Billy Bob Thornton would like to clear up a common misconception regarding his past relationship with Angelina Jolie once and for all.
While reflecting on his two-year marriage with Jolie in an interview with Rolling Stone senior editor Andy Greene, Thornton clarified that they did not carry around a vial of each other's blood, but rather, a locket containing a single drop.
"We each had a little locket, literally with a drop of blood in them," he said. "That's a romantic little idea, and that's all that was. But by the time it's over, we're vampires. We live in a dungeon, we drink each other's blood, and this kind of stuff."
In 2014, Thornton tried to debunk the vial of blood story during a discussion with students at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film & Television.
"[A] vial of blood is very simple. Angie came home one day with a kit she bought," he said, as transcribed by E! News. "You know those lockets you buy that are clear and you put a picture of your grannie in it or something like that and wear it around your neck? That's what it was."
Thorton explained that they were "apart a lot" at the time due to their respective filming schedules, and could only see each other every two weeks or so.
"She thought it would be interesting and romantic if we took a little razor blade 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," he said. "Same thing. From that we were wearing quart jars of blood around our necks."
According to InStyle, Thornton and Jolie met on the set of the film Pushing Tin in 1999. Even though Jolie was dating actor and director Timmy Hutton, and Thornton was engaged to actress Laura Dern, the two wound up getting eloped the following year in Las Vegas.
Thornton and Jolie filed for divorce in 2002. The Landman actor appeared in a 2018 episode of the HFPA in Conversation podcast where he admitted their "different lifestyles" was the reason behind the split.
"Hers is a global lifestyle and mine is an agoraphobic lifestyle," he explained. "So that's really, that's the only reason we're probably not still together."
The Oscar winner has maintained this stance seven years later.
"And of course, Angelina [Jolie] and I had a great time together. That was one of the greatest times of my life," Thornton told Greene. "She and I are still very, very close friends. And that was the one that ended up being a really civilized breakup. We simply split up because our lifestyles were so different."