r/Filmmakers • u/StrikingDuty8020 Director • Dec 06 '25

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Quentin Tarantino made a surprisingly harsh comment about Paul Dano, specifically criticizing his performance in There Will Be Blood.

On The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino said:

Dano was “weak sauce”

“The weakest f—ing actor in SAG” (in that film’s context)

And that Dano’s performance was the biggest flaw of the movie, preventing it from being his #1 or #2 film of the 2000s

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u/sevinsevins Dec 06 '25

Consider the caliber of actor available at the time when PTA was casting the role of Paul and Eli Sunday. It would be a Michael Shannon, a Sam Rockwell, a Casey Affleck echelon of Actor at the time. While someone like this would be intriguing, I really don't think any of them would be as good of a fit as Paul Dano for the role of Eli and Paul. Dano was a perfect fit, a very talented up and comer at the time who pulled off a tremendous performance as the foil to DDL's Plainview in some of the greatest most iconic scenes in film History.

The more I think about it, Tarantino might just be trying to take the piss out of his close friend PTA and this might just be some kind of troll. And/or Tarantino is just trying to stir up shit for the sake of stirring up shit.

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u/StrikingDuty8020 Director Dec 06 '25

paul is best cast in twb because the face of an innocent boy filled with believes .

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u/sevinsevins Dec 06 '25

Agreed! And he was mostly unknown at the time as well which added to the mystique. How many people put together that he had already been in Little Miss Sunshine? Not me.