Choosing Sam Elliott (Again)
Newsletter + On This Day
Over 25 years ago, I had the pleasure—and honor—of working with Sam Elliott on a project. While it was one of the worst jobs of my life, getting to know the man, even just a little, was a silver lining I’ll always cherish.
Watching how Sam navigated one of the biggest “clusterfucks” either of us had ever seen helped me survive that production. I wouldn’t call us friends, but we did become more than mere coworkers. We became film/tv “war buddies,” surviving nine weeks of a grueling, hellish shoot together.
Like most film/tv “war buddies,” our relationship ended after production. But my love and respect for Sam Elliott lives on. Especially after seeing (and hearing) the political ad he narrated for The Lincoln Project.
“ARE WE REALLY GOING BACK DOWN THAT SAME FUCKING BROKEN ROAD?”
“IT’S TIME TO BE A MAN AND VOTE FOR A WOMAN.”
SAM ELLIOT = CHOOSE CHANGE
Whatever your political leanings, Sam said what he said.
Anyone doubting his intelligence, resolve, or sincerity has obviously never met the man. And anyone who thinks he gives a single fuck what others thinks of him hasn’t been paying attention.
With Sam, what you see is what you get. Don’t like it? Oh. Well.
Sam Elliott is, in my opinion, the epitome of a “man’s man”—fiercely independent, intelligent, loyal, and principled.
I remember watching Sam sit on set—dressed, ready for lights, camera, action—for three days, refusing to do what the director asked.
Why? Because, as Sam put it: “It’s NOT in the FUCKING script. That MOTHERFUCKER wrote it, so you’d think he’d know my character wouldn’t do that STUPID SHIT.”
Sam had won this game of chicken before it even began.
Everyone on set knew it. Except the dick-tator director.
While many in the cast of 100+ actors were busy having extramarital affairs on set, Sam showed up on time, did his job, and left—choosing to spend his time alone or with his beloved wife, Katharine Ross.
To those attacking Sam—mostly cowardly conservative keyboard warriors on Xitter—sit down, take a breath, and actually listen to the ad. I suspect Sam wrote it himself.
Maybe, just maybe, they might understand Sam’s point-of-view.
Or maybe they’re just mad he’s not buying any of their bullshit.
We’re all free, for now, to support whatever political candidates and ballot initiatives we choose. And, like it or not, famous folks like Sam Elliott are free to do the same.
So, be kind—and don’t forget to VOTE!
Thanks for reading and subscribing,
Clint
FOUND PHOTOS+ OF THE DAY
ON THIS DAY = SEPTEMBER 25
BIRTHDAYS
1897 = William Faulkner = American writer and Nobel Prize laureate
1901 = Robert Bresson = French director and screenwriter
1903 = Mark Rothko = Latvian-American painter and educator
1929 = Barbara Walters = American journalist, producer, and author
1932 = Glenn Gould = Canadian pianist and composer
1944 = Michael Douglas = American actor and producer
1947 = Cheryl Tiegs = American model and actor
1949 = Pedro Almodóvar = Spanish director, producer, and screenwriter
1951 = Mark Hamill = American actor, singer, and producer
1952 = bell hooks = American author and activist
1952 = Christopher Reeve = American actor, producer, and activist
1961 = Heather Locklear = American actor
1969 = Catherine Zeta-Jones = Welsh actres
1969 – Hal Sparks, American actor, comedian, and commentator
1977 = Clea DuVall = American actor
1983 – Donald Glover = American actor, rapper, producer, and screenwriter
1992 = Teddy Swims = American singer-songwriter
EVENTS
1890 = The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.
1926 = Henry Ford announces an eight-hour, five-day workweek for workers at Ford Motor Company.
1957 = Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops.
1970 = The Patridge Family premieres on ABC.
1975 = The Rocky Horror Picture Show is released in U.S. theaters.
1976 = Three volunteer members of the Mississippi Gay Alliance are arrested in Smith Park in Jackson, charged with loitering. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights label the incident as part of a pattern of police harassment.
1982 = Silver Spoons premieres on NBC.
1984 = Over 5800 Pages of J. Edgar Hoover’s “Sex Deviates” files are released. Hoover, as first FBI director, waged an unrelenting war against gays even though he was gay himself and lived with his lover Clyde Tolson for decades.
2004 = California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs AB 2900, a bill to unify all state anti-discrimination codes to match the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.
2010 = A homosexual-specific Holocaust memorial plaque is unveiled at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. The plaque reads, “In Memory of the Victims of Nazi Barbarity Deported Because of Their Homosexuality.”
2019 = Mattel launched the world’s first line of gender-neutral dolls which they marketed as Creatable World. These is a customizable doll line offering endless combinations all in one box so that kids may create their own characters.
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Gotta give the guy props for putting his point of view out there in, as you say, characteristic style. I only ever saw him in person once. He was leaving church in front of me. It appeared he'd had a rough night beforehand. Not that he didn't still look fabulous and he walked like a king. No one was rude enough to accost him, so he got to be all private in the midst of a bunch of folks. Natch, it was an Episcopal church. He's known to attend those when he can.