On a recent appearance on Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast, Quentin Tarantino ranked Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood among his top films of the century, then randomly swerved into calling Paul Dano the movie’s “weak sauce” and “weak sister.” Tarantino went as far as saying the film could have been higher on his list if not for Dano, even floating Austin Butler as his fantasy recast for Eli Sunday.
The internet understandably lost it. Film critics and fans quickly pushed back, pointing out that Dano’s performance as both Paul and Eli Sunday has long been considered one of the film’s greatest assets, and that he more than holds his own opposite Daniel Day‑Lewis in some of the most intense scenes of the 2000s. Many commenters called Tarantino’s choice of words needlessly harsh and flat-out wrong, especially given that Dano’s work in the film earned him major awards attention at the time.
Why Paul Dano Is Anything But Weak Sauce
If you look at Paul Dano’s career for more than two seconds, the “weak” narrative completely falls apart. He started in theatre and broke out on screen with L.I.E., winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance — not exactly the resume of someone who fades into the background.
Across the 2000s and 2010s, Dano quietly became one of the most reliable character actors in Hollywood with a run that includes:
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Little Miss Sunshine, where he turned near-silence into one of the film’s most devastating emotional payoffs.
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Prisoners and 12 Years a Slave, where his work adds a constant undercurrent of menace and fragility.
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Love & Mercy, earning a Golden Globe nomination for his layered portrayal of Brian Wilson’s genius and mental unraveling.
On top of that, he stepped behind the camera to direct Wildlife, which scored strong critical praise and award recognition for a debut feature. “Weak sauce” doesn’t direct formally elegant, emotionally bruising dramas.
Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood: The Performance Tarantino Wrote Off
Tarantino’s main issue is with Dano’s Eli Sunday in There Will Be Blood, a performance that has been widely praised since 2007. What often gets forgotten is that Dano was originally only cast as Paul Sunday; he was asked to take over the much larger Eli role after another actor left just weeks into shooting, effectively building a now-iconic character on the fly.
Despite that pressure, Dano carved out a preacher who is slippery, insecure, and performative in a way that contrasts perfectly with Daniel Day‑Lewis’ volcanic Daniel Plainview. That contrast is the whole point: Eli isn’t supposed to match Plainview’s brute-force charisma; he’s a man who uses religion, performance, and bravado to mask deep fear, which Dano plays with unnerving precision. Awards bodies clearly agreed — his work in the film contributed to a BAFTA nomination and multiple critics’ nods.
From Riddler to Spielberg
If Paul Dano were truly the “weakest actor in SAG,” as Tarantino joked, top-tier directors wouldn’t keep trusting him with high-stakes roles. In recent years alone, Dano has:
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Reimagined the Riddler as a modern domestic terrorist in The Batman, earning praise for making a comic-book villain feel disturbingly real.
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Played a quietly heartbreaking father in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans, picking up major award nominations for his supporting turn.
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Delivered acclaimed work in projects like Dumb Money and Spaceman, proving his range from grounded drama to offbeat genre.
He has also scored Emmy nominations for Escape at Dannemora and for a role in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, showing that television, too, values what he brings to the table. That’s not the pattern of an “uninteresting” performer; it’s the profile of a working actor’s working actor.
So What Should Viewers Take Away?
Tarantino is entitled to his opinion, but it’s one opinion stacked against two decades of consistent acclaim, major nominations, and a filmography packed with directors who keep coming back to Paul Dano when they need tricky, emotionally risky roles handled with care. If anything, the backlash to the “weak sauce” remark has reminded people just how strong Dano’s work is, especially in There Will Be Blood, where he helped create some of the most unforgettable clashes of the century.
For anyone newly Googling “Paul Dano” after this dust‑up, the answer is simple: no, he is not weak sauce — he’s one of the most quietly powerful actors working today, and his career receipts back that up in every direction.
