BP's Hayward: If Only I Had an Acting Degree

Tony Hayward's lips are flapping again, which usually doesn't bode well for Tony Hayward. In his first in-depth interview since his departure from the company's helm, BP's vilified ex-CEO is unrepentant about wanting his life back and going sailing as the Macondo well gushed, and generally feels like he "may have done better" during the disaster if he'd had an acting degree, "rather than a degree in geology," the Guardian reports.

In the hour-long interview airing on BBC tonight, Hayward speaks of his anger over his portrayal in the media, but acknowledges his job would have been lost even with deft PR handling. "You know, it's very difficult to hate a company, it's much easier to hate an individual ... I'm not certain it would have changed the outcome, but certainly the perception of myself may have been different." As for BP's contingency plans, Hayward calls them "inadequate. We were making it up day to day. What was going on was some extraordinary engineering. But when it was played out in the full glare of the media, of course it looked like fumbling and incompetence." (More Tony Hayward stories.)