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Jane Campion received multiple choice letters in response to Sam Elliott’s critique of her film Power of the Dog during Saturday’s DGA Awards.
The director, who was asked to respond to the actor’s shocking comments, refused to hold back.
“Sorry, he acted a bit like a BITCH,” the 67-year-old told Variety ahead of the ceremony. “He is not a cowboy, he is an actor. The West is a mythical space and there is plenty of room in the shooting range. I think it’s a little sexist.”
Elliot, who has made his mark on Westerns, criticized Campion’s approach to the genre during his recent appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. Campion noted that she regarded the harsh criticism of the 77-year-old woman as a dismissive attitude towards her as a female director.
SAM ELLIOTT CALLS “POWER OF THE DOG” LIKE THE FILM “PART S—“: “WHERE IS THE WESTERN IN THIS WESTERN?”
Jen Campion didn’t hide anything when she was asked to respond to Sam Elliott’s criticism of her film Power of the Dog. (Getty images)
“If you think about the number of amazing westerns shot in Spain by (director) Sergio Leone,” she explained to the publication. “I consider myself a creator. I think he first thinks of me as a woman or something less, and I don’t appreciate that.”
An Elliott spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
When Elliot was asked if he’d seen the film, the star replied, “Do you want to talk about that piece of shit?”
Elliott cited a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times that had a review that described the film as “gutting an American myth”. The film was also nominated for 12 Oscars.
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Actor Sam Elliot previously called “Dog Power” a “piece of shit”. (Photo by Vincent Sandoval/Getty Images)
“I thought, what the fuck?” Elliot spoke about the 1967 adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel. “This is a guy who has been in westerns all his life. “Eviscerating the American Myth”. Was it like all these dancers, these guys in New York who wear bow ties and nothing else? Remember them from the past?
— Oh, the Chippendales? Maron asked.
“This is what all those damn cowboys looked like in that movie,” Elliott replied. “They all run around in stockings and no shirts. This fucking movie has all these hints of homosexuality.”
Maron responded, “Yes, that’s what I think the film is about,” referring to the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, Phil Burbank, is homosexual and hasn’t come out of the closet yet.
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Sam Elliot, pictured here with Jane Russell, has made his mark on westerns over his long career. (Photo courtesy of NBCU/NBCUniversal stock photography via Getty Images via Getty Images)
That’s when Elliot set his sights on Campion, who has been nominated for three Oscars this year.
“[Jane Campion’s] A brilliant director, by the way,” Elliot insisted. I love her work, her previous work. But what the hell does this New Zealand woman know about the American West? And why the hell is she filming this movie in New Zealand, calling it Montana and saying, “Is that how it was?” So this fucking guy got me in the wrong direction, mate.”
“I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his fucking boyfriends,” Elliot stated of the film. “He had two pairs of trousers – woolen and leather. And every fucking time he came from somewhere… he’d never been on a horse, maybe once – he’d go into the fucking house, break the damn stairs, lie in his bed in his pants and play his banjo. It’s like, what the fuck?”
Meanwhile, Netflix seemed to have heard Elliott’s remarks, and a day after the interview was sent to air, the streaming giant tweeted a scene in which Cody Smith-McPhee’s character tells his mother, played by Kirsten Dunst, “He’s just human. Just one more man.”
WESTERN STAR CONSTANCE TOWERS TALKS ABOUT WORKING WITH JOHN WAYNE AND WILLIAM HOLDEN IN ‘CONSOLIDATES’: ‘PURE LUCK’
(LR) Jane Campion and Kirsten Dunst at the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards Celebration at Fairmont Century Plaza on March 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Michael Kovacs/Getty Images for Champagne Collet and OBC Wines)
Elliot redoubled his feelings towards the end of the correspondence, adding, “Where’s the western in that western? … I took it damn personally, mate.”
Julius Young of Fox News contributed to this report.