The incredible rise of Paul Dano as Quentin Tarantino blasts his work

Quentin Tarantino raised eyebrows this week when he bizarrely took aim at Hollywood star Paul Dano – blasting his ‘weak’ performance in There Will Be Blood.

During an appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast he listed his 20 favourite movies, saying he wanted to include the period drama higher in his ranking but couldn’t because of Dano’s role as twins Paul and Eli Sunday.

To justify his opinion, he declared: ‘[Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role…’

Tarantino’s remarks were surprising, given Dano’s performance was deemed worthy enough to earn a BAFTA nomination. 

Dano was just 23 when he was nominated, going up against the late Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson’s War; Tommy Lee Jones for No Country for Old Men; Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton and winner Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men.

Dano was also credited for having held his own alongside lead Daniel Day-Lewis – widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time. 

He was originally cast in a small role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic, scheduled to film just one scene as preacher Paul – with Dano planning to head back home after filming to prepare for his final year of college.

However, when he arrived on set, when filming had already been taken place for three weeks, Anderson suggested Dano also take on the much bigger role of Eli – because the actor already cast ‘wasn’t the right fit’. 

As Dano later said of getting the last minute offer: ‘I suppose the advantage is not having time to get nervous.’ 

He added in a chat with GQ that to this day he doesn’t know who had originally been cast as Eli.  

‘I didn’t ask. I didn’t want anything in my head,’ he explained. ‘And frankly, I feel almost superstitious talking about it now… You just never… if it was me… it’s horrifying, almost, to young people.’

On why he thinks Anderson didn’t offer him the bigger role in the first place, he mused: ‘I think once we had hung out as people, like this, he was worried I was too nice. I often get that.’

It proved to be the sliding doors moment for Dano’s career and he instantly snapped up a series of big Hollywood roles. 

Dano had been acting since childhood, starring in Broadway shows and landing minor roles in films such as Taking Lives and The Girl Next Door. 

He came to greater attention in 2006 with Little Miss Sunshine, yet his role was mainly mute given his character Dwayne had taken a vow of silence.

So it was was his role the following year in There Will Be Blood that proved to be the turning point. 

After his performance, Rolling Stone magazine included Dano in its 2007 Hot List, describing his work as ‘Daniel Day-Lewis + Billy Crudup × Johnny Depp’.

Dano went on to star alongside Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in 2010’s Knight and Day, then with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in Cowboys & Aliens.

In 2012, he worked with Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt in sci-fi action film, Looper.

He was critically acclaimed in 2013 when he starred in 12 Years a Slave and Prisoners and the following year received a Golden Globe nomination for playing Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. 

A Primetime Emmy nomination followed in 2018 for his role as a convicted murderer in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora. 

That same year he also made his directorial debut with the drama film Wildlife, starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal, which he co-wrote with his partner, Zoe Kazan.

The notoriously private couple met while working on an Off-Broadway play in 2007 and have a daughter, seven, and son, three, whose names they have not revealed. 

More recently Dano has been on the big screen playing The Riddler against Robert Pattison’s Batman and playing Steven Spielberg’s father Burt in The Fabelmans – a role that earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

He shows no sign of slowing down his work with an upcoming leading role in The Wizard of the Kremlin, which is expected to go on general release from January 2026.

The satire follows Dano as the fictional character of Vadim Baranov, inspired by the Vladimir Putin’s spin doctor Vladislav Surkov, during the final years of the Soviet Union and the turbulent start of the Russian Federation. 

Jude Law also stars as a young Putin during his rise to power, alongside Alicia Vikander, Will Keen, Tom Sturridge and Jeffrey Wright.

The Daily Mail’s Brian Viner awarded the film a five star review. 

It is understandable then, given Dano’s incredible body of work, why fans have been leaping to his defence over Tarantino’s comments. 

During the podcast chat, Tarantino declared: ‘I don’t care for him. I don’t care for him, I don’t care for Owen Wilson, and I don’t care for Matthew Lillard. 

‘I’m not saying [Dano’s] giving a terrible performance. I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity performance.’ 

Dano has also been supported by his There Will Be Blood co-star Dillon Freasier, who played the child version of H.W. Plainview in the 2008 film.

He told TMZ: ‘The film is perfect. It’s a work of art. And it’s that way because everyone was perfectly cast.’

He also laughed off Tarantino’s suggestion that Elvis star Butler would have been better for the role of twins Paul and Eli Sunday as he pointed out he would have been far too young when the film was made. 

Mattson Tomlin, who has co-written The Batman: Part II with Matt Reeves, also spoke out in Dano’s defence. 

‘I am really pleased to see so many people cheer on Paul Dano this week,’ he wrote on X/Twitter. ‘Not only is he a terrific actor, but he’s an astonishing director who exudes control and tremendous empathy.’

It remains to be seen whether Dano himself will respond to the jibes. 

Daily Mail has contacted Dano’s representatives for comment.