Actor Sam Elliott is facing backlash after a bizarre homophobic rant against the new Netflix film Power Of The Dog.
On Marc Maron's podcast, Elliott called the film, which has more Academy Award nominations than any other film this year, a "piece of sh*t."
He then launched into a tirade saying there were "allusions of homosexuality" throughout the film as well as the direction of Jane Campion.
Elliott also criticized Campion's use of New Zealand as a stand-in for 1920s Montana, something she and her collaborators have been open about.
"Why in the f**k does she shoot this movie in New Zealand and call it Montana and say, ‘This is the way it was.’ That f**king rubbed me the wrong way, pal.”
Elliott's comments earned him swift backlash and callouts for being both sexist and homophobic, as well as ignorant.
The Power Of The Dog is based on a 1967 novel by closeted gay author Thomas Savage who wrote several books about the American West.
The film starts Benedict Cumberbatch as a rancher who goes to great lengths to hide his homosexuality and ivy league education from fellow ranchers for fear of being a pariah.
Elliott also communicated his less-than-impressed take on Brokeback Mountain in 2006.
“The whole homosexual thing was interesting—they stepped over the line—but Katharine [Ross] and I both looked at it and thought, ‘what’s the big deal?’”
The entire interview on The Power OF The Dog is available here.
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