Sam Elliott “Didn’t Like” ‘Power of the Dog,’ Calls Out “Cowboys Running Around in Chaps and No Shirts”

Sam Elliott, the celebrated actor most recently known for his Oscar-nominated work in Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born and the Yellowstone prequel series 1883, didn’t shy away from voicing his strong dislike of The Power of the Dog on Monday’s episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.

Speaking with Maron, Elliott blasted the Netflix Oscar frontrunner, first calling the Jane Campion film a “piece of shit” after Maron brought it up, which prompted the host to ask if Elliott liked the movie.

“Fuck no,” Elliott said. “I looked at it when I was down there in Texas doing 1883 and what really brought it home to me the other day, … there was a fucking full-page ad out in the L.A. 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 fuck? What the fuck?’ 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 that wear bowties and not much else? Remember them from back in the day?”

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After Maron clarified that Elliott was referring to Chippendales dancers, Elliott continued to share his thoughts on the film: “That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie looked like. They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie.”

The Power of the Dog follows the story of Phil Burbank, a nasty-tempered rancher in 1920s Montana whose brother returns home with his new wife and her son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). After Phil bullies the young man, their relationship takes a turn that changes the course of the entire family.

Elliott later said: “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. The myth is that they were these macho men out there with the cattle. I just come from fucking 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.”

Campion declined to comment when The Hollywood Reporter reached out for a response. Neither Netflix or Elliott’s reps have responded to THR’s request for comment.

You can listen to the full interview here and below. Elliott’s comments on the film come near the end of the hour-plus discussion as they’re going over various films and TV shows.