Quentin Tarantino Faces Backlash For Calling Paul Dano ‘Weak Sauce’

Quentin Tarantino has garnered the wrath of the internet with his latest comments on Paul Dano.

via: World of Reel

Quite honestly? I didn’t expect the backlash Quentin Tarantino was going to get for criticizing Paul Dano’s acting chops. I get it, what he did was probably not the wisest thing to do in an online culture where every word gets dissected, every sentence gets mulled over, but Tarantino was just being Tarantino. He’s always been honest about his feelings and sees himself as a movie fan — maybe his second life would have been as a film critic — who knows.

The pushback he’s been getting has to do with his guest appearance on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, where he unveiled his best-of-the-21st-century list, which included “There Will Be Blood” at #5, but Tarantino said that the film would have probably topped his list had it not had a big, giant flaw in it: Paul Dano.

Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy […] The weakest fcking actor in SAG [laughs]

Ellis tried to defend Dano’s performance. “Daniel Day-Lewis also makes it impossible to make it a two-hander because there are aspects of that performance that are so gargantuan,” the “American Psycho” author said.

“So, you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG?” Tarantino shot back. “The limpest dick in the world?” He later clarified, “I’m not saying he’s giving a terrible performance. I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity performance.”

Ellis then asked whether Tarantino had ever liked Dano in anything. “I don’t care for him,” the filmmaker replied. “I don’t care for him, I don’t care for Owen Wilson, and I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.”

Unsurprisingly, these comments did not go down well with the fanbase. Since the time Tarantino made his statement, there have been many comments on social media platforms. Many defended Dano, who is widely considered one of the best actors in the industry.

“Quentin Tarantino is so lucky he makes outstandingly good films because just about every single word that comes out of his mouth is complete stupidity,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote.

Another user added, “Quentin Tarantino could not be more wrong about Paul Dano if he tried. I’m not here to ‘cancel’ Tarantino just because I think his opinion is incredibly stupid…But his movie takes have been horrible lately. Like embarrassingly bad.”

Moreover, a third fan wrote, “Please stop interviewing Quentin Tarantino.” Finally, one user defended Dano’s performance. They stated, “I remember a few of my friends not liking his performance, but I thought he was great. He was holding his own alongside Daniel Day-Lewis imo.”

*****

I mean, where to begin? I'm not going to hold you, but Dano has never been on my top lists of acting greats. However, I thought he did a pretty convincing job as the Riddler in The Batman.

He's also had a pretty stable career working with filmmaking greats such as Steven Spielberg, Steve McQueen, Bong Joon-ho, Denis Villeneuve, Spike Jonze, Kelly Reichardt, Rian Johnson, and Ang Lee. You don't get to work with the biggest filmmakers in Hollywood being a mid actor.

I honestly don't know what Quentin's deal is with Paul, Owen and Matthew, but I feel as a filmmaker you shouldn't be talking smack about a fellow actor who probably admires your work as a filmmaker, and would one day want to work with you.

But then again, what do I know? QT likes to act like he's the grand wizard of cinema all because the elitist cinephiles kiss his behind over his body of work, which, if we were to be honest is derivative of things we've seen from other iconic filmmakers (the Shaw Brothers with Kill Bill, Howard Hawks westerns, and Akira Kurosawa).

The only thing that differeniates Quentin from the artists he takes inspiration from (some would say he blatantly rips them off) is his ability to write excellent scenes of dialogue for his actors.

So while Quentin is entitled to his opinion regardless how blunt, I vehemently disagree with his sentiment.