COWBOY CONFIDENTIAL
Sam Elliott gets leading role tailor-made for his skills
Writer-director Brett Haley was so impressed with Sam Elliott after working with him on 2015’s I’ll See You in My Dreams that he wrote a movie for the veteran called The Hero.
In the production, Elliott plays Lee Hayden, an over-the-hill Hollywood Western star trying to cope with a fading career and a cancer diagnosis. Co-starring are Krysten Ritter, Nick Offerman, Laura Prepon and Elliott’s wife, Katharine Ross.
Naturally, the movie belongs to the baritone-voiced mustachioed performer in his first lead role in a career that goes back to his debut as a card player in 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kind.
“Brett has a lot of faith in me, and he had wonderful script that he put together with his writing partner, and he just let me go with it,” the 72-year-old says. “One of the wonderful things about Brett as director is that he gets you back on track if you happen to stray.”
Most of the time they were synchronized in developing a pensive profile of man dealing with his complicated past as he faces his future. In the process, Lee tries to reconcile with his daughter (Ritter), reconnect with his exwife (Ross) and reminisce with his dealer (Offerman). Only when Lee’s distracted by a comic (Prepon) half his age does he begin to assess the inevitable undertaking.
“The Hero may be a version of me on some level, but it’s not a documentary,” says Elliott, who has played lots of cowboys and might be best remembered as the narrator in The Big Lebowski.
“Lee is a darker character than I am, and his world is not the one I live in.”
Indeed, he’s been married to Ross for more than three decades after they met on the 1978 thriller The Legacy, (not on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in which she co-starred). Their scenes together in The Hero underscore their longtime chemistry
“We do have a kind of shorthand and we’ve always loved working together,” Elliott says. “We’ve been together for 39 years and married for 33.”
Re-upping with his Parks and Recreation friend Offerman turned out to be an equally rewarding experience, especially in one sequence when their characters share a joint and some whimsical dialogue.
“He’s one of those smart guys who just brings it, and he’s such a joy to work with.”
By all accounts so is Elliott. After a slow start in the business, he found lots of support work on TV and film, mostly as the straightforward sort, usually decked out in his trademark handlebar moustache while commanding attention with his deep growl. Most famously, he was a cowboy in Tombstone, The Golden Compass and The Big Lebowski, a biker in Roadhouse and Mask and a military man in We Were Soldiers and Hulk.
And just like Lee in The Hero, Elliott’s managed a lucrative side career doing voice-overs for commercials, although the actor admits he’s not nearly as cynical about it. That’s underscored by The Hero’s opening sequence, with Lee at a recording session doing a line into a mike over and over again.
“I don’t think Lee is enjoying what he’s doing, but I am always happy to give them one more if they hire me more,” Elliott says.
Certainly, the actor has been on a roll lately. He received great reviews for his performance in I’ll See You in My Dreams. Add to that his well-received recurring TV characters on Parks and Recreation, Justified and Grace and Frankie.
“People have talked to me a bit about it being a resurgence, but I look at it as a continuation,” he says. “I’m still doing what I’ve always done.”
Mostly, it means getting the job done as honestly and efficiently as possible with minimum fanfare.
“I’ve never thought of acting as proving myself,” Elliott says. “I always looked at it as doing the best job I can for who I am serving, whether it’s some advertising agency pushing a product or working for a director on a film.”
His next movie is more high profile than usual. He co-stars opposite Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in Cooper’s remake of A Star is Born, scheduled to arrive in theatres next year.
Elliott plays a talent manager in the cautionary story of what fame and excess can do to relationships. The actor, who specializes in stoic types, confesses that he was a little anxious the first few days of shooting.
“I am always a bundle of nerves on set at first,” he says. “I think it’s because I’m keen on getting it right and telling the truth. That’s the thing that gives me the most issues.”
His assessment of Lady Gaga’s acting debut is without issue, however.
“As far as I am concerned, her acting chops are as good as her singing,” Elliott says.