When Hollywood veteran actor Sam Elliott wanted to move to Los Angeles to carve out a career in the film industry back in the 1960s, his father disapproved of it and instead urged him to pursue a college degree.
After snapping up many roles over the last 50 years, the 74-year-old talented actor finally had his moment. Earlier this year, Elliott got his first-ever Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Bradley Cooper’s film “A Star Is Born.”
Though Elliott lost the Oscar for the best supporting actor to Mahershala Ali, he was beyond doubt thankful for still thriving in the film industry even after five decades.
“Fifty years into the game and all of a sudden to have anything to do with this, to be connected with a film like this, it’s just a wonderful gift,” he added.
Amidst all the Oscar buzz, Elliott was also attending premieres and interviews to promote his new movie “The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot,” which hit U.S. theaters this February.
In the film, distributed by RLJ Entertainment and directed by Robert D. Krzykowski, Elliott portrays the character of Calvin Barr, a legendary American war veteran who has secretly assassinated Adolf Hitler. Decades later, he is recruited by the governments of America and Canada to hunt down the mythical creature—Bigfoot—that is supposedly spreading a deadly plague that could wipe out humanity.
“This 30-year-old kid who'd been working on this movie for 12 years, I could see it. We talked about John Sayles, who to me is one of the great independent filmmakers. Talking to him, I thought... this is a road I wanna go down,” he said.
Elliott went on to reveal more about his character, and said, “And all the stuff with the military was important to me.”
“Calvin comes back from the war with what we would have called at the time ’shell shock,' but was certainly some kind of PTSD. They teach these kids how to kill, but they don’t teach them how to reckon with it. That weighs heavily on Barr and makes him the reluctant hero to go hunt down Bigfoot,” he added.
With the movie surrounding a mystical large, hairy humanoid ape-like creature that dwells in the wilderness areas of the United States and Canada, does Elliott believe in Bigfoot’s existence himself?
“Oh, I think this Bigfoot thing always intrigued me as well. I spent a lot of time growing up in Oregon after I left California. Spent a lot of time in the woods. Talked to a lot of people who believed in it, went to towns where there are Bigfoot statues... It’s a great tale. It’s never been disproven, and as far as I’m concerned, why not?” he said.
Finally, everyone’s favorite cowboy Sam Elliott has “some of the best stuff” coming his way after a 50-long-year career. His father now must be surely smiling down from heaven.
We can’t wait to see Elliott in this adventurous tale to kill Bigfoot, embarking on a quest to save humanity in “The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot.”
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