Jane Campion Slams Sam Elliott for 'Power of the Dog' Comments
Category: Entertainment
Via: john-russell • 2 years ago • 3 commentsBy: Ariana Brockington (TODAY. com)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
March 13, 2022, 6:00 PM UTC / Source: TODAY By Ariana Brockington
Director Jane Campion has responded to Sam Elliott's disparaging comments about her Oscar-nominated film "The Power of the Dog."
While attending the 2022 Directors Guild of America Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Saturday night, Variety asked Campion if she was surprised by Sam Elliott's harsh critique of her movie.
"I'm sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H," Campion replied in a clip from the interview shared on Twitter. "I'm sorry to say it, but he's not a cowboy; he's an actor."
She added, "The West is a mythic space and there's a lot of room on the range. I think it's a little bit sexist because when you think about the number of amazing Westerns that were made in Spain by (director) Sergio Leone."
Campion told Variety she is a creator and "I think he thinks of me as a woman or something lesser first, and I don't appreciate that."
Earlier this month, Elliott was interviewed by Marc Maron on his "WTF" podcast. When Maron asked the "1883" star if he liked Campion's psychological drama, Elliott responded, "You want to talk about that piece of s--t?"
He complimented Campion as a "brilliant director" before questioning, "What ... does this woman from down there ... New Zealand, know about the American West?"
Elliott continued, "And why ... did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, 'This is the way it was?' That rubbed me the wrong way, pal."
The "A Star Is Born" actor also compared the cowboys in "The Power of the Dog" to Chippendales dancers.
"They're all running around in chaps and no shirts. There's all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the f-----g movie," Elliott said.
"The Power of the Dog" tells the story of Benedict Cumberbatch's character, Phil Burbank, a closeted gay rancher living in Montana who struggles with his toxic masculinity.
Last week, Cumberbatch, who received a best actor nomination for his role in "The Power of the Dog," brought up Elliott's remarks during a BAFTA Film Sessions interview.
Jane Campion.Jesse Grant / Getty Images
"I'm trying very hard not to say anything about a very odd reaction that happened the other day on a radio podcast over here," Cumberbatch said, although he did not mention Elliott's name. "Someone really took offense to — I haven't heard it so it's unfair for me to really comment in detail on it — but really took offense to the West being portrayed in this way."
Cumberbatch, who actually learned ranching skills and lived in Montana in preparation for the role, also noted, "that sort of denial that anybody could have any other than a heteronormative existence because of what they do for a living or where they're born, there's also a massive intolerance within the world at large towards homosexuality still, toward an acceptance of the other and any kind of difference."
Co-star Jesse Plemons also addressed Elliott's rant during the premiere of his new thriller "Windfall" Friday night in West Hollywood.
Plemons told Variety, "I laughed when I heard. I don't know why."
Like Cumberbatch, Plemons also hasn't listened to the podcast, but explained that he was aware of what Elliott said.
"I know there's some undertones to what he said, but I also feel like you don't have to like the movie and that's totally fine. Not everyone has to like it," Plemons concluded.
Despite Elliott's feelings about the film, "The Power of the Dog" has been having a successful awards season run.
After calling out Elliott on the red carpet, Campion made history at the DGA Awards by winning in the theatrical feature film category for her Netflix movie. She became the second consecutive woman —and only third in history — to be awarded that top prize, according to Variety.
Her neo-Western also leads nominees at the upcoming 94th annual Academy Awards with 12 nominations.
Ariana Brockington
Ariana Brockington is a digital reporter for TODAY based in Los Angeles. She is a Northwestern University graduate who reports on entertainment news, pop culture and more.
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I started to watch The Power Of The Dog on Netflix a month and a half ago or so, mainly because it has double digit Academy Award nominations.
It is a slow slog of a movie, dingy looking and dour. The lead character , as far as I can tell, since I stopped watching , is a 1920's cowboy over impressed with his own macho cowboy persona, who also has an unexpressed gay side. He likes to torment another cowboy on the ranch who is flamboyantly fruity. The lead character is also pretty mean to everyone in sight, including his sister in law, who wants to pursue a more refined existence, as much as possible, on a cattle ranch in 1920's Montana.
So the movie makes the main character anti-feminist and anti-gay, but also holds him up as a bad person.
Sam Elliot, kind of the personification of the straight talking , hard working , honest, modern cowboy character, evidently took offense at the way the movie POTD portrayed the west and cowboy life.
I've always like Sam Elliot as an actor, he had one of the great movie lines in We Were Soldiers, where as a sergeant major in the 7th cavalry at the battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam he tells his troops, as the Viet Cong swarm past the American perimiter, , with .45 pistol in hand , "Gentlemen prepare to defend yourselves".
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Jane Campion made one kind of movie, - the homosexual subtext didnt bother me in The Power Of The Dog, I just found the movie boring and slow.
Sam Elliot still makes westerns with an opposite point of view I believe.
sam elliot's mustache is fake. true fact.
Doesn’t sound appealing to me. What I’ve heard about this movie kind of reminds me of Louis CK’s latest standup special (Sorry), which is hilarious. It’s hard to describe it and do it proper justice, but Louis has a very unique way of couching extremely inflammatory ideas in soft and fuzzy comedic bits. He will have the audience simultaneously convinced, beyond any doubt, that he is not the least bit bigoted or prejudiced, while using terms like “heterosexual faggots” to describe the modern American male. He closes the show with a bit on gender fluidity, and a reminder that at our current stage of medical technology, making a baby still requires a factory dick with matching numbers and a farm raised pussy. Sounds too distasteful to be funny when repeated by me, but I dare you to watch it and not bust a gut laughing. Still the funniest man on earth, imo.