Sam Elliottwas a recent guest on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast and the subject of The Power of the Dog, the Oscar-nominated Netflix drama, came up. The veteran Western actor unleashed his thoughts -- his homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic thoughts.
The conversation began with Maron asking Elliott if he'd seen The Power of the Dog, to which Elliott replied, "You want to talk about the piece of shit?" He went on to disparage the film's queer plotline about Benedict Cumberbatch's conflicted gay character, saying he looked like a Chippendales dancer. "That's what all these fucking cowboys in that movie look like. They're all running around in chaps and no shirts," Elliott said. "There's all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie."
When Maron tried to explain that the point of the film is that it explores toxic masculinity and repressed homosexuality, Elliott turned to railing against New Zealand-born director Jane Campion for having the audacity to make a film about the American West. "What the fuck does this woman -- she's a brilliant director, by the way, I love her work, previous work -- but what the fuck does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West? And why in the fuck does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, 'This is the way it was.' That fucking rubbed me the wrong way, pal."
Elliott concluded his rant by saying, "Boy, when I fucking saw that, I thought, What the fuck? Where are we in this world today?" to which Maron responded, "Well, I don't know that that's the biggest issue at hand."
