New Zealand director Jane Campion took home the top prize at Saturday night’s Directors Guild of America Awards in Beverly Hills, just the latest signal that her film The Power of the Dog is heading toward an Oscar.
But Campion also appeared to appreciate the opportunity to hit back at the headline-grabbing comments made last month by Sam Elliott, calling the actor a “B-I-T-C-H” for his criticism that her Western movie is too full of homosexual allusions.
Elliott, the deep-voiced actor known for his roles in Tombstone, The Big Lebowski, and A Star Is Born, appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast last month and called The Power of the Dog a “piece of shit.”
“They made it look like — what are all those dancers, those guys in New York that wear bowties and not much else? Remember them from back in the day?” Elliott said, referring to the Chippendales troupe.
“That’s what all these fucking cowboys in that movie looked like, running around in chaps and no shirts. There were all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fucking movie,” he said.