Power of the Dog: Benedict Cumberbatch on Straight Actors Playg Gay – IndieWire

Contents:

• IS PHIL GAY THE POWER OF THE DOG? NETFLIX MOVIE SPOILERS
• IS PHIL GAY IN POWER OF THE DOG?
• IS PHIL GAY THE POWER OF THE DOG?
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY ‘POWER OF THE DOG’: ‘IT WASN’T DONE WHOUT THOUGHT’
• ‘THE POWER OF THE DOG’: CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL

IS PHIL GAY THE POWER OF THE DOG? NETFLIX MOVIE SPOILERS

Is Phil gay The Power of the Dog? Image om Netflix Media Phil gay The Power of the Dog? Y, many sequenc the film suggt that Phil is a closeted homosexual, keepg his homosexualy hidn om everybody else on the ’re troduced to the character as a nontatnal, hyper-mascule antagonist who is prented as beg nstant petn wh the men around him.

He’s the alpha male and the others – bis his brother – speak to him like the patriarchal figure of the they ask him about Bron Henry, they do so a childlike manner, as if they’re askg their father about their the narrative progrs ’s implied that the excsively macho exterr is actually a way to avoid anybody disverg that he is gay; an overpensatn of sorts stemmg om reprsn.

IS PHIL GAY IN POWER OF THE DOG?

A key scene, some reful dialogue, and Phil’s sudn sire to strike up a iendship wh Peter show that Cumberbatch’s character is gay.

The scen clue the dience to the fact that Phil’s aggrsivens is meant to mask his sexualy and the lonels he feels a time which homosexualy was disapproved of. All of the subtle elements of The Power of the Dog e together to prove that Phil is secretly gay, even though is never explicly nfirmed. So, is Phil Burbank gay?

Although is never mentned out loud, Phil is most certaly gay ‘The Power of the Dog.

IS PHIL GAY THE POWER OF THE DOG?

Several reports claim that Savage, who was married and had children, was a closeted gay man.

Although Phil is partly based on Savage’s step-uncle, William Brenner, the novelist adds his own stggl wh homosexualy to the character.

One of the most pivotal scen addrsg Phil’s homosexualy is a seclud gla by a pond. Consirg the novel and film’s backdrop of a homophobic and heteronormative society, is unrstandable why Phil reprs his sexual inty. ” So, we n safely assume that Phil Burbank is gay ‘The Power of the Dog.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY ‘POWER OF THE DOG’: ‘IT WASN’T DONE WHOUT THOUGHT’

Though the ultimate du, he is somehow not like the other is bee he is gay. Is , like so many prtig gay works, a tragic romance? Extrapolate those lsons too much and you end up patently homophobic terrory—we should not assume that every abive oaf p for a Bron Henry.

‘THE POWER OF THE DOG’: CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL

” While the specifics of Phil’s sexual inty are shroud ambiguy, Cumberbatch played a gay character 2014 as the troubled mathematician Alan Turg “The Imatn Game. While popular culture is only tchg up to queer history the wild wt, historians and other amics have long known that homosexualy was mon the ontier. As a closeted rancher mourng the ath of his lover, Phil Burbank his his te nature through homophobia and abive, performative masculy, which led to Phil’s plex relatnship Power of the Dog's the queer-d Peter Gordon (Kodi Sm-McPhee), whom Phil mentors on the ranch jt like Bron did for Phil.

Whether or not Peter was aware that he killed Phil wh the anthrax-fted whi leather, both Bron and Phil’s aths reprent the fall of closeted homophobia and mascule theatrics, givg way to Peter’s unapologetic queerns, nfince, and self-termatn – reflective of Thomas Savage’s own experienc as a gay man who me of age the early 1900s. This is a man who lived his life, reprsg his homosexualy and here was someone who ma his feelgs snap and worse, possibly rpond back to his sir. Phil’s anger, and his clawg lonels, take on a new light when ’s revealed he is a closeted gay man.