Pau Dano speak after the director Quentin Tarantino recently criticized her acting chops.
In December 2025, the Kill Bill The 62-year-old director pointed to Dano’s performance in the 2007 film There will be blooddescribing it as “SAG’s weakest actor” in an interview on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.”
Tarantino’s comments were widely criticized, with stars included George Clooney and fans alike in defense of Dano.
In an interview with variety posted on Wednesday, January 28, Dano, 41, acknowledged the outpouring of support he received online.
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“That was really cool,” Dano told the network. “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke for me so I didn’t have to.”
Dano was talking variety ahead of the 20th anniversary screening of the hit film Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Film Festival.
His co-star in that film, Toni Collettealso intervened in the comments of Tarantino al variety interview
“Are we really going? Fuck that guy! He must have been high…he was confused. Who does this?” Colette, 53, said.
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Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton i Valerie Faris praised Dano even more.
Dayton called Tarantino’s comments “shameful,” adding, “I can only think that the rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t come forward easily.”
“You know what was interesting was people coming out to defend Paul. Immediately … he’s loved by so many. He’s so smart,” Faris told the network.
Tarantino sparked a firestorm in early December while discussing his favorite films of the 21st century.
The director appointed There will be blood as his fifth favorite film of the era, but said he was unimpressed with Dano, whom he also described as “weak sauce”.
“(Dano is) such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy… Daniel Day-Lewis shows that he does not need (a powerful enemy on the screen). It doesn’t need anything,” Tarantino said. “The movie would have had more, there would have been more stiffness in the beef. And again, it’s supposed to be two-handed, and it’s not.”
Tarantino also said he “can’t stand it” Owen Wilson and that he doesn’t “care”. scream actor Matthew Lillard.
Lillard, 56, responded to the filmmaker’s comments during a December appearance at GalaxyCon in Columbus, Ohio, per Weekly entertainment.
“Quentin Tarantino this week said he didn’t like him as an actor. Hey, whatever. Who gives a ***,” Lillard said. “It hurts your feelings. It’s bullshit. And you wouldn’t say that to Tom Cruise. You wouldn’t say that to someone who’s a top actor in Hollywood.”
George Clooney
Neil P. Mockford/Getty ImagesAt the beginning of January, Clooney defended the star trio while accepting the award for best actor a Jay Kelly at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards.
“By the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honored to work with those actors. Honored,” Clooney said, per variety.
Clooney said this Jay Kellyin which he plays a fictional Hollywood icon, was “made by people who love actors, that’s an important part. People I’ve known most of my life … actually, most of them are actors. I have a great affinity (for them) and I don’t like to see people being cruel.”
“We live in an age of cruelty,” he added. “We don’t have to keep adding to it.”