Quentin Tarantino isn't shy about his disdain for Paul Dano.
Dano received ire when the legendary filmmaker sat down on "The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast" to discuss his top 10 movies of the century. Tarantino picked Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" as his fifth favorite film from 2000 on, and stressed the film would have been higher if it wasn't for a "big giant flaw," i.e. Dano.
Dano, 41, starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for his performance. Tarantino, 62, said the two were not on equal footing. "Obviously, it's supposed to be a two-hander, and it's also so drastically obvious that it's not a two-hander," the director said. "He is weak sauce, man. He's a weak sister."
USA TODAY has reached out to Dano's reps for comment.
Tarantino wasn't finished, later calling the "Little Miss Sunshine" actor "uninteresting" and saying Austin Butler would have been better for the role.
Ellis attempted to push back on the criticism, noting the weight of Day-Lewis' role, but the filmmaker wasn't convinced.
"So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG?" Tarantino countered. "I'm not saying he's giving a terrible performance. I'm saying he's giving a non-entity performance."
Asked if he liked Dano in any other roles, Tarantino couldn't think of any and listed other actors he also isn't a fan of. "I don't care for him, I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard."
Dano received a BAFTA award nomination for his role in "There Will Be Blood" as well as Primetime Emmy nominations for his roles in the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" reboot and the 2018 limited series "Escape at Dannemora." He also earned a Golden Globe nomination for the 2014 film "Love & Mercy," for which he won a Gotham Award. He has starred in the Oscar-winning movie "12 Years a Slave" as well as Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans" and Matt Reeves' "The Batman."
Tarantino reveals his top 20 movies of the century:
Tarantino's full list of top 20 best movies of the century was as follows:
- Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" (No. 20)
- Eli Roth's "Cabin Fever" (No. 19)
- Bennett Miller's "Moneyball" (No. 18)
- Prachya Pinkaew's "Chocolate" (No. 17)
- Rob Zombie's "The Devil’s Rejects" (No. 16)
- Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" (No. 15)
- Richard Linklater’s “School of Rock” (No. 14)
- Jeff Tremaine's "Jackass: The Movie" (No. 13)
- Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado's "Big Bad Wolves" (No. 12)
- Kinji Fukasaku's "Battle Royale" (No. 11)
- Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" (No. 10)
- Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" (No. 9)
- George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" (No. 8)
- Tony Scott's "Unstoppable" (No. 7)
- David Fincher's "Zodiac" (No. 6)
- Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" (No. 5)
- Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" (No. 4)
- Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" (No. 3)
- Lee Unkrich's "Toy Story 3" (No. 2)
- Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" (No. 1)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Quentin Tarantino unleashes on actor Paul Dano – 'He is weak sauce'
Reporting by Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

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