Benedict Cumberbatch has some thoughts about the recent controversy surrounding the Oscar-nominated film The Power of the Dog. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the best-actor Oscar nominee alluded to disparaging comments made by Sam Elliott about the homosexual undertones in the Western during a BAFTA Film Sessions panel, stating that “there’s also a massive intolerance within the world at large towards homosexuality still.”
Last week, Elliott appeared as a guest on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast and called Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog a “piece of shit” film. “There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fuckin’ movie,” bemoaned Elliott. “What the fuck does this woman—she’s a brilliant director, by the way, I love her work, previous work—but what the fuck does this woman from down there, New Zealand, know about the American West?” asked the actor, who happens to hail from the wild, wild West beacon known as Sacramento, California.
During the panel, Cumberbatch admitted that he hadn’t listened to Elliott’s WTF episode, cheekily referring to the program as a “radio podcast.” “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 without meaning to stir up the ashes of that,” Cumberbatch said. “I don’t want to get into the details of it…but somebody really took offense 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: “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, towards an acceptance of the other, of any kind of difference, and no more so I guess than in this prism of conformity of what’s expected of a man in the Western archetype mold of masculinity. So I think to deconstruct that through Phil, to look at that, it’s not a history lesson.”
Cumberbatch went on to connect toxic masculinity with Vladimir Putin and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. “Need we much look further than what’s going on in Russia at the moment, that somewhere in the mind-boggling idiocy of that man’s megalomania is some damage there,” he said.
“These people still exist in our world,” continued Cumberbatch. “Whether it’s on our doorstep or whether it’s down the road…there’s 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 damage to others around them. I think there’s no harm in looking at a character to try and get to the root causes of that.” You have to imagine Bronco Henry is up in heaven, smiling down at Cumberbatch right about now.
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