The hit TV show Sam Elliott said he can’t stand: “Nothing against any of them”
With one of the most distinctive voices (and moustaches) in the history of cinema, you always know when you’re watching something with Sam Elliott in it.
Best known for playing hard-boiled characters in cowboy dramas, whether he’s polishing his six-shooter or giving cryptic advice to ‘The Dude’ in The Big Lebowski, he looks and sounds like a real-life Wild West hero, and he’s always in for a good time.
Recently, Elliott embraced his western roots once again with a role in the TV show 1883, where he plays a Civil War veteran tasked with leading a dangerous expedition from Tennessee to more prosperous lands in the west of the country. This has been his most prominent role in years, scoring praise across the board and even landing him a Sag Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series’.
You might be aware that 1883 is a spin-off of the wildly successful Yellowstone, which sees Tim McGraw play James Dillard Dutton, the great-grandfather of Kevin Costner’s character in the main show. Given that he was now a part of the YCU (not its official name, but I thought I’d try something), you’d think Elliott would have nice things to say about his show’s progenitor, but think again.
“I’m not a Yellowstone fan,” he flatly told Taste of Country, “I don’t watch Yellowstone. I love Costner, there’s a lot of good people on the cast, a few of them I’ve worked with before, nothing against any of them, but it’s just too much like fucking Dallas or something for me.”
During an era where interest in western cinema is low, the success of Yellowstone and its various sister instalments should surely be celebrated; however, some have criticised the show for its reliance on clichéd storytelling and outdated stereotypes. The term ‘oat opera’ has been thrown around, which would put it in the same category as the aforementioned Dallas, depicting a squabbling family of oil-rich Texans, which ruled the roost in the 1980s but would hardly be classed as prestige television these days.
This isn’t the first time the gruff actor has been outspoken about a western-themed property, wherein he was forced to apologise for comments he made about Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, claiming that the New Zealand director didn’t have the right to speak about issues concerning the American West and seemed to not be a fan of a homosexual subplot present in the movie.
It’s clear that Elliott sees himself as something of a western truther, but just because he’s played a lot of cowboys and even has familial ties to the Civil War, that doesn’t make him any more or less qualified to speak on the matter; he grew up in Portland, Oregon, for crying out loud.
It’s one thing to criticise a show that ends up paying your bills, but Elliott’s track record essentially disqualifies any of his comments, which shows that while he clearly thinks of himself as a real-life cowboy, in reality, he’s an actor playing dress-up just like everybody else.
