Ottowa Citizen writes: Sam Elliott turns up in the most unexpected places. There he is, for instance, in the middle of the children's fantasy movie The Golden Compass, a story that takes place in a parallel world of witches and magical beasts and people's inner creatures that walk beside them and shift shape.
It's a shock to see Elliott's familiar face -- the long, stringy hair, the droopy moustache, all framed by an oversized cowboy hat -- and hear his baritone growl as he holds out a six-gun in the middle of this epic quest story. It's almost as much of a shock to see him come strolling across a hotel ballroom in sunny Cannes, sporting a western shirt, his hair hanging down, the basso voice coming from somewhere way south of Austin.
"Luck of the draw," explains Elliott about how he managed to land a role -- another cowboy in a career full of them -- in a fantasy that's being sold as the next Lord of the Rings. "It just came my way, and I was lucky that it did."
Elliott plays Lee Scoresby in The Golden Compass, a Christmas release based on the first book of a Philip Pullman trilogy. The film also stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman. He says he was reluctant to strap on the western persona once again, but at the same time, he's happy to have the work.
"There's not a lot of guys around, apparently, to play these cowboys because I seem to do a lot of them," Elliott says. "(Director) Chris Weitz wrote me a note and I couldn't not do it after he wrote this note. He talked about me and my parallels to this character Scoresby. He was very generous in the way he put it, referring to me as iconic -- which is always kind of a daunting phrase -- laconic, classic American cowboy.
"I used to kind of think, 'God, all I do is westerns.' But I've gotten over that, I've grown up and now I'm just thankful that I had this career rather than wishing I had opportunities to do a few things outside the Western box, more than I have. Because I enjoy that."
Elliott has been both laconic and iconic in a series of films -- real cowboy roles like Tombstone, in which he played Virgil Earp, and iconic, laconic ones like The Big Labowski, in which he played the narrator known only as the Stranger. Even when he's not a cowboy, he sort of is: he had a breakthrough in 1976 in a movie called Lifeguard, in which he played a hunky California beach bum, but there was a measure of the Old West in his voice. He recalls the director, the late Dan Petrie, kept telling him: "Hey, you're getting a little south in the mouth."
Elliott got his start in movies with a bit part in the 1968 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ("I was like, card player No. 2, which was basically an extra -- one line, off camera") that co-starred his future wife, Katherine Ross. But they didn't meet until 10 years later when they made what he calls "a not-very-good horror movie called The Legacy." They've been together ever since: they live in California with their daughter, Cleo.
Their relationship underlines one of the pitfalls of a Hollywood career, the longevity of men and the brief careers of most women. Elliott, 62, is working steadily after almost 40 years in movies. Ross -- who also co-starred in The Graduate -- has dropped out of sight.
"It is very strange that I find myself busier, with more choices, than I ever had in my career, right now," Elliott says. "I don't have an answer for that. Katherine wears that really well. She's a realist, you know. She knows how I feel about that. There's a lot of things about the business I don't think are particularly great, and I think that's one of them: how they treat their women."
He raps his fingers on the table. "It's like once they're not hard as this table. ... we're so consumed, the business is so consumed, the world today is so consumed about physicality.
"Katherine came out of an age: she was riding the crest. She did two of the greatest films ever made coming out of that period of time. She had a great career. Then we had a daughter, and Katherine more or less just pulled the plug. Not to say she wouldn't like to work. She'd love to work. And we'll work. She and I will work together again, there's no doubt."
One of the things Elliott would like to do is stretch a little more beyond his usual roles. He had a supporting role in the Joan Allen movie The Contender, in which he played a presidential chief of staff. He shaved his moustache, cut his hair, wore a three-piece suit, and "it was incredible. Incredible. And I loved doing that. And I hope to get more opportunities to do that. And shift this Western, this Southwest thing."
As for the movies, he says he doesn't see a lot of interesting ones being made: "There's not a lot of really brilliant filmmakers in the game." But his visit to Cannes has opened his eyes to how small the world of Hollywood is. He had been waiting in a hotel suite between interviews for The Golden Compass, and there was nothing to read but three French magazines about movies. He doesn't read French, so he leafed through looking at the pictures.
"Other than old pictures of Cannes with American actors, there wasn't not one picture of an American. It makes you realize, you're not quite as cocky as you think you are, not as well-known as you think you are. You're just a little speck on the map here. It's great on that level."
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