Quentin Tarantino trashes Paul Dano: “He is weak sauce”

American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino fired a scathing dig at actor Paul Dano on Tuesday, describing him as “a weak, uninteresting guy”. 

The roast arrived on the ‘Bret Easton Ellis Podcast’, where Tarantino discussed his top ten movies of the century with the ‘American Psycho’ author. 

Commenting on Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘There Will Be Blood’, which Tarantino placed as his #5 favourite film of the 21st century, the director stated that the movie could have been higher in the chart if only for one major blemish: the presence of Paul Dano.

“‘There Will Be Blood’ would stand a better chance to be number 1 or number 2 if it didn’t have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano,” Tarantino blurted out.

“He is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister,” he added. 

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Four binge-worthy movie musicals to watch if you enjoyed ‘Wicked’

‘A non-entity performance’

In ‘There Will Be Blood’, Dano plays the roles of twins Eli and Paul Sunday. 

While Paul’s presence in the film is limited to the beginning, his brother Eli, an intriguing preacher, represents one of the strongest characters of the feature. 

Throughout the story, Eli constantly hinders the film’s protagonist, Daniel Plainview (played by the majestic Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Academy Award for his performance), and his ambitious plans in a subtle yet swirling parabola between faith and power. 

Tarantino, however, was unimpressed. 

“I’m not saying he’s giving a terrible performance. I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity performance,” he explained. 

According to the filmmaker, Dano simply could not keep up with the greatness of Day-Lewis’ performance: “Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, and it’s also so drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander.”

“Dano is just a weak, weak, uninteresting guy,” Tarantino continued, noting that ‘Elvis’ star Austin Butler would have been a better choice for the role, despite him being only 16 when the film was released in 2007. 

“I don’t care for him,” Tarantino also added when Ellis asked him if he had ever liked any of Dano’s projects. 

“I don’t care for him, I don’t care for Owen Wilson, I don’t care for Matthew Lillard,” he continued. 

Digging the blade even deeper, Tarantino finally described Dano as “the weakest male actor in SAG [the Screen Actors Guild]”.

Tarantino’s list was topped by Ridley Scott’s ‘Black Hawk Down’ (2001).

“It keeps up the intensity for 2 hours and 45 minutes, or whatever it is, and I watched it again recently, my heart was going through the entire runtime of the movie,” Tarantino explained.

“It had me and never let me go, and I hadn’t seen it in a while. The feat of direction is beyond extraordinary,” he concluded.  

READ NEXT: Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill prequel premieres on Fortnite