Paul Dano Finally Responds to Quentin Tarantino’s Diss

Quentin Tarantino lobbed a random grenade at Paul Dano a couple months back, then Hollywood closed ranks around Dano while he stayed quiet. Now he has finally addressed it — at Sundance, of all places — and his co-stars and directors had a few things to say too.

Dano finally speaks (a little)

At the 20th anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Film Festival, Dano was asked about the wave of support that showed up after Tarantino trashed him. He kept it classy and brief:

"That was really nice. I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to."

Toni Collette, his Little Miss Sunshine co-star, did not keep it brief. She basically told Tarantino to get lost, suggested he might have been high, and called the whole thing confusing because, seriously, who just does that unprompted?

'Are we really going there? F**k that guy! He must've been high... Who does that?'

Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who made Little Miss Sunshine, echoed what a lot of people in town felt. Faris pointed out how fast people moved to defend Dano, calling out how widely he is respected and how sharp he is. The subtext: you do not have to like his work, but you cannot pretend he is not the real deal.

What set this off

Back on Bret Easton Ellis' podcast, Tarantino was running through his picks for the best films of the 21st century. When he got to Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, he said it would rank higher if not for Dano. He argued the movie should play like a two-hander — industry shorthand for two leads going toe-to-toe — but claimed Dano could not match Daniel Day-Lewis, who, in Tarantino's view, ate him alive.

He did not mince words either. He labeled Dano weak, called him uninteresting, and even tossed out that Austin Butler would have crushed the role. Then he went further, saying Day-Lewis does not need a strong foil but the movie does, and capped it with a crude line about Dano being the weakest actor in SAG — plus an even cruder limp-dick punchline. While he was at it, Tarantino also shrugged at Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, saying he does not rate them much as actors either.

Why this touched a nerve

We all have actors we are not into. Tarantino being unfiltered is his brand. But this one felt needlessly mean, which is why the response was so immediate: actors, writers, and filmmakers lined up behind Dano fast. He did not respond then — and honestly, he did not need to. The town basically handled it for him. After hearing him finally acknowledge that support at Sundance, it is pretty clear where the industry stands on this one.