How Benedict Cumberbatch Reacted to Sam Elliott’s ‘Power of the Dog’ Criticism

Benedict Cumberbatch has finally responded to actor Sam Elliott’s criticism of The Power of the Dog — albeit in true Cumberbatch fashion, he didn’t respond directly to the recent flap.

Before we get to that, though, a brief refresher. 1883 star Sam Elliott has made a career out of portraying cowboys and cops and other traditionally masculine roles. During an appearance on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron , released February 28th, Elliott had a sharp critique of Jane Campion’s Western The Power Of The Dog, calling it “piece of shit.”

He also added that the cowboys in the film looked like Chippendale dancers. “That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie looked like. They’re running around in chaps and no shirts.” He also added, “There’s all these allusions of homosexuality … It was like, where’s the Western in this Western?”

Elliott also had a hot take on star Benedict Cumberbatch‘s role playing closeted cowboy Phil Burbank, “I mean, Cumberbatch never got out of his fucking chaps. He had two pairs of chaps — a woolly pair and a leather pair. And every fucking time he would walk in from somewhere — he never was on a horse, maybe once — he’d walk into the fucking house, storm up the fucking stairs, go lay in his bed in his chaps and play his banjo. It’s like, what the fuck?”

While we’re all for uncensored hot takes, Elliott’s point of view had been widely criticized for its homophobic undertones, and without naming Elliott specifically, Cumberbatch addressed the film’s criticism during a recent talk.

“Someone really took offense to the West being portrayed in this way,” Cumberbatch said during BAFTA Film Sessions interview on Friday, March 4. Cumberbatch admitted that while he hadn’t heard Elliott’s comments for himself on the podcast, he called them out for contributing to the “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.” He added, “There’s also a massive intolerance in the world at large toward homosexuality still, toward the acceptance of the other, of any kind of difference.”

In addressing the idea that toxic masculinity is caused by trauma much like what his character experienced in the film, he says, “If we’re to teach our sons to be feminists, if we’re to teach our sons equality, if we’re to understand what poisons the well in men and what creates toxic masculinity we need to look under the hood of characters like Phil Burbank to see what their struggle is and why that’s there in the first place. Because otherwise it will continue to repeat itself.”

Where to watch The Power of the Dog