Quentin Tarantino’s criticisms
A month ago, the outspoken Quentin Tarantino tore into a number of actors when he appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. The Pulp Fiction director was outlining his favorite films of the 21st century when he also dropped some bombs on Paul Dano, Matthew Lillard and Owen Wilson. While Tarantino simply stated his negative stance on Lillard and Wilson, he elaborated more harshly on Dano from his performance in There Will Be Blood. Tarantino would say, “[Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. [Daniel] is eating him [alive]. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. Daniel Day-Lewis shows that he doesn’t need a strong foil. The movie needs it. He doesn’t need anything. It’s supposed to be a two-hander and it’s not! … you put him with the weakest fucking actor in SAG? The limpest dick in the world?”
George Clooney responds to Tarantino
Variety reports that George Clooney is looking out for his acting peers as he accepted the award for Jay Kelly at AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards this past