Jane Campion, the filmmaker of “Power of the Dog,” experienced a huge setback just months before her Oscar triumph in 1994.
For her work on the Holly Hunter drama “The Piano,” the 67-year-old won the prize for Best Original Screenplay.
Campion’s son Jasper died at the age of two weeks exactly ten months before the Academy Awards presentation.
Campion spoke openly about her previous trauma in a Vanity Fair article released Monday.
She said that she was pregnant with her daughter Alice, now 27 when she won the coveted golden trophy.
“I simply couldn’t do anything,” she said of the loss. “I was struck by the sorrow experience, and I just couldn’t work.”
Campion said, “It’s the most humanising experience I’ve ever had.” “You feel a sense of sympathy with everyone else who is grieving.” Because you truly understand that it’s a club, you can never turn your head away from someone who is suffering.”
“I think much of my work comes from that part of myself, which isn’t really in control of emotion or anything else,” she continued. It’s a psychological fact.”
Campion gave birth to Jasper through an emergency Caesarean section, according to the New York Times in 1993. She was told after the birth that he wouldn’t be able to survive without an incubator. He died nearly two weeks later.
She took a sabbatical from acting after his death, returning in 1996 to direct “Portrait of a Lady” and writing the script for “Holy Smoke” in 1999.
This year, the New Zealand-born director is up for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture for his film “Power of the Dog.” The drama stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a closeted gay rancher in 1925 Montana who abuses his brother’s family.
Sam Elliot recently panned the film, slamming the LGBT elements in the plot. On Marc Maron’s “WTF Podcast,” the 77-year-old asked, “You want to talk about that piece of s — t?” Cumberbatch’s outfit was then compared to Chippendales dancers “who wear bowties and not much else.”
“That’s how all those f—king cowboys in that movie looked,” the “A Star Is Born,” star said. “They’re all dressed in slacks and no shirts.” Throughout the f — king film, there are several references to homosexuality.”
“Where is the Western in this Western?” you might wonder. Elliott was the one who inquired. “I mean, Cumberbatch never took his f — king knickers off.”
“Someone really took exception to the West being depicted in this way,” the “Imitation Game” actor said on March 7 in response to Elliot’s criticism. I’m trying so hard not to mention anything about a weird reaction I had on a radio show over here the other day.”
“We need to dig [under] the hood of people like Phil Burbank to see what their battle is and why that’s there in the first place if we’re going to grasp what poisons the well in guys, what generates toxic masculinity,” he stated. “Otherwise, history will repeat itself.”
