At 80, Sam Elliot Reveals The Six Actors He HATED The Most

Sam Elliott has never cared much for Hollywood’s new rules. He has kept decades of resentment bottled up—until now.

To some, he’s just a grumpy old cowboy stuck in the past. But to insiders? This is the final warning shot from a man who’s had enough of the industry’s hypocrisy.

He’s finally naming names. And what he’s about to reveal? Will change how you look at six Hollywood legends forever.

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Sam Elliott vs. Hollywood’s New West: A Cowboy’s Last Stand

For decades, **Sam Elliott** has been the voice, face, and spirit of the American West. His iconic drawl, thick mustache, and unflinching demeanor made him synonymous with cowboys who don’t just act tough — they *are* tough. But in a Hollywood landscape shifting towards modern interpretations of masculinity and diverse storytelling, Elliott finds himself increasingly at odds with the narratives surrounding him. His now-infamous takedown of *The Power of the Dog* and disdain for Hollywood’s romanticized Westerns has ignited a cultural debate that pits authenticity against aesthetics, legacy against evolution — and it’s far from over.

### The Spark: *The Power of the Dog* and a Cowboy’s Rage

In 2021, Jane Campion’s *The Power of the Dog* stunned critics and audiences alike with its moody, psychological portrayal of a repressed cowboy played by **Benedict Cumberbatch**. It was filmed in **New Zealand**, not Montana, and directed by Campion, a New Zealander. For Sam Elliott, this was the final straw.

In a now-viral podcast appearance, Elliott unloaded decades of frustration. “What does this woman from down there know about the American West?” he asked, echoing his disbelief that a foreign filmmaker could capture the grit of a place he lived and breathed. To Elliott, the film didn’t just miss the mark — it insulted the essence of the cowboy. He mocked the costuming, comparing the actors to “those dancers in New York that wear bow ties and not much else” — a reference to the Chippendales — and blasted the film’s aesthetic as Hollywood cosplay.

Elliott wasn’t trying to hide his disapproval. His anger wasn’t just with the director, or even Cumberbatch’s performance. It was about something deeper: the erosion of what the West meant. For a man who spent his entire life honoring the silent, rugged mythos of cowboy culture, *The Power of the Dog* felt like a betrayal.

Campion and Cumberbatch Fire Back

Jane Campion didn’t stay silent. During a press conference, she dismissed Elliott’s rant as sexist and outdated. “He’s not a cowboy, he’s an actor,” she said pointedly, arguing that the West is a “mythic space” open to many interpretations.

Cumberbatch, for his part, offered a more measured response, defending the film’s artistic choices without directly attacking Elliott. But the lines were already drawn. Sam Elliott had declared war — not on any one film, but on a Hollywood that, in his eyes, had lost its way.

### The *1883* Contrast: Real Dirt, Real Pain

While *The Power of the Dog* painted the West in muted psychological tones, Elliott’s own project, *1883*, was a return to form — at least in his view. The prequel to *Yellowstone*, where Elliott played the grief-stricken Shea Brennan, was raw, brutal, and tragic. It wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t tidy. It was the kind of Western where people died in mud, not monologued in mansions.

And yet, even *Yellowstone* couldn’t escape Elliott’s criticism. “We’re tainted by Yellowstone,” he said. “1883 stands alone.” To him, *Yellowstone* — with its billionaire ranchers, private helicopters, and polished melodrama — was Western theater. *1883* was the real deal.

Elliott’s disdain also seems to extend — subtly but unmistakably — toward **Kevin Costner**, a man many consider the modern face of the Western genre. Though Elliott has never called him out directly, his jabs are unmistakable.

“There are a lot of actors who put on a cowboy hat and get called legends,” Elliott said in a 2005 interview. “It’s not the hat that makes the man. You either have it or you don’t.” Around that time, Costner had just released *Open Range*, and was riding the critical wave of *Dances with Wolves*. But Elliott’s comments drew a line in the dust. To him, authenticity wasn’t something you put on — it was who you were.

Costner, who now headlines *Yellowstone* and is promoting his sprawling Western epic *Horizon*, represents the glossy version of the genre. Elliott, by contrast, seems to loathe the very idea of branding. “There’s a difference between loving the land and loving the idea of being seen as someone who does,” he once said — perhaps the sharpest unspoken jab at Costner yet.

Elliott’s criticisms go back further than just Campion’s work. In 2005, **Ang Lee’s** *Brokeback Mountain* redefined what a Western could be, telling a tender and tragic love story between two cowboys. It won Oscars and made cultural history — but not in Sam Elliott’s house.

He trashed the film, calling it “an insult.” Not because of the gay storyline, he later clarified, but because of what he saw as a stylized, theatrical misrepresentation of the cowboy spirit. For Elliott, the West is sacred. It’s about “resilience, grit, silence.” To use it, in his words, “as a backdrop to make a point” — whether about sexuality or modern identity — is to distort it.

At nearly 80 years old, **Sam Elliott isn’t trying to make friends in Hollywood.** He isn’t chasing awards or trying to align with cultural trends. What he *is* doing is firing a last warning shot at a town he believes has forgotten what makes the Western great. He’s not afraid of change — he’s afraid of dilution.

In a world where myth and meaning often collide, Elliott wants to preserve the essence of the American cowboy. And in doing so, he has sparked an uncomfortable but necessary conversation about authenticity, storytelling, and who gets to define the mythic spaces we all inhabit.

Sam Elliott may be seen by some as a relic of the past — stubborn, grizzled, unyielding. But to others, he’s something rarer: a man who never broke character. In an industry built on pretending, he might be the only cowboy who still rides for real.

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