The always-outspoken director Quentin Tarantino has dropped a cinematic bombshell, and this time, the target is acclaimed actor Paul Dano. While discussing his personal rankings of the 21st century’s best films, Tarantino took a massive swing at Dano’s Oscar-nominated performance in 2007’s There Will Be Blood ultimately labeling the actor as the “giant flaw” that keeps the masterpiece from true greatness.
Appearing on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, the Pulp Fiction filmmaker praised Paul Thomas Anderson‘s epic, listing it as his fifth-favorite film of the century. However, in typical Tarantino fashion, he quickly pivoted from adoration to brutal honesty, explaining why the film fell short of a top-two spot.
“There Will Be Blood would stand a better chance to be in number 1 or number 2 if it didn’t have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano,” Tarantino declared, not mincing words.
The director argued that the film, which pits Dano’s preacher Eli Sunday against Daniel Day-Lewis’s oil magnate Daniel Plainview, was intended to be a true “two-hander.” Consequently, he felt Dano failed to bring the necessary counterweight to Day-Lewis’s towering, Oscar-winning portrayal. Tarantino went on to trashes Dano’s presence in the film with some remarkably harsh language. “He is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister,” the director asserted, adding that Dano is “just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy.”
To hammer his point home, the director even suggested an alternate reality casting, claiming that Austin Butler (who Tarantino later directed in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) would have been “wonderful in that role.” Meanwhile, when pressed on Dano’s overall career merit, Tarantino clarified his assessment. “I’m not saying he’s giving a terrible performance,” he admitted, “I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity performance.”
Tarantino’s blunt critique has, predictably, sparked a massive debate among cinephiles and critics alike. In fact, Dano’s work in There Will Be Blood is widely celebrated for its ability to hold the screen against Day-Lewis’s intensity, a feat that earned the young actor a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. For many fans, the idea that the performance—the very foundation of the film’s central conflict—is a “flaw” seems absurd. Although Tarantino is known for his divisive opinions, calling a successful, working actor “weak sauce” is certainly one of his most aggressive takes yet, guaranteeing this clip will live on in podcast infamy.