- Benedict Cumberbatch starred in The Power of the Dog, which earned high critic praise earning an Oscar nomination
- Sam Elliott said the film "rubbed him the wrong way"
- The Power of the Dog is up for 12 Oscars.
According to Sam Elliott, The Power of the Dog shouldn't be nominated for so many Oscars, and he wasn't afraid to speak on it with no filter! Benedict Cumberbatch was less than pleased with Elliott's viewpoints and opened up about the comments during the BAFTA Film Session event.
Benedict Cumberbatch sticks up for his movie
Following Sam Elliott's comments that referred to The Power of the Dog as "rubbing him the wrong way" due to "allusions of homosexuality" throughout the movie, Cumberbatch responded unfazed yet unhappy.
"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," Cumberbatch said, referring to Elliott.
"Without meaning to stir over the ashes of that someone really took offence to — I haven't heard it so it's unfair for me to comment in detail on it — to the West being portrayed in this way," he continued, alluding to the criticisms that Elliott had over the location of the film.
Elliott mentioned Jane Campion, director of the film, and said, "Well, what the f--k does this woman — she's a brilliant director, by the way, I love her work, previous work — but what the f--k does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West?"
He continued, "why in the f--- does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, 'This is the way it was'?"
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"They're all running around in chaps and no shirts," Elliott also said. "There's all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the f----g movie."
Cumberbatch continued his statement noting that it was the slight homophobia that really bothered him.
"Beyond that reaction, that sort of denial that anybody could have any other than a heteronormative existence because of what they do for a living or where they're born, there's also a massive intolerance within the world at large towards homosexuality still and toward an acceptance of the other and anything kind of difference... it's not a history lesson," he said.
The film which stars Cumberbatch as a rancher who begins to fall in love with a widow's son that moved to his cattle ranch shows a character that grapples with his sexuality in a time when binary gender roles were prevalent, and anything otherwise was a federal crime.
