Billy Bob Thornton Tells the Uncut Story of Angelina Jolie and Those Blood Vials

 

It's been 14 years since Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton first tongued down each other on the red carpet yet there's still fascination over their brief relationship, thanks to things like blood vials, razorblades, and a dungeon.
The Fargo actor, 59, was a guest at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film & Television last
week to talk about his Oscar-winning career in an interview moderated by a Hollywood Reporter editor. The goatee-committed actor, who is currently starring in The Judge, also took questions, including one about his wife of three years, those headline-making blood vials that they wore around their necks, and the rumored dungeon they resided in.
[Related: Angelina Jolie's 5 Most Fascinating Quotes, Including the One About the Blood Vials]
"Vial of blood is very simple," he explained to the crowd. "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 granny 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."
After they stepped out in their matching accessories — and exhibited some over-the-top behavior on the red carpet — the rumors about them snowballed.
"From that we were wearing quart jars of blood around our necks," he laughed. "And we were vampires and we lived in a dungeon."
During the Q&A, Thornton, who infamously dumped longtime girlfriend Laura Dern to elope with Jolie, also explained the so-called "dungeon," saying it was actually his basement recording studio.
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"I mean it was a crazy time," he told the crowd. "I've never been fond of it."
Perhaps Thornton wasn't fond of the attention, but he's still fond of his ex-wife, who famously inked a massive "Billy Bob" tattoo on her arm as a public display of her affection for him. Three months after she adopted Maddox from Cambodia, the pair separated in 2002 and their divorce was finalized in 2003. However, they remain friends and Jolie, who went on to marry Brad Pitt, even penned the foreword to his book, The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts, in which she praised him for his "big beautiful heart."
"When Angie and I got married, during that time, I was more famous than she was to start with and then she becomes this big thing," the Sling Blade star, who has been with girlfriend Connie Angland since 2003, previously said during an interview on Nightline. "It's hard in these relationships. At some point, if you believe somebody's too good for you, you're going to mess it up… [However], we're great friends [today] and always will be."
But those vials of blood? They've been long retired. And now perhaps the questions about them will be retired, too.

 

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