“Power of the Dog” director Jane Campion fired back at actor Sam Elliott over comments he made about the film, which has racked up an impressive number of Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
Campion was asked outside the Directors Guild Awards what she thought of Elliott, who had criticized the film over what he said were homosexual themes — and Campion herself, saying that he had previously enjoyed her work but that she had no business directing a western.
Mentioning the Chippendales male dancers, Elliott said, “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***king movie.”
“She’s a brilliant director. 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,” Elliott said of Campion.
Campion, when given the chance to respond, argued that Elliott was not a cowboy himself but an actor.
“The West is a mythic space and there’s a lot of room on the range. I think it’s a little bit sexist,” she added, suggesting that Elliott saw her gender rather than her talent and her work. “I think he thinks of me as a woman or something lesser first, and I don’t appreciate that.”
She went on to say that Elliott was being “a little bit of a B-*-*-*-*,” spelling out the epithet.
“I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-*-*-*-*. And I’m sorry to say, he’s not a cowboy; he’s an actor. The West is a mythic space and there’s a lot of room on the range,” she said, prompting laughs from the correspondent conducting the interview.
“I think it’s a little bit sexist,” she continued, noting that great western films had been made outside of the American west and by directors from other countries as well.
WATCH:
Jane Campion responds to Sam Elliott's #ThePowerOfTheDog comments: "I'm sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H. He's not a cowboy; he's an actor. The West is a mythic space and there's a lot of room on the range. I think it's a little bit sexist." https://t.co/I32wQ8lCiF pic.twitter.com/Tftq4AoXCy
— Variety (@Variety) March 13, 2022
Read Elliott’s remarks, from Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, below:
Elliott: What are all those dancers, those guys in New York who wear bowties and not much else? Remember them from back in the day?
Maron: Oh, the Chippendales.
Elliott: Yeah. 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***king movie.
Maron: I think that’s what the movie’s about.
Elliott: Yeah. Well, what the f*** does this woman from —
Maron: Who, Jane Campion?
Elliott: Yeah,. She’s a brilliant director. 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 there were these macho men out there with the cattle? I just came from Texas where I was hanging out with families — not men — but families. Big, long, extended, multiple-generation families that made their living and their lives were all about being cowboys. And, boy, when I f***ing saw that, I thought, ‘What the f***? Where are we in this world today?’”