{"id":338551,"date":"2025-12-10T03:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338551\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T03:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:19:11","slug":"the-filmmaker-has-a-history-of-similar-controversies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/338551\/","title":{"rendered":"The filmmaker has a history of similar controversies."},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re wondering why your favorite actor might have posted a random photo of actor Paul Dano to their social media accounts recently, you wouldn\u2019t be alone. For the past week, Hollywood has been up in arms in defense of Dano\u2014a treasured actor famous for his work in pictures such as Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, and Prisoners\u2014with, perhaps, little to no context for their outpouring of support. It turns out it all stems from a rather scathing sound bite from infamously mouthy director Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill<\/a>, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), who trashed Dano\u2019s acting capabilities in a recent interview on Bret Easton Ellis\u2019 podcast<\/a>. Tarantino\u2019s track record of ruffling the feathers of his peers makes this just one more notch in his bedpost of uncouth public statements. Now, all of Hollywood is pushing back against the director\u2019s comments by voicing their support for one of this generation\u2019s most beloved\u2014and, yes, commercially underrated\u2014actors. Don\u2019t worry if you missed the drama, because I\u2019m here to break it all down.<\/p>\n

What exactly did Tarantino say about Paul Dano and, well, why?\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a Dec. 2 episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast (as in American Psycho author Ellis), Tarantino revealed<\/a> his top 20 movies of the 21st century. Fifth on that list is Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s lauded 2007 film There Will Be Blood, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano, whose work on the film earned him a BAFTA nomination and high praise and recognition from the industry writ large. In short, Dano\u2019s work in There Will Be Blood is considered one of his highest achievements in acting out of a pool of already great performances.<\/p>\n

While discussing the movie, Tarantino\u2014who is known for making graphic and profane films that reference history and pop culture\u2014said that he would have actually rated There Will Be Blood as his first or second pick if it weren\u2019t for one \u201cbig, giant flaw\u201d: Paul Dano. Tarantino called Dano \u201cweak sauce\u201d and a \u201cweak, weak, uninteresting guy.\u201d Tarantino continued by saying that Austin Butler \u201cwould have been wonderful in that role\u201d\u2014technically Butler would have been 16 years old and looked like this<\/a> at the time, but I digress\u2014but Dano, instead, is \u201cthe weakest fucking actor in SAG\u201d (that\u2019s the Screen Actors Guild) and \u201cthe limpest dick in the world<\/a>.\u201d Tarantino further explained<\/a>: \u201cI am not saying he is giving a terrible performance, I am saying he\u2019s giving a nonentity performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch. Has Tarantino said this kind of thing before about anyone else?\u00a0<\/p>\n

To my knowledge, Tarantino hasn\u2019t randomly attacked many beloved actors in precisely this way before. But Dano isn\u2019t even the only actor Tarantino disparages in this particular interview. Tarantino also tells Ellis that he doesn\u2019t \u201ccare for\u201d<\/a> the work of Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard. Lillard responded to Tarantino\u2019s comments in front of an audience at GalaxyCon<\/a>, saying: \u201cIt fucking sucks. And you wouldn\u2019t say that to Tom Cruise. You wouldn\u2019t say that to somebody who\u2019s a top-line actor in Hollywood. I\u2019m very popular in this room. I\u2019m not very popular in Hollywood. Two totally different microcosms, right? And so, you know, it\u2019s humbling, and it hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, this kind of thing isn\u2019t completely out of nowhere for Tarantino. The Academy Award\u2013winning filmmaker, who seems to have very little filter, has gone after many notable figures for various reasons over the decades.<\/p>\n

