{"id":366355,"date":"2026-01-12T15:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366355\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:47:08","slug":"george-clooney-calls-quentin-tarantino-cruel-defends-paul-dano-and-owen-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366355\/","title":{"rendered":"George Clooney calls Quentin Tarantino “cruel”, defends Paul Dano and Owen Wilson"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Clooney<\/a> has called Quentin Tarantino<\/a> \u201ccruel\u201d for his recent comments directed at Paul Dano, Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pulp Fiction director drew backlash last year for suggesting Dano was \u201cweak sauce\u201d over his performance in There Will Be Blood, adding that he didn\u2019t \u201ccare\u201d for Wilson and Lillard.<\/p>\n

Following the comments, Clooney has now defended the three actors while accepting the Best Actor award at AARP\u2019s Movies for Grownups Awards over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honoured to work with those actors. Honoured,\u201d he said (via Variety<\/a>), adding that his film Jay Kelly is \u201cmade by people who love actors \u2014 that\u2019s an important part\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople I\u2019ve known most of my life\u2026 actually, most of them are actors,\u201d he added. \u201cI have a great affinity [for them], and I don\u2019t enjoy watching people be cruel. We are living in a time of cruelty. We don\u2019t need to be adding to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clooney isn\u2019t the only one to come to Dano\u2019s defence, with There Will Be Blood co-star Daniel Day-Lewis<\/a> appearing to call him \u201cone of the best and most talented actors of his generation\u201d in an Instagram post. However, the account was later confirmed to be a fan\u2019s, though a representative for the actor said he \u201cendorsed the sentiments\u201d of the message.<\/p>\n

The likes of Simu Liu and Ben Stiller have also defended Dano<\/a>, as did The Batman director Matt Reeves.<\/p>\n

Lillard meanwhile admitted that Tarantino\u2019s comments \u201churt\u201d<\/a>, telling an audience at GalaxyCon: \u201cThe point is, it hurts your feelings. It fucking sucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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

In his original comments on the\u00a0Bret Easton Ellis<\/a>\u00a0podcast, Tarantino said There Will Be Blood missed the top of his list of greatest films of the 21st century due to \u201ca big, giant flaw in it \u2026 and the flaw is Paul Dano\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s supposed to be a two-hander, but it\u2019s also drastically obvious that it\u2019s not a two-hander,\u201d he added. \u201c[Dano] is weak sauce, man. He\u2019s a weak sister.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Clooney has called Quentin Tarantino \u201ccruel\u201d for his recent comments directed at Paul Dano, Owen Wilson and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-366355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}