Quentin Tarantino Shares His Thoughts on Paul Dano’s Role in There Will Be Blood

Quentin Tarantino on Sept. 28, 2025; Paul Dano on Sept. 30, 2025.
Credit:

Kevin Winter/Getty; Marion Curtis/StarPix for Focus Features/Shutterstock

NEED TO KNOW

• Quentin Tarantino criticized Paul Dano’s acting in the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood during a recent podcast appearance.
• “He is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister… Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role,” Tarantino stated.
• Dano famously starred alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s historical epic, which won two Academy Awards.

Quentin Tarantino has expressed a strong disapproval of Paul Dano’s performance in the 2007 film There Will Be Blood, calling it “weak sauce.” During an episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast on December 2, Tarantino shared his thoughts while discussing his favorite films of the 21st century. He ranked There Will Be Blood as his fifth-favorite but noted that its ranking could have been higher if not for Dano’s role.

Tarantino remarked, “The flaw is Paul Dano,” suggesting that the film, meant to showcase a dual narrative, fell short of this intention. “He is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister… Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role,” he added, indicating that a different casting choice might have enhanced the film’s dynamic.

When Ellis inquired if Dano was simply the wrong actor for the part, Tarantino described him as “such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy.” He asserted that Daniel Day-Lewis’s powerful performance overshadowed Dano’s, stating, “He doesn’t need anything. The movie would’ve had more… stringiness to the beef.”

In a follow-up discussion, when Ellis suggested that Day-Lewis’s performance was so significant it might outshine Dano, Tarantino countered, “So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?”

Paul Dano in 2007’s There Will Be Blood.
Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount

Tarantino later clarified, “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. I don’t care for Owen Wilson, I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.”

In There Will Be Blood, Dano portrayed preacher Eli Sunday, opposing Daniel Day-Lewis’s character, Daniel Plainview, in a fierce struggle over land and power during the early 20th century. Day-Lewis’s portrayal earned him an Academy Award, contributing to the film’s legacy as a critical success.

As of now, Dano’s representatives have not provided a comment regarding Tarantino’s critiques.

Quentin Tarantino on Nov. 19, 2025.

Frazer Harrison/Getty

During the same podcast episode, Tarantino shared his favorite films since 2000, naming Ridley Scott’s 2001 war drama Black Hawk Down at the top of his list, followed by Toy Story 3 and Sofia Coppola’s acclaimed film Lost in Translation.

His top ten list also included titles like Dunkirk, There Will Be Blood, Zodiac, Unstoppable, Mad Max: Fury Road, Shaun of the Dead, and Midnight in Paris.