Redeem now - Kodi Smit-McPhee has reacted to Sam Elliott's recent criticism of "The Power of the Dog."
- Elliott commented negatively on the film's homosexual themes in a recent podcast appearance.
- Smit-McPhee's response follows co-star Benedict Cumberbatch, who called Elliot's comments "very odd."
Kodi Smit-McPhee has responded to Sam Elliott's recent criticism of "The Power of the Dog."
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.Smit-McPhee was asked by Variety if he had anything to say in response to Elliott, who cast aspersions on the movie's themes of homosexuality.
"Nothing," Smit-McPhee replied. "'Cause I'm a mature being and I'm passionate about what I do. And I don't really give energy to anything outside of that. Good luck to him."
—Variety (@Variety) March 8, 2022Elliott described Jane Campion's Oscar-nominated Western, which stars Smit-McPhee as a teen living on a ranch in 1920s Montana, as a "piece of shit."
Speaking to Marc Maron on his podcast "WTF," Elliott compared the cowboys in "The Power of the Dog" to Chippendales dancers who "wear bow ties and not much else."
"That's what all these fucking cowboys in that movie looked like," he said. "They're running around in chaps and no shirts. There's all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the movie."
He complimented Campion as a "brilliant director" but criticized her depiction of the American West.
"What the fuck does this woman from down there [New Zealand] know about the American West?" he said.
"Why the fuck did 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."
Smit-McPhee's co-star Benedict Cumberbatch responded to Elliott's criticism last week.
"I'm trying very hard not to say anything about a very odd reaction that happened the other day on a radio podcast over here," he said during a BAFTA event on Friday.
"Without meaning to sort of stir over the ashes of that ... someone really took offense to — I haven't heard it, so it's unfair, really, for me to comment in detail on it — but really took offense to the West being portrayed in this way."
Referring to his character, an emotionally repressed gay man, Cumberbatch said, "These people still exist in our world."
"Whether it's on our doorstep or whether it's down the road or whether it's someone we meet in a bar or a pub or, I don't know, on the sports field, there is 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 far more openly now, as I was saying, damage to others around them."
He said there was "no harm" in "looking at a character to try and get to the root causes of that."
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