Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t tipping his hat to anti-gay sentiments regarding his Oscar-nominated film The Power of the Dog.
Though he didn’t name names, Cumberbatch appeared to address Sam Elliott‘s comments about the film Friday during a roundtable discussion as part of BAFTA’s Film Sessions, days after Elliott, the 77-year-old 1883 actor and Western genre veteran, criticized the film’s queer themes on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast.
“I’m trying very hard not to say anything about a very odd reaction that happened the other day on a radio podcast, without meaning to stir over the ashes of that. I won’t get into the details of it, if it’s hit in the news at home, it has here. But, someone really took offense…. to the West being portrayed in this way,” the Doctor Strange actor said, appearing to reference Elliott’s issue with the film’s “allusions to homosexuality” with cowboys “running around in chaps and no shirts” in certain scenes of the project. Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion, has been hailed as a masterwork for deconstructing the notion of masculinity against the backdrop of a traditionally macho genre.
“Beyond that reaction,” Cumberbatch continued, “the denial that anybody could have anything other than a heteronormative existence because of what they do for a living or where they’re born… there’s also a massive intolerance in the world at large towards homosexuality, still, towards an acceptance of the other, of any kind of difference, and no more so than in this prism of conformity, in the sense of what is expected of a man in the Western archetype mold of masculinity.”
Of Campion’s attempt to “deconstruct” masculine stereotypes through his character, Cumberbatch added, “These people still exist in our world…. there’s aggression and anger and frustration and an inability to control or know who you are in that moment that causes damage to that person and as we know, damage to others around them. I think there’s no harm in looking at a character to try to get to the root cause of that.”
The Power of the Dog stars Cumberbatch as a rancher named Phil Burbank who, while living with his brother (Jesse Plemons) and sister-in-law (Kirsten Dunst), displays increasingly aggressive behaviors following the unexpected arrival of the latter’s son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) from a previous marriage. The dynamic of the group intensifies as the film progresses, with particular attention paid to Burbank’s past, as numerous scenes explore the damaging effects of repressed homosexuality on the hard-nosed cowboy.
[embedded content]
In his appearance on WTF With Marc Maron, Elliott suggested that Campion, a New Zealand-born filmmaker who recently became the first woman with two career Best Director nominations at the Oscars, wasn’t qualified to tell a story about the American West.
“She’s a brilliant director, I love her previous work, but what the f— does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West? And why the f— did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say ‘this is the way it was?’ That rubbed me the wrong way, pal,” Elliott told Maron, further slamming what he felt were inaccuracies about cowboys — whom he said Campion portrayed as if they were Chippendale’s dancers — at the time.
“Where are we in this world today? It’s not the biggest issue at hand, but for me it was the only issue because there was so much of it. I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his f—ing chaps,” the A Star Is Born Oscar nominee said. “He had two pairs of chaps, a wooly pair and a leather pair. Every time he’d walk in from somewhere, he never was on a horse, maybe once, he’d walk into the f—ing house, storm up the f—ing stairs, go lay on his bed in his chaps and play his banjo. It was like, what the f—? Where’s the Western in this Western?”
Representatives for Netflix did not respond to EW’s request for comment at the time, though the streamer’s official account shared a quote from the film (“He’s just a man. Only another man.”) that many interpreted as a response to Elliott at the time.
The Power of the Dog is now streaming on Netflix. Watch Cumberbatch make his comments beginning around the 44-minute mark in the video above.
Check out more from EW’s The Awardist, featuring Oscars analysis, exclusive interviews, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year’s movies and performances.
Related content:
