?Leave it to Quentin Tarantino to set Hollywood buzzing with another brutally honest tirade.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill is facing intense backlash after labeling actor Paul Dano “weak sauce” and “the weakest f*****g actor in SAG” during a recent interview with writer Bret Easton Ellis.
In their unfiltered discussion about Tarantino’s favorite films of the 21st century, the director praised There Will Be Blood—but then blasted Dano’s performance opposite Daniel Day-Lewis as the film’s “fatal flaw.”
“It’s supposed to be a two-hander,” Tarantino said. “But it’s glaringly obvious that it’s not. Dano is weak sauce, man. He’s the weak link. Daniel is absolutely devouring him on screen. Austin Butler would have killed it in that role.”
The 62-year-old filmmaker doubled down, adding, “Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t even need a strong foil, but the movie does—and they paired him with the weakest f*****g actor in SAG?”
Day-Lewis famously won the 2008 Best Actor Oscar for his powerhouse portrayal of Daniel Plainview, while Dano—best known for Little Miss Sunshine and The Batman—played the preacher Eli Sunday.
While Tarantino clarified that he didn’t find Dano’s performance “terrible,” he dismissed it as forgettable: “It’s a non-entity performance. I just don’t care for him.”
The filmmaker didn’t stop there. On a roll, Tarantino casually dropped more Hollywood names he’s not a fan of—Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard among them.
“I don’t care for Owen Wilson,” he said, before adding, “I don’t care for Matthew Lillard either.”
Ironically, one of his Top 10 films of the century, Midnight in Paris, stars Wilson in the lead role. Tarantino admitted that while he “can’t stand” the Wedding Crashers actor, his opinion softened after a third viewing of the Woody Allen classic. “I finally focused on Wilson’s performance—and I actually liked him,” he confessed.
Unsurprisingly, Tarantino’s bluntness set the internet ablaze. On Reddit, one fan hailed him as “one of the most genuine voices in Hollywood,” while another blasted him as “douchey” for disrespecting Dano, writing, “Even if Paul Dano did suck (which he doesn’t), that’s just uncalled for.”
Meanwhile, film buffs couldn’t resist debating Tarantino’s Top 10 list, which also includes Black Hawk Down (his number one), Toy Story 3 (“almost a perfect movie”), and Midnight in Paris at number ten.
Love him or hate him, Tarantino’s unfiltered opinions prove one thing—he’s still Hollywood’s most unpredictable provocateur.
