Paul Dano Breaks Silence on Quentin Tarantino Slamming Him as a 'Weak, Uninteresting' Actor

Benjamin VanHooseWed, January 28, 2026 at 10:18 PM UTC

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Quentin Tarantino; Paul Dano

Kevin Winter/Getty; Marion Curtis/StarPix for Focus Features/Shutterstock

Paul Dano spoke out for the first time about Quentin Tarantino slamming him as the "weakest" actor

The star said he was "incredibly grateful" that so many fellow actors came to his defense

Tarantino made the remarks while discussing Dano's film There Will Be Blood on a podcast in December

Paul Dano is reacting to Quentin Tarantino slamming him as the "weakest" actor in Hollywood.

Tarantino, 62, argued on an episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast in December 2025 that Dano, 41, was the singular "flaw" of the Oscar-winning 2007 film There Will Be Blood.

The Django Unchained director didn't hold back as he said Dano is "just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy." Host Ellis suggested that Daniel Day-Lewis' performance may have been "so gargantuan" that it overshadowed Dano's, to which Tarantino said, "So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?"

Various Hollywood stars spoke out in defense of Dano after the remarks made headlines, though Dano hadn't addressed it until Variety asked at the Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday, Jan. 28.

Both there to mark the 20th anniversary of Little Miss Sunshine, Toni Collette came to Dano's defense when the topic came up: "F--- that guy!" Collette, 53, said of Tarantino. "He must’ve been high. … It was just confusing. Who does that?”

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Paul Dano in "There Will Be Blood" Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount

Of the public support from fellow actors, Dano said, "That was really nice. I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to."

Little Miss Sunshine co-director Jonathan Dayton told the outlet that Tarantino’s comments were an “embarrassment" and "I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable." Added co-director Valerie Faris, "You know what was interesting was the people coming out to defend Paul. There was immediately. … He is loved by so many. He is so smart."

Dano is also known for films like The Batman, The Fabelmans, Prisoners, Love & Mercy and more. He earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for There Will Be Blood at the BAFTA awards, and he's also been nominated for a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards.

"Paul Dano is an incredible actor, and an incredible person," his The Batman director Matt Reeves wrote on X in December. Ben Stiller, who directed him for the limited series Escape at Dannemora, posted on X: "idk man i think paul dano is an incredible actor."

Tarantino added during that podcast appearance of Dano: "I'm not saying he's giving a terrible performance. I'm saying he's giving a non-entity [performance]. I don't care for him. I don't care for Owen Wilson, I don't care for Matthew Lillard." Lillard, 56, has since commented on the dig.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”