Check on your friends who are super fans of Quentin Tarantino. We’re really going through it. One minute, we’re watching Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair re-released in theaters with a new animated chapter, and the next, we’re defending our loyalty to the director because he randomly dissed award-winning actor Paul Dano.
When Quentin appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast to select his top 20 movies of the 21st century, he picked Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood at Number 5. Dope, I thought to myself. One of my favorite directors likes another one of my favorite directors. Well, unfortunately, Quentin didn’t stop there.
The Pulp Fiction director said the flaw with the movie was Paul Dano. He said Paul was “weak sauce,” labeled him a “weak, uninteresting guy,” and claimed he was “the weakest fucking actor in SAG.”
Paul is justifiably an incredible and beloved actor, as evidenced by his performances in movies like Little Miss Sunshine and Love & Mercy, so people were rightfully mad at Quentin.
Several actors have come to Paul’s defense, including Ethan Hawke, who shares a link to Quentin through his ex-wife, Uma Thurman, the star of the Kill Bill franchise and Pulp Fiction.
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Ethan defended Paul while also offering a positive outlook on this whole bloody affair. “There’s a great lesson,” Ethan said. “You know what, I don’t think Paul Dano ever knew that so many people loved him.”
“Paul Dano’s just going about his life, and he’s got to wake up one morning and find out this director’s just went off on him and saying these hateful things,” he continued. “But anybody that knows Quentin knows he just talks, talks, talks…”
“Anybody that knows Paul knows he’s a great, world-class human being,” he added. “And all this love for Paul is coming out, and there’s a great lesson in that. You don’t have to worry about the negativity that people send your way.”
“I’m positive there are great directors that think I suck,” Ethan said, sharing a story about a time an unnamed director gave him a backhanded compliment. “Directors have opinions, right? They have super strong opinions. What do they have strong opinions about? Acting, right?”
“He’s talking about the movie he would’ve directed. He’s not talking about Paul Dano. He’s talking about something else… Obviously, whenever anybody says something hateful, they’re talking about themselves,” he said.
“The punchline of this whole thing is I worked with Paul a couple of different times, and I love the guy, and I’m so happy for him. Every other comment everywhere is somebody saying something great about Paul Dano.”
Speaking of Quentin’s role in the industry, Ethan perfectly summed it up in the end. “He wouldn’t be a director if he wasn’t opinionated. It doesn’t mean it’s the truth,” he said.
So, there you have it! Paul Dano’s an incredible actor, and Quentin Tarantino’s just talking out of the side of his neck. We still get to be excited that Uma Thurman voiced The Bride in the new animated short, so they’re possibly working on Kill Bill Vol. 3. I’m crossing my fingers that Uma and Ethan’s daughter, Maya Hawke, is involved, too. Ten bonus points to Quentin if Paul Dano has a surprise cameo.