In 2006, Crash famously upset Brokeback Mountain to win the best-picture Oscar—and crusty old-school Hollywood stars got at least some of the blame. “I didn’t see it and I don’t care to see it,” said Ernest Borgnine of Brokeback at the time. “If John Wayne were alive, he’d be rolling over in his grave!” Tony Curtis, who famously blurred gender lines in Some Like It Hot, also claimed to be unimpressed. “It’s nothing unique,” he told Fox News that year of the same-sex romance at the center of Brokeback. “The only thing unique about it is they put it on the screen. And they make ’em cowboys. Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn’t like it.”

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In the 16 years since Brokeback Mountain’s shocking best-picture upset—and possibly in part because of it—the makeup of the Academy Awards’ voting body has changed dramatically, leaning far less toward the old-school Hollywood types like Curtis and Borgnine and more toward a younger, international spread of cinephiles. (Not for nothing, Curtis, Borgnine, and most actors who were famous in the 1950s are also now dead.) But the legacy of the skeptical cowboy apparently lives on. This week on WTF With Marc Maron, Sam Elliott—he of the iconic mustache, deep voice, and recent Oscar nomination for A Star Is Born— apparently jumped on the opportunity to critique Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.

“Where’s the Western in this Western?… I took it fuckin’ personal, pal,” he said, complaining about everything from the way Benedict Cumberbatch’s cowboy, Phil Burbank, wears chaps to the fact that the movie was shot in New Zealand. His comments weren’t as clearly homophobic as Borgnine’s or Curtis’s, but the implication was pretty clear when he said of the film’s ranch hands, “They’re all runnin’ around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the fuckin’ movie.”

For Twitter users, who made meme after meme about the interview, it was a surprising heel turn for Elliott, who starred in a Super Bowl commercial just two years ago alongside the most famous gay cowboy of all, Lil Nas X. But for Netflix, which is pushing The Power of the Dog to the finish line of a long and so far successful best-picture Oscar campaign, it was a prime opportunity. It was ready with a meme of its own.

With less than a month to go before Oscar night, The Power of the Dog is in a tricky position. Despite going home empty-handed at the SAG Awards on Sunday, it’s still the overwhelming favorite for best picture and a number of other statues, leading the nomination tally and boasting the lion’s share of critics prizes. That’s exactly what Netflix should hope for, but it also puts a prime target on the movie’s back.

But by taking shots at The Power of the Dog, Elliott has almost certainly only helped the cause. Campion’s film has become a rallying point in the past 24 hours, with defenses both decrying Elliott’s seeming homophobia and explaining how he appeared to have missed the entire point of the film (as Marc Maron helpfully pointed out himself in the interview).

So The Power of the Dog has become a movie to not only defend against the remaining people who are certain cowboys cannot possibly be gay, but also to discuss in depth—maybe even encouraging people to watch the movie again and really catch the subtext about how Cumberbatch’s character is merely posing as a rugged ranch hand. Netflix’s tweet acknowledging the controversy, a quote from the movie itself, struck a perfect tone: Basically, watch The Power of the Dog now and see what all the fuss is about.

This is exactly what didn’t happen in 2006. The speculation about how Crash pulled off that upset continues to this day, but a plausible theory is that there were just too many voters like Curtis and Borgnine who weren’t ready for a sweeping romance about two men. Moonlight’s 2017 win is proof enough of how much the Oscars have changed since then, as is the fact that The Power of the Dog has made it this long without this kind of pushback.

To be clear, as Oscar watchers gladly remind us this time every year: The vast majority of actual voters are not following any of this on Twitter. (And truly, thank God for that.) But much like the clip from West Side Story that went viral over the weekend, this level of attention suggests that there’s something broader going on. For all the Academy’s attempts to gin up reasons for audiences to watch the show, people really do want to talk about these movies—both for the weird controversies that surround them and the actual craft and storytelling that went into making them. And all it takes is for one extremely online Oscar voter to attend an event this weekend and tell five less-online Oscar voters that homophobes are attacking The Power of the Dog.

With in-person events gearing back up, and the entire industry probably starved for gossip, Elliott could remain a talking point for weeks. Not great news for anyone who still relishes his Road House smolder—but excellent news for a movie that premiered six months ago and needs a new reason to be top of mind.

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