What else has he said?<\/p>\n

There was the time Spike Lee called Tarantino\u2019s reliance on the N-word in his films (such as Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown) into question in 1997. Tarantino responded on The Charlie Rose Show<\/a> by saying, in part: \u201cAs a writer, I demand the right to write any character in the world that I want to write. I demand the right to be them \u2026 and to say that I can\u2019t do that because I\u2019m white, but the Hughes brothers can do that because they\u2019re Black, that is racist.\u201d Years later, Lee boycotted Tarantino\u2019s film Django Unchained for similar reasons, adding to the discourse<\/a> in a 2012 tweet: \u201cAmerican slavery was not a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them.\u201d Similarly, Tarantino and Denzel Washington allegedly got into a spat while filming the 1995 film Crimson Tide, apparently over what Washington felt was racist dialogue that Tarantino had added to the script. By 2012, at least, it appears that the two had \u201cburied the hatchet,\u201d according to an interview that the actor had with GQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tarantino also has a history of regrettable comments on famous cases and perpetrators of sexual assault. In a 2003 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Tarantino defended director Roman Polanski<\/a>\u2014a U.S. fugitive residing in Europe due to charges accusing him of the 1977 drugging and rape of a 13-year-old girl, Samantha Gailey (now Samantha Geimer)\u2014by saying that statutory rape isn\u2019t rape, and that she \u201cwanted to have it.\u201d The interview audio resurfaced in 2018, and Tarantino apologized shortly thereafter<\/a>, saying, \u201cI incorrectly played devil\u2019s advocate in the debate for the sake of being provocative. I didn\u2019t take Ms. Geimer\u2019s feelings into consideration and for that I am truly sorry.\u201d It also came to light that both Uma Thurman<\/a>, an actress in many Tarantino films, and Mira Sorvino<\/a>, Tarantino\u2019s former girlfriend, had both told Tarantino of improper advances and assaults at the hands of Harvey Weinstein over the years. Tarantino has publicly expressed regret a number of times for not doing more than demanding an apology from Weinstein, going on to say to the New York Times in 2017<\/a>: \u201cWhat I did was marginalize the incidents\u201d and \u201cI knew enough to do more than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there was the time when Tarantino allegedly threatened to kill David Letterman<\/a>, and the time when he yelled at an interviewer<\/a> who questioned the link between movie violence and real-life violence, and I could go on.<\/p>\n

OK, well this at least explains why Toni Collette posted<\/a> a random photo of Paul Dano to her Instagram Stories. Who else has come out to support the actor?<\/p>\n

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In the days since Tarantino\u2019s comments were made public, a number of Hollywood heavy-hitters have signaled their support and appreciation for Dano. Similar to Toni Collette, Maya Rudolph\u2014who is also the wife of There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson\u2014posted a still from the film of Dano to her Instagram Stories<\/a>. Reese Witherspoon, Dano\u2019s co-star in Inherent Vice, wrote on Threads<\/a>: \u201cPaul Dano is an incredibly gifted, versatile actor. More importantly, he is a gentleman.\u201d As did Josh Gad, who wrote on Threads<\/a>: \u201cNot sure who needs to hear this, but Paul Dano is one of the best actors of our time. Full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Stiller, who directed Paul in Escape at Dannemora, took to X<\/a> to say, simply: \u201cPaul Dano is f-ing brilliant.\u201d Matt Reeves, who recently directed Dano in the 2022 film The Batman, also stated on X<\/a> that \u201cPaul Dano is an incredible actor, and an incredible person.\u201d As did Simu Liu, who also wrote on the platform<\/a>, \u201cidk man i think paul dano is an incredible actor,\u201d and John Cusack, who wrote<\/a>: \u201cPaul Dano rocks. Great Actor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s not just actors and directors getting in on the Dano love. Even the official Letterboxd X account posted a Dano tribute<\/a>, a grid of four stills of the actor with the caption \u201cthinking about him \ud83d\udc51.\u201d Perhaps the biggest whammy: A Quentin Tarantino fan account on X, Quentin Tarantino News, posted in solidarity<\/a> with the actor, writing, \u201cSorry Quentin but Paul Dano is one of the most underrated actors of his generation.\u201d As one person rightfully questioned in response<\/a>, \u201cHow wrong do you gotta be for your own stan accounts to be rallying against you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, damn. I guess the lesson here is to not mess with Paul Dano.<\/p>\n

Certainly. Leave it to Dano and Tarantino to unite Hollywood in exactly the ways you think they would (for and against, respectively). I\u2019m just selfishly happy that this Hollywood war wasn\u2019t our fault<\/a>, for once. (Love you, Martin Short.) Now, I\u2019m off to watch Daniel Day-Lewis drink Paul Dano\u2019s milkshake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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