Ben Stiller has hit back at Quentin Tarantino after the filmmaker's shocking outburst about the man he believes is 'the worst f*****g actor in Hollywood'.
Tarantino, who is best known for directing cult classics such as Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, was speaking on podcast about his top 10 films when he suggested that one acting performance was the only reason why 2007 hit There Will Be Blood didn't quite make the cut.
The western thriller stars Daniel Day-Lewis with an incredible performance which earned him his second Oscar for Best Actor, so it was perhaps always going to be hard for the other actors in the film to match his performance.
However, Tarantino goes as far as to say that the execution of the character Eli Sunday, who is portrayed by Paul Dano, was 'weak', before doubling down on his belief that he's one of the worst actors Hollywood has produced.
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He 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."
He goes on to describe him as 'weak sauce' and 'just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy... the weakest f*cking actor in SAG', so he clearly has an issue with the Spaceman actor, something which the internet put down to a bizarre foot fetish theory which has since gone viral.
Tarantino also suggested that Austin Butler would have been a better replacement for Dano in the 2007 film, despite him being just a teenager at the time, so his theory didn't have much grounding there.
Actors and directors have since spoken out in support of Dano, with one of his co-stars in There Will Be Blood particularly vocal in his defence, but now some of Hollywood's A-listers are getting involved to condemn Tarantino's comments.
Stiller's comments were short but strong, as he posted on X: "Paul Dano is f-ing brilliant."
The Severance director worked with Dano on the American crime drama television limited series Escape at Dannemora and he's clearly still a big fan seven years on.
In fairness to Tarantino, he's always been well known for his strong opinions in the world of film, and he's since spoken out to name some of the other actors he 'doesn't care for' at the moment.
He took aim at Owen Wilson, the star from another one of his favourite films, Midnight in Paris.
"Oddly enough, I really can't stand Owen Wilson. I mean, I can't stand him," Tarantino said.
"And I spent the first time watching the movie loving it and hating him.
"The second time I watched the movie, I was like, 'Okay, don't be such a p**ck'.
"He's not so bad. He's not so bad. And then the third time I watched it, I found myself watching him."
"I don't care for [Dano]. I don't care for Owen Wilson," he added. "I don't care for Matthew Lillard."
Topics: Film, Quentin Tarantino, Podcast, TV and Film, Social Media, Viral
James Moorhouse