Quentin Tarantino’s list of worst actors sparks backlash from A-lister he included
Quentin Tarantino is hailed as one of the world's best-known film directors.
The 62-year-old cult cinema figure is responsible for a whole filmography of box-office hits, including Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds - just to name a few.
He's also worked with some of the biggest names in the biz, including Uma Thurman, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, but he's made it abundantly clear exactly which actors he doesn't rate all too well.
Last week, Tarantino appeared on the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, where he was asked about his favourite blockbuster flicks of the 21st century - a big question for a man often dubbed one of the grittiest and creative directors in on-screen history.
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He placed Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 eight-time Oscar-winning masterpiece, There Will Be Blood, in fifth place and explained the sole reason he refused to place it higher was down to actor Paul Dano's appearance.
"There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being number one or two if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it," Tarantino explained his decision. "And the flaw is Paul Dano."
The filmmaker went on to compare Dano's performance as 'Paul Sunday' and his twin brother 'Eli' to that of the production's lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who played oilman Daniel Plainview - a role which earned him the Best Actor win at that year's Academy Awards.
"Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander," Tarantino continued. "But it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister."
"[Dano] is just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest f*cking actor in SAG."
After podcast host Easton Ellis pointed out that Day-Lewis made it 'impossible to make it a two-hander' given several 'gargantuan' aspects to his performance, Tarantino doubled down, slamming the decision to implement Dano into the Screen Actors Guild.
"So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG?" he questioned, going on to claim: "I don’t care for him. I don’t care for him, I don’t care for Owen Wilson, and I don’t care for Matthew Lillard."
Honing back in on Dano specifically, he concluded: "I’m not saying [Dano]’s giving a terrible performance. I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity performance."
"Oddly enough, I really can't stand [him]," Tarantino continued, speaking about Wilson now, despite revealing he'd listed Wilson's 2011 movie Midnight in Paris in 10th position for favourite movies of the century. "I mean, I can't stand him."
He continued: "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 pr*ck. He's not so bad. He's not so bad'.
"And then the third time I watched it I found myself watching him."
Lillard has since addressed Tarantino's comments, telling the GalaxyCon crowd in Columbus over the weekend that the director’s remark cut more than he’d like to admit.
"It hurts your feelings, it f*cking sucks and he wouldn't say that to Tom Cruise," he said.
The Scream and Scooby Doo star also argued that Tarantino aimed at actors with less power, not the ones sitting at the top of the Hollywood ladder.
"He wouldn't say that to somebody who's a top-line actor in Hollywood. It’s humbling, and it hurts," he said, before shaking it off with a blunt: "Whatever, who gives a sh*t."
But, out of curiosity, what were Tarantino's top 10 best movies of the 21st century?
Well, the full list is as follows:
1. Black Hawk Down (2001) - Ridley Scott
2. Toy Story 3 (2010) - Lee Unkrich
3. Lost in Translation (2003) - Sofia Coppola
4. Dunkirk (2017) - Christopher Nolan
5. There Will Be Blood (2007) - Paul Thomas Anderson
6. Zodiac (2007) - David Fincher
7. Unstoppable (2010) - Tony Scott
8. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) - George Miller
9. Shaun of the Dead (2004) - Edgar Wright
10. Midnight in Paris (2011) - Woody Allen
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Rhiannon Ingle