Paul Dano has broken his silence on a recent controversy – and Aussie actress Toni Collette is backing him up.
Dano has finally responded nearly two months after Quentin Tarantino slammed him as a “weak” and “uninteresting” actor during an appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast released back on December 2.
Several Hollywood stars came to Dano’s defence after Tarantino’s controversial remarks, and the Batman star thanked them for their support while addressing the surprising matter.
“That was really nice,” Dano, 41, told Variety while celebrating the 20th anniversary of Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday.
“I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to,” he added.
But one of Dano’s former Little Miss Sunshine co-stars, Toni Collette, had a harsher response to the Kill Bill filmmaker regarding the disparaging comments.
“F**k that guy!” the 53-year-old actor charged during the event, per Variety.
“He must’ve been high … It was just confusing. Who does that?”
Collette was joined by Little Miss Sunshine co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris in firing back at Tarantino after his attack against Dano.
“I can only think that the rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable,” Dayton, 68, told Variety after calling Tarantino’s remarks an “embarrassment.”
“You know what was interesting was the people coming out to defend Paul,” Faris, 67, added. “There was immediately … He is loved by so many. He is so smart.”
The Post has reached out to Tarantino’s reps for comment.
The Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood director, 62, came under fire last month while naming his top 10 movies of the 21st century on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.
Although Tarantino ranked Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 hit There Will Be Blood fifth, he stressed that it would have been ranked higher if not for Dano’s performance.
“There Will Be Blood would stand a better chance to be in No. 1 or No. 2 if it didn’t have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano,” he said at the time.
“Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, and it’s also so drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander,” Tarantino added.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker went on to call Dano, who portrayed both Eli and Paul Sunday in the movie, a “weak sister” and argued that “another terrific actor” should have taken on the dual role instead.
“Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role,” he continued.
“[Dano] is just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy.”
Tarantino then said that Dano gave a “non-entity performance” in There Will Be Blood before naming two additional actors that he “doesn’t care for.”
“I don’t care for him,” the Django Unchained director concluded.
“I don’t care for him, I don’t care for Owen Wilson, and I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.”
Countless celebrities rushed to the Dumb Money star’s defence, including many with whom Dano worked alongside, like Matt Reeves and Ben Stiller.
“Paul Dano is an incredible actor, and an incredible person,” the Batman director tweeted after Tarantino’s comments.
“Idk man I think Paul Dano is an incredible actor,” Stiller, who worked with Dano for Escape at Dannemora, added at the time.
This story originally appeared on celebrity.land and is republished here with permission.
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