Quentin Tarantino is drawing outrage from movie fans on social media for bashing Paul Dano on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast,” where the Oscar-winning director revealed his picks for the best movies of the 21st century so far. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” was Tarantino’s No. 5 pick. However, he said the movie could’ve ranked in the first or second slots “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. But it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander,” Tarantino said. “[Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. [Daniel] is eating him [alive]. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. Daniel Day-Lewis shows that he doesn’t need a strong foil. The movie needs it. He doesn’t need anything. It’s supposed to be a two-hander and it’s not! … you put him with the the weakest fucking actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?”
While Tarantino started laughing, Ellis chimed in to say that Dano was “quite good” for what he needed to do in the movie. Tarantino responded: “I am not saying he is giving a terrible performance, I am saying he’s giving a non-entity performance… I don’t care for him.”
Variety has reached out to representatives for Tarantino and Dano for comment.
“There Will Be Blood” stars Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning performance as Daniel Plainview, a ruthless oil baron hellbent on acquiring more wealth during the turn of the 20th century. Dano plays the dual role of twins Paul and Eli Sunday, the latter of which is a preacher. Both Tarantino and Ellis agreed that Day-Lewis’ performance and Anderson’s “old-style craftsmanship” set “There Will Be Blood” ahead of the pack.
“It had an old Hollywood craftsmanship without trying to be like that,” Tarantino said. “It was the only film he’s ever done, and I brought it up to him, that doesn’t have a set piece. The fire is the closest to a set piece. This was about dealing with the narrative, dealing with the story, and he did it fucking amazingly.”
For what it’s worth, Variety gave Dano praise in its original “There Will Be Blood” review: “Dano ranges from politely deferential to frothingly enraptured in a powerful performance as the young man of God.”
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From Variety US