Jane Campion Calls Sam Elliott A “B-I-T-C-H” And Checks Him Over His “Power Of The Dog” Hate
The Directors Guild Awards happened in L.A. last night, and Jane Campion won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for directing Power of the Dog. She beat out Paul Thomas Anderson (for Licorice Pizza), Kenneth Branagh (for Belfast), Steven Spielberg (for West Side Story), and Denis Villeneuve (for Dune). This means that Jane is still the frontrunner for the Best Director Oscar, and if she wins, everybody better brace their eardrums for a serious rattling because noted PotD hater, Sam Elliott, is going to let out a deep, throaty, earth-shaking angry pepaw wail of NOOOOOOOOOO. Because we all know how Sam feels about PotD and Jane Campion (or “this woman from down there New Zealand” as Sam calls her) directing a western. And while talking to reporters at the DGA Awards last night, Jane was asked about Sam calling her movie a “piece of shit,” among other things, and she let Sam know that he’s acting like a little “b-i-t-c-h.”
While promoting the Yellowstone spin-off 1883 on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Marc Maron asked Sam about Power of the Dog, and Sam had serious thoughts. Sam the Eagle’s curmudgeonly older brother went off, complaining about how the cowboys in the movie were running around in chaps with no shirts on (like that’s a bad thing!!!) and how the movie was filled with “allusions to homosexuality.” After Marc let Sam know that’s what the movie is about, Sam ignored that piece of logic and continued to drawl out words of hate over PotD. Beyond the gayness and chaps in the movie, Sam was also bothered that the movie takes place in Montana but was filmed in New Zealand. And Sam did praise Jane as a “brilliant director” but then said, “what the fuck does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American west?”
Well, Variety’s Marc Malkin asked Jane about this last night, and she knocked the cowboy hat off of Sam From Sacramento’s head by basically saying, “Bitch, you’re an actor!” And Jane also pointed out that other non-American directors, like Sergio Leone, have made Westerns outside of America, so it feels sexist that Sam is targeting her.
“I think Sam. What can I say? I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a b-i-t-c-h. And I’m sorry to say it but he’s not a cowboy, he’s an actor. And the west is a mythic space and there’s a lot of room on the range. And you know, I think it’s a little bit sexist because you think about the number of amazing westerns that were made in Spain by Sergio Leone. I mean, I consider myself a creator and I think he sees me as a woman, or something less at first, and I don’t appreciate that.”
Here’s Jane saying those words in motion. Come for Jane saying that Sam acted like a “b-i-t-c-h” and stay for her smirk and head tilt:
Jane THEE Campion pic.twitter.com/GNBgePMSCD
— Variety (@Variety) March 13, 2022
Most of PotD’s main cast has been asked about Sam’s thoughts. Benedict Cumberbatch called Sam’s words a “very odd reaction.” Kodi Smit-McPhee said he didn’t want to give “energy” to it and wished Sam good luck. And Jesse Plemons said that Sam’s thoughts made him laugh and that “not everyone has to like it” and that’s fine. That leaves Kirsten Dunst! But reporters don’t need to ask her about this, because her response may be close to this:
Honestly, Kiki should just keep that GIF on her phone and pull it up whenever a reporter asks for her thoughts on some weird and nonsensical shit someone said.