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Paul Dano is getting so much industry love after Quentin Tarantino slammed him

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Earlier this week, we talked about Quentin Tarantino’s bizarrely personal attack on Paul Dano. Tarantino was being interviewed by Bret Easton Ellis on Ellis’s podcast, and Tarantino was discussing his top-twenty films of the 21st century. His list was garbage, btw. But he put Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood in his top-ten, and argued that the film would have been his #1 except for Paul Dano. Dano gave a gonzo performance in that film, trying his best to go toe-to-toe with Daniel Day Lewis. Lesser actors would have failed miserably, but Dano held his own and he played off DDL in interesting ways. Here are Tarantino’s full comments, as transcribed by People Mag:

Tarantino, 62, described Dano, 41, as “weak sauce” during his Tuesday, Dec. 2 appearance on an episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast as he and host Bret Easton Ellis talked through Tarantino’s opinions on the top movies of the 21st century. As Tarantino named There Will Be Blood, the 2007 epic that Dano costarred in with Daniel Day-Lewis, his fifth-favorite movie of the last 25 years, he said the movie “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,” Tarantino said. “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. . . Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role.”

When host Ellis asked Tarantino whether he thought Dano was simply the wrong actor for the part, the famed director said, “He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. . . Daniel Day-Lewis shows that he doesn’t need [a strong foil in the movie]. He doesn’t need anything. The movie would’ve had more — there would’ve been more stringiness to the beef. And again, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, and it’s not.”

When Ellis contended that Day-Lewis’ performance in the movie is “so gargantuan” that it perhaps overshadows Dano’s, Tarantino responded, “So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest d–k in the world?”

“I’m not saying he’s giving a terrible performance,” he added moments later. “I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity [performance]. I don’t care for him. I don’t care for Owen Wilson, I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.”

[From People]

Throughout the week, people have engaged in some really interesting armchair psychoanalysis of why the hell Tarantino is attacking Dano in this personal way. I think the most reasonable explanation is that Dano is a brilliant character actor who tends to be really good at playing losers, fanatics and villains, and Tarantino feels like Dano’s acting roles hit too close to (Tarantino’s) home. As in, Tarantino hates Dano because he sees himself in Dano.

In any case, something sort of cool has happened in the wake of Tarantino’s interview. Industry people, across the board, and showing love to Dano, who generally seems to be one of the least problematic people in the industry. Actors, directors, writers and producers are all posting messages of support to Paul Dano or highlighting his work. I might watch The Fabelmans again, just to support him! He’s GREAT in The Fabelmans. Toni Collette posted something from Little Miss Sunshine. Matt Reeves (who did The Batman with Dano) tweeted his support. And on and on. They’re calling this a reverse cancellation! It reminds me a little bit of what happened with Jeremy Strong after his bitchy New Yorker profile, and all of Strong’s industry friends were like “Jeremy is awesome, actually.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.



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