel revealed that Thornton reached out to him, telling him they had a lot in common, referencing their OCD. “It was beautiful to be open with someone about humanity and about struggle,” Mandel said. Later in the interview, Thornton backtracked, saying it was so rare to find someone in the business who didn’t talk about work or projects, and they agreed it was therapeutic to talk about their shared condition.
Billy Bob Thornton’s Restrictive Diet and Strange Food Combinations
Elsewhere in the interview, Thornton shared his aversion to certain foods due to his allergies and rare blood type, which makes it difficult to digest. Mandel then explained how his son, Alex, who is friends with Thornton’s son, William, once said that Thornton served him bagels with cream cheese and ketchup when he was at their house. “It’s a mountain bagel,” Thornton said.
The actor also shared the new obsession he discovered while in a dressing room waiting for an event to start. The food spread contained nothing he could eat except grapes. He took a white grape, dipped it in spicy Dijon mustard and ate it. “It was one of the best things I ever had in my life,” Thornton said, adding that it became his new “thing.”
