Quentin Tarantino has branded Paul Dano "a weak sister".
The Pulp Fiction filmmaker named Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 drama There Will Be Blood as his fifth-favourite movie of the 21st century and admitted it would have been higher in the list if he hadn't been so unimpressed by the actor's performance alongside Daniel Day-Lewis.
Speaking on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, he said: "There Will Be Blood would stand a better chance to be in number one or number two if it didn't have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano.
"Obviously, it's supposed to be a two-hander, and it's also so drastically obvious that it's not a two-hander.
"He is weak sauce, man. He's a weak sister."
Tarantino believes "another terrific actor" could have excelled in the role, suggesting his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor Austin Butler, despite him only being 16 when There Will Be Blood was released.
He said: "Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. [Dano] just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy."
Although Bret attempted to defend Paul's performance, Quentin still argued the Swiss Army Man actor simply wasn't good enough.
The author said: "Daniel Day-Lewis also makes it impossible to make it a two-hander because there are aspects of that performance that are so gargantuan."
Tarantino replied: "So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest d*** in the world?...
"I'm not saying he's giving a terrible performance. I'm saying he's giving a non-entity performance."
The 62-year-old director admitted the Fabelmans actor just isn't someone he is a fan of.
Asked if he had enjoyed Paul in any of his movies, he said: "I don't care for him. I don't care for him, I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard."
During the podcast interview, Tarantino also blasted The Hunger Games and accused author Suzanne Collins - whose novels were adapted into the hugely successful film franchise - of "ripping off" Koushun Takami's 1999 novel Battle Royale, which spawned the influential 2000 Japanese movie of the same name.
He said: “I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every f****** thing she owns.
“They just ripped off the f*****’ book. Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale so the stupid book critics never called her on it.
"They talked about how it was the most original f*****’ thing they’d ever read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, ‘What the f***? This is just Battle Royale except PG!' ”
