Ethan Hawke isn’t fond of the “hateful” way Quentin Tarantino trashed “world-class human being” Paul Dano.
Hawke told Joe Rogan during an appearance on his podcast Thursday that Tarantino “says whatever comes into his mind,” but he was way off with his take on Dano. “Whenever anybody says something hateful, they’re talking about themselves,” he added. Though Tarantino “wouldn’t be a good director if he wasn’t opinionated,” Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood is “not up for debate,” Hawke said. “He was f---ing great in it.”
Tarantino called Dano’s performance in the 2007 Paul Thomas Anderson film “weak sauce” in an interview on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. He also took his criticism in a more scathing, personal direction when he added that Dano is “just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy” and called the actor “the limpest d--- in the world.”
The rant came as Tarantino was revealing his top 10 films of the 21st century—a list on which There Will Be Blood appears, but isn’t higher up because of Dano’s “big giant flaw” of a performance, he explained. Multiple stars have since leapt to Dano’s defense, including Alec Baldwin and Ben Stiller.
The director also added a few more names to his hit list when he declared that he also didn’t “care for” actors Owen Wilson or Matthew Lillard.
Hawke co-starred with Dano in a 2019 Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s True West that was deemed a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times.
He also has a personal connection to Tarantino through his ex-wife, Uma Thurman, who starred in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Last month, the couple’s daughter Maya Hawke revealed that Thurman shared some very specific advice on working with the director’s idiosyncrasies. When asked what her mother had told her before she appeared in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Maya told Amy Poehler that Thurman advised, “Keep your shoes on.”
Besides his tendency to “talk, talk, talk, talk,” as Hawke put it to Rogan, the director’s also known for his affinity for women’s feet.
Hawke said Tarantino’s issue with Dano isn’t really his acting chops—or about Dano at all. “He’s talking about the movie he would have directed. He’s not talking about Paul Dano.” Having worked with Dano before, Hawke added, “I love the guy, and I’m so happy for him. Every other comment everywhere is somebody saying something great about Paul Dano.”
“All this love for Paul’s coming out, and it’s a great lesson in that, you don’t have to worry about the negativity that people send your way.” Hawke concluded, “I don’t think Paul Dano ever knew that so many people loved him.”
