“The Power Of The Dog” may be leading the Academy Award nominations but that doesn’t mean Sam Elliott likes it.
The moustachioed “A Star Is Born” actor had some harsh words for Jane Campion’s film about Texan ranchers during an appearance on Marc Maron’s “WTF Podcast”. The actor, who has built a career in the western genre, called the film “a piece of s***.”
“You didn’t like that one?” Maron asks the actor who is currently starring in the “Yellowstone” spinoff “1883”.
READ MORE: ‘The Power Of The Dog’ Leads Oscar Nominations, Kristen Stewart Earns First Nomination
“F***, no. Why? I’ll tell you why I didn’t like it anyway,” Elliott explains, not mincing words. “I looked at when I was down there in Texas doing ‘1883’ and what really brought it home to me the other day when I said, ‘Do you want to f***ing talk about it?’ There was a f***ing full-page ad out in the LA Times and there was a review, not a review, but a clip, and it talked about the ‘evisceration of the American myth.’ And I thought, ‘What the f***? What the f***? This is the guy that’s done westerns forever. The evisceration of the American West? They made it look like – what are all those dancers that those guys in New York who wear bow ties and not much else. Remember them from back in the day?”
After Maron points out that he is referring to Chippendales dancers, Elliott responds, “That’s what all these f***ing cowboys in that movie look like.”
“They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the f***ing movie,” he says. Maron points out, “I think that’s what the movie’s about.” It is more than just heavily implied that Benedict Cumberbatch’s character Phil Burbank is a repressed gay man who takes his frustrations out in cruel and vindictive ways.
But Elliott also takes issue with the movie’s filming location in New Zealand where director Campion is from.
“What the f*** does this woman — she’s a brilliant director by the way, I love her work, previous work — but what the f*** does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West? And why in the f*** does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, ‘This is the way it was.’ That f***ing rubbed me the wrong way, pal. The myth is that they were these macho men out there with the cattle,” Elliott says before trailing off.
Listen to a clip below or hear the full episode on Maron’s website.
Marc Maron: Did you see Power of the Dog, did you see that movie?
Sam Elliott: Yeah do you wanna talk about that piece of shit?
Marc: [ohh noo] You didn’t like that one?
Sam: Fuck no. pic.twitter.com/BGdOd6scwe— Jonathan (@jonathanmb32) February 28, 2022