Almost two months after Quentin Tarantino’s savage comments, Paul Dano is finally responding to the viral diss, in which Tarantino criticized the actor’s “There Will Be Blood” performance and called him the “weakest fucking actor in SAG.”
While at Sundance for a 20th-anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine, Dano was asked by Variety about Tarantino’s remarks, but Dano’s “Little Miss Sunshine” co-star Toni Collette quickly interrupted, saying: “Are we really going there? Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?”
Dano then admitted he was grateful for all the tributes and defenses that had emerged across social media.
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” directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris also weighed in. Dayton called Tarantino’s remarks an “embarrassment,” adding: “I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed.”
Faris noted, “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.”
What’s wild is that Tarantino had also thrown shade at Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard on the same podcast where he slammed Dano—except those two actors didn’t get the same backlash and defenses on social media.
Regardless, imagine being Dano—one of the most reserved actors around—and suddenly, most randomly, being called out by Tarantino as the “limpest dick” in town. Not only that, but you’re then thrust to the top of the cultural news cycle for 48 hours. That’s exactly what happened, and in the process, Dano earned more press than he has ever received in his entire career.
It certainly helped that many of his colleagues came out to defend him from Tarantino’s wrath. The list kept growing, hour by hour, which seems to have genuinely humbled Dano—to the point where he now feels he doesn’t have to defend himself. The people did the dirty work for him.