Paul Dano has spoken for the first time about Quentin Tarantino’s remarks criticising his acting ability.
Late last year, the Pulp Fiction director discussed the Oscar nominee on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, while including the 2007 drama There Will Be Blood as part of his favourite films of this century.
“There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being Number One or Number Two [on his list of favourites] if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano,” Tarantino said of the film, going on to call the actor “weak sauce” and “the weakest actor in SAG” (the Screen Actors Guild).
The comments drew a wave of support for Dano from Hollywood names such as Ben Stiller, Simu Liu, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Up to this point, Dano has not commented on the insults. Ahead of a 20th anniversary screening of his film Little Miss Sunshine at Sundance, however, the actor talked to Variety about the wave of people rushing to defend him.
“That was really nice,” he said. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”
Toni Colette, who played Dano’s mother in the comedy-drama, leapt to defend her co-star. “Are we really going there? Fuck that guy!” she said. “He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?”
Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris also shared their views. Dayton called Tarantino’s criticism an “embarrassment,” adding: “I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed.”
Faris said: “You know what was interesting was the people coming out to defend Paul. There was immediately… he is loved by so many. He is so smart.”
Recently, George Clooney, who has worked with Tarantino in the past, called the director’s comments “cruel” during an appearance at an awards ceremony.
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