Paul Dano has performed a lot of great movie characters over the years, from Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine and Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, to The Riddler in The Batman and Burt Fabelman in The Fabelmans. But perhaps his most critically-acclaimed role is Eli Sunday, who clashed with Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Well, it’s acclaimed to most people, but not filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Last month, the Pulp Fiction director slammed Dano’s There Will Be Blood performance, and now the actor has finally responded to this critique.
While speaking with Variety at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of a 20th anniversary screening of Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano was asked to comment about what Quentin Tarantino had said about him. Before he could answer, Toni Collette, who was standing next to him and also starred in the 2006 comedy, interjected by saying, “Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?” Dano then said about the tributes and kind words about him that spread on social media:
