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After Quentin Tarantino criticized his performance in “There Will Be Blood“, Paul Dano has finally addressed the issue. Tarantino called Dano, a nominee for an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Indie Spirit Award, the “weakest f—ing actor in SAG.’
Ahead of a 20th anniversary screening of “Little Miss Sunshine” at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Dano was asked about Tarantino’s comment but was beat to the punch by co-star Toni Collette, who said: “Are we really going there? Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?”
“That was really nice,” Dano told Variety. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”
The Tarantino controversy was weighed in by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who directed “Little Miss Sunshine.” Dayton called Tarantino’s remarks an ’embarrassment’, adding: ‘I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed.’ Faris mentioned that the people who came out to defend Paul were interesting because they immediately loved him and his intelligence.
Tarantino stirred up a storm almost two months ago by appearing on Brett Easton Ellis’ podcast to talk about his list of the best movies of the 21st century. According to the director, he had originally chosen “There Will Be Blood” as his first or second choice, but Dano’s performance led to it being ranked fifth on his list.
“Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander. But it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander,” Tarantino told Ellis, referencing Dano and the film’s lead Daniel Day Lewis. “[Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. [Daniel] is eating him [alive]. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. Daniel Day-Lewis shows that he doesn’t need a strong foil. The movie needs it. He doesn’t need anything. It’s supposed to be a two-hander and it’s not! … you put him with the the weakest fucking actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?”
Tarantino then threw shade and two other performers, saying “I don’t care” for Owen Wilson or Matthew Lillard either as actors. Lillard reacted to the diss at December’s GalaxyCon saying “it hurts your feelings. It fucking sucks. And you wouldn’t say that to Tom Cruise. You wouldn’t say that to somebody who’s a top-line actor in Hollywood.”