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Sam Elliott has apologised for calling ‘The Power of the Dog' a “piece of s***”.
The 77-year-old actor – who is known for having starred in a string of Western films himself – was not impressed when he saw the Oscar-winning Netflix drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a closeted ranch owner in the 1920s alongside Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirsten Dunst.
He said: “You wanna talk about that piece of s***. I didn't like it. This is is the guy who has done Westerns forever. It was the evisceration of the American West. Remember those guys from back in the day? They wear bow ties and not much else.[The Chippendales] That's what all these f****** cowboys in that movie looked like. They're running around in chaps and no shirts There's all these allusions of homosexuality throughout the movie.”
Sam then took aim at Benedict for “never getting out of his chaps” in the flick and questioned, “where the Western” was in the movie.
He said: “Where's the Western in this Western? I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his f****** chaps. He had two pairs of chaps — a woolly pair and a leather pair. And every f****** time he would walk in from somewhere — he never was on a horse, maybe once — he'd walk into the f****** house, storm up the fucking stairs, go lay in his bed in his chaps and play his banjo. It's like, what the f***!”
The ‘Tombstone' star went on to blast the film's director Jane Campion – who won Best Director at the 2022 Academy Awards – for choosing to shoot the Montana-based story in her home country of New Zealand and questioned her suitability to helm the project in the first place.
Speaking on the ‘WTF with Marc Maron' podcast, he added: “What the f*** does this woman from down there know about the American West? Why the f*** did she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana? And say this is the way it was? That f****** rubbed me the wrong way!”
Now, the ‘A Star is Born' actor has admitted he feels “terrible” for the “hurt” his comments may have caused.
He told Deadline: “I wasn't very articulate about it. I didn't articulate it very well.
“I said some things that hurt people, and I feel terrible about that.
“I (said) that I thought Jane Campion was a brilliant director.
“I want to apologise to the cast of ‘The Power Of The Dog' – brilliant actors all, in particular Benedict Cumberbatch.
“I can only say that I'm sorry, and I am. I am.”
He then directed his apology toward the gay community.
Sam added: “The gay community has been incredible to me my entire career. And I mean by entire career, from before I got started in this town.
“Friends on every level, in every job description – up until today, with my agent, my dear friend of a number of years.
“I'm sorry that I hurt any of those friends and someone I loved and anyone else by the words that I used.”
