Quentin Tarantino may see Paul Dano as “weak sauce,” but plenty of Hollywood heavyweights, including Daniel Day-Lewis, couldn’t disagree more.
Last week, during an appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, the Oscar-winning auteur, 62, issued a scathing assessment of Dano’s performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 Western thriller There Will Be Blood.
Labeling the 41-year-old actor the movie’s “big, giant flaw,” Tarantino said: “He is just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest f***ing actor in SAG.”
Immediately after the Django Unchained filmmaker’s unsparing remarks, numerous high-profile stars came out in support of Dano, heaping praise on him and arguing that he is “incredible,” “brilliant,” and “one of the best actors of our time.”
An Instagram account purporting to be Day-Lewis posted on Tuesday that “Paul Dano is one of the best and most talented actors of his generation.” Representatives for the record-holding three-time Oscar winner informed The Guardian that the account was fan-run, but maintained that the British actor endorsed the sentiments.
Day-Lewis, who led There Will Be Blood, recommended Dano for the part of Eli Sunday after the original actor suddenly dropped out.
Meanwhile, Ben Stiller, who directed Dano in the 2018 series Escape at Dannemora, wrote on X: “Paul Dano is f***ing brilliant.”
Marvel’s Simu Liu agreed, commenting in a separate X post: “idk man i think paul dano is an incredible actor.”
Reese Witherspoon, Dano’s former Inherent Vice co-star, added on Threads: “Paul Dano is an incredibly gifted, versatile actor. More importantly, he is a gentleman.”
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Also taking to X, Matt Reeves, the director of the Robert Pattinson-led The Batman, in which Dano appeared as the psychotic supervillain The Riddler, labeled him “an incredible actor, and an incredible person.”
Mattson Tomlin, the co-writer on Reeves’s forthcoming The Batman sequel, which is expected to see Dano reprise his role, added: “I am really pleased to see so many people cheer on Paul Dano this week. Not only is he a terrific actor, but he’s an astonishing director who exudes control and tremendous empathy.”
On Threads, Frozen actor Josh Gad went so far as to call Dano “one of the best actors of our time. Full stop.”
“I just want to say I love Paul Dano,” Alec Baldwin stated in a recent Instagram video. “And if you don’t love Paul Dano, shh.”
Actor Colleen Foy, who portrayed Dano’s sister in There Will Be Blood, wrote on Threads that her co-star’s “incredible performance speaks for itself.”
“I sat behind Quentin Tarantino at the Cast & Crew screening and he was legit vibing with Paul’s performance,” Foy claimed in the post. “His recent comments are incongruent with his reaction that night.”
Dano is an acclaimed actor, best known for performances in films such as Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and The Fabelmans (2022). Up next, he stars in Olivier Assayas’s new political thriller The Wizard of Kremlin, alongside Jude Law.
