Toni Collette Jumps To Paul Dano's Defence After Tarantino Jibes: 'F**k That Guy'

Paul Dano has finally responded after director Quentin Tarantino tore into him for seemingly no reason during a recent interview.

Last month, Dano came up in conversation while Tarantino’s appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, where the filmmaker hailed There Will Be Blood as one of his favourite movies, but claimed there was one “big giant flaw in it”.

“The flaw is Paul Dano,” the Pulp Fiction director claimed. “Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, and it’s also so drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister.”

“I’m not saying he’s giving a terrible performance. I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity [performance]. I don’t care for him,” Tarantino added later referring to him as the “weakest fucking actor in SAG”, before listing Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard as two other actors he doesn’t “care for”.

At the time, many were perplexed by the comments, with Dano being asked about it during a reunion with his Little Miss Sunshine co-stars at the Sundance Film Festival.

Toni Collette, his on-screen mum and should-be Oscar winner, was the first to reply, saying (via Variety): “Are we really going there? Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high. It was just confusing. Who does that?”

Dano later told Variety that he found the support he received in the wake of Tarantino’s remarks “really nice”.

“I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to,” he added.

Earlier this month, George Clooney – who has had his own public back-and-forths with Tarantino in the past – also reacted to the controversy, stating: “I don’t enjoy watching people be cruel to actors. By the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honoured to work with those actors. Honoured.

“We’re living in a time of cruelty. We don’t need to be adding to it.”