Paul Dano speaks out on Quentin Tarantino’s diss at Sundance
After Paul Dano came under unexpected fire from filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in December, the โThere Will Be Bloodโ star received support from fellow artists including Daniel Day-Lewis and Ben Stiller. A month after the drama, he is now returning the love.
Dano finally publicly addressed Tarantinoโs controversial comments at the Sundance Film Festival during a 20th anniversary screening of โLittle Miss Sunshine.โ Speaking to Variety, he said the groundswell of support โwas really nice.โ
Tarantino appeared on Bret Easton Ellisโ podcast in December to rank his top 10 films of the century. The โDjango Unchainedโ and โPulp Fictionโ filmmaker placed Paul Thomas Andersonโs oil drama โThere Will Be Bloodโ at No. 5 on his list, and said specifically Dano โ not his performance โ was the โbig, giant flawโ in the Oscar-winning film. โThere Will Be Bloodโ stars Dano as fiery preacher Eli Sunday and Day-Lewis as oil tycoon Daniel Plainview.
When the movie was released in 2007, former Times film critic Kenneth Turan praised Dano as โsmoothly effectiveโ and gifted. Clearly, Tarantino thought otherwise.
โHe is weak sauce, man. Heโs a weak sister,โ Tarantino said, adding that he thought โElvisโ star Austin Butler (who was a teenager launching his career on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon when the movie came out) would have been a better actor for the part. โHeโs just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy,โ he said.
Tarantino added: โYou put [Day-Lewis] with the the weakest fโ actor in SAG?โ
A handful of Danoโs collaborators immediately defended him. โEscape at Dannemoraโ executive producer Stiller praised him as โbrilliantโ and Reese Witherspoon called her โInherent Viceโ co-star an โincredibly gifted, versatile actorโ and a gentleman. Matt Reeves, Josh Gad, Alec Baldwin and Simu Liu also voiced their support for Dano, whose credits include Steven Speilbergโs Oscar-nominated โThe Fabelmans,โ Bong Joon Hoโs โOkjaโ and Oscar-winning director duo Danielsโ (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) โSwiss Army Man.โ
โI was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didnโt have to,โ Dano said at the Sundance screening.
Before Dano responded, though, Toni Collette (who played his mom in โLittle Miss Sunshineโ) chimed in, dismissing โthat guyโ Tarantino and speculating that โhe mustโve been high.โ
โIt was just confusing. Who does that?,โ she said, according to Variety. โLittle Miss Sunshineโ directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris also criticized Tarantino and praised their star.
During his podcast appearance in December, Tarantino also slammed Owen Wilson and scream king Matthew Lillard. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly published Wednesday, Lillard brushed off the shade and recalled the ensuing social media praise for his talents. โIt was like living through your own wake,โ Lillard told EW.
โAll those R.I.P. emails or tweets and Instagram posts and TikToks, all of the things we see after somebody passes are so sweet,โ he added. โAnd the reality is I just got to live through all of it firsthand โ alive and kicking! I canโt imagine a more lovely reaction to what happened.โ