Paul Dano has performed a lot of great movie characters over the years, from Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine and Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, to The Riddler in The Batman and Burt Fabelman in The Fabelmans. But perhaps his most critically-acclaimed role is Eli Sunday, who clashed with Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Well, it’s acclaimed to most people, but not filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Last month, the Pulp Fiction director slammed Dano’s There Will Be Blood performance, and now the actor has finally responded to this critique.
While speaking with Variety at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of a 20th anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano was asked to comment about what Quentin Tarantino had said about him. Before he could answer, Toni Collette, who was standing next to him and also starred in the 2006 comedy, interjected by saying, “Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?” Dano then said about the tributes and kind words about him that spread on social media:
That was really nice. I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.
This all started when Quentin Tarantino appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast and shared that There Will Be Blood (which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription) is one of his top 10 movies of the 21st century. However, what prevents the loose film adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s Oil! from ranking in first or second place on the list is Paul Dano. Tarantino described his presence as a “big, giant flaw” and said the actor was “such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest fucking actor in SAG.”
Well, it didn’t take long for the outpouring of support for Paul Dano to come in, which he greatly appreciated. Rather than comment directly on the way Quentin Tarantino criticized the way he performed Eli Sunday, he instead highlighted how glad he was so many people spoke out in his defense, including The Batman director Matt Reeves. That’s taking the high road.
Unfortunately, Dano wasn’t the only person that Tarantino’s targeted during that podcast. He also took aim at Matthew Lillard, as well as criticized The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, calling those books and their film adaptations a “ripoff” of Battle Royale. Granted, Tarantino has never been shy about sharing his opinions in a blunt manner, like this time last year when he took issue with how quickly theatrical movies are going to streaming. Still, it’s safe to say that at least where Paul Dano is concerned, he’s in the minority about his There Will Be Blood performance.
As far as these two men’s professional lives are concerned, Paul Dano has The Chaperones and Bunker coming out as his next movies, but neither have release dates yet. Quentin Tarantino hasn’t announced yet what he’ll direct as his tenth and final movie after he decided to scrap The Movie Critic. Whatever it ends up being, I think it’s a safe bet he won’t cast Dano in it.
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