Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Turns out one of the best things that can happen to an actor is being insulted by Quentin Tarantino. In December, the director called Paul Dano “the weakest fucking actor in SAG” while appearing on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. Since then, pretty much every high-profile celebrity under the sun has come out in defense of Dano, including George Clooney, Ben Stiller, and Reese Witherspoon. And Dano, of course, feels great about that.
“That was really nice,” Dano told Variety when asked about the outpouring of support after Tarantino’s comments. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”
The outlet also asked Collette, who was doing press alongside Dano for the 20th-anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine, what she made of the whole mess. “Are we really going there? Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high,” she said. “It was just confusing. Who does that?” Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris similarly took up for Dano with Dayton calling Tarantino’s critique an “embarrassment.” “You know what was interesting was the people coming out to defend Paul,” Faris added. “He is loved by so many. He is so smart.”
Dano is not the only actor who learned just how many fans he had because of some out-of-pocket Tarantino comments. In the same episode, Tarantino also criticized Owen Wilson (“I really can’t stand” him) and Matthew Lillard (“I don’t care for” him). On Wednesday, Lillard told Entertainment Weekly that he had a similar experience to Dano, describing all of the support he received as like “living through your own wake.” “All those R.I.P. emails or tweets and Instagram posts and TikToks, all of the things we see after somebody passes are so sweet,” he said. “And the reality is I just got to live through all of it firsthand — alive and kicking! I can’t imagine a more lovely reaction to what happened.”
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