Cumberbatch Reacts To Sam Elliott’s ‘The Power Of The Dog’ Criticism

WASHINGTON: After veteran actor Sam Elliot criticised the Oscar-nominated film ‘The Power of the Dog’, actor Benedict Cumberbatch stepped in to defend his movie, calling the former’s negative reaction “very odd”.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the actor opened up about the backlash during a recent BAFTA Film Sessions event. Elliott’s comments included taking issue with the drama’s gay themes and calling director Jane Campion’s film “a piece of s–t.”

Defending the Oscar contender, Cumberbatch said, “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.”

The Emmy-winning star added, “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. And beyond that reaction — that sort of denial that anybody could have any other than a hetero-normative 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, who essays the role of a gay man named Phil Burbank in the film, noted that it’s important to include LGBTQ+ characters in the film because “these people still exist in our world”. ”