“He’s not a cowboy, he’s an actor”: Jane Campion hits back at Sam Elliott
Director Jane Campion has called out actor Sam Elliott after he criticised her film The Power of the Dog.
Campion called Elliott “a little bit sexist” and a “b****” a week after he slammed her film for being filmed in New Zealand and its theme of repressed homosexuality, claiming she didn’t know anything about the American West.
The New Zealand director responded to Elliott’s criticism over the weekend while speaking at the Directors Guild of America awards in Los Angeles.
“I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H. I’m sorry to say it but 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,” she said.
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
“I consider myself a creator. I think he thinks of me as a woman or something lesser first.”
Elliott initially shared his views during an interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast several weeks ago, when asked what he thought about the movie.
“They made it look like those dancers, those guys in New York who wear bow ties and not much else,” he said.
“That’s what all these f***ing cowboys in the movie look like. They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the movie.”
When Maron responded with, “I think that’s what the movie’s about”, referencing how it’s heavily implied Benedict Cumberbatch’s character is a repressed gay man, Elliott claimed Campion was out of her depth making a Western.
“She’s a brilliant director, by the way, I love her … previous work - but what the f*** does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West?” Elliott said.
“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. I just come from f***ing Texas where I was hanging out with families, not men, families, big, long, extended, multiple-generation families.”
The Power of the Dog, a Western psychological drama, has been nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, which has made Campion the first woman to be nominated for best director twice.
Image: Getty Images