Quentin Tarantino launched into a savage tirade against a Hollywood star after claiming that one of his favourite movies in recent years would have been even better if he hadn't been in it.
Considered one of the most famous and influential film directors in history, Tarantino has an impressive filmography, including the likes of Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, and the more recent Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
And another thing the director is well known for is his strong opinion in the movie industry.
Tarantino was on The Bret Easton Ellis podcast recently, where he listed his top 10 movies in the 21st century, and put Daniel Day Lewis-led period drama There Will Be Blood at spot number five.
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However, he claimed that it would be even higher on his list if it had a different actor in one of the main roles.
The director said: "There Will Be Blood would stand a better chance to be in number one or number two if it didn't have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano.
"Obviously, it's supposed to be a two-hander, and it's also so drastically obvious that it's not a two-hander."
The director claimed Dano's performance, for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA, was 'weak' and 'uninteresting', digging into the man even further by calling him 'weak sauce' and 'just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy... the weakest f*cking actor in SAG'.
Tarantino suggested that Austin Butler, who was a teenager at the time There Will Be Blood was made, would have done a better job in the movie.
Ellis said that any actor would find it 'impossible' to match Daniel Day Lewis' performance in the film, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar that year, but Tarantino would not let up in his criticism of Dano.
"So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest d**k in the world?" he asked. "I'm not saying he's giving a terrible performance. I'm saying he's giving a non-entity performance."
Dano had initially been brought onto There Will Be Blood to play Paul Sunday, but got an expanded part in the film as the character's brother Eli Sunday after Kel O'Neill was let go two weeks into production.
Dano has received plaudits for his roles in the likes of Little Miss Sunshine, The Fabelmans and The Batman, but Tarantino insisted that he 'doesn't care for him'.
Evidently, it's an opinion not shared by the rest of Hollywood since Dano has had a successful acting career.
If the director ever gets around to making what is supposed to be his final film, it doesn't sound like he'd want to cast Dano, and he ripped into a couple of other Hollywood stars while he was at it.
He said: "I don't care for him, I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard."
LADbible has contacted the representatives of Quentin Tarantino and Paul Dano for comment.
Topics: Quentin Tarantino, Celebrity, TV and Film
Joe Harker