Paul Dano has broken his silence after director Quentin Tarantino dissed his acting skills.
The actor, 41, saw a flood of support and praise from fellow actors in recent weeks after Tarantino labeled him the “weakest actor in SAG.” However, the Ruby Sparks actor has not spoken out about the filmmaker’s insult until now.
“That was really nice,” Dano told Variety in an interview published Wednesday. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”
The Pulp Fiction director sparked backlash when he appeared on Brett Easton Ellis’ podcast to discuss his ranking of the best movies made in the 21st century. Tarantino picked 2007 film There Will Be Blood as his fifth best movie of the century and said it would have been higher on the list if it weren’t for Dano’s performance.
“[Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. [Daniel Day Lewis] is eating him [alive]. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy,” Tarantino slammed on the podcast.
When asked about Tarantino’s remark at a 20th anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine at Sundance, Dano’s co-star Toni Collette interrupted to defend him before he could answer.
“Are we really going there?” Collette slammed. “F*** that guy! He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?”
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood focuses on depraved oil baron Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his fraught relationship with preacher Eli Sunday (Dano). The film is widely regarded as one of the best of the century.
Dano, meanwhile, has drawn consistent acclaim throughout his career for performances in films such as Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Meek’s Cutoff (2010), and The Fabelmans (2022).
Multiple celebrities hit back at Tarantino’s unsparing remarks about Dano in December. An Instagram account purporting to be the leading actor of There Will Be Blood, Day-Lewis, posted that “Paul Dano is one of the best and most talented actors of his generation.” Representatives for the record-holding three-time Oscar winner informed The Guardian that the account was fan-run, but maintained that the British actor endorsed the sentiments.
Day-Lewis had also recommended Dano for the part of Eli Sunday in the film, after the original actor suddenly dropped out.
Meanwhile, Ben Stiller, who directed Dano in the 2018 series Escape at Dannemora, wrote on X: “Paul Dano is f***ing brilliant.”
Reese Witherspoon, who starred in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2014 film, Inherent Vice, added on Threads: “Paul Dano is an incredibly gifted, versatile actor. More importantly, he is a gentleman.”
George Clooney, who co-starred with Tarantino in the 1996 vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn, also showed his support for Dano earlier this month. During an appearance at AARP’s Movies for Grownups award, he said he’d be “honored” to work with Dano, suggesting he was left unimpressed by Tarantino’s “cruelty.”
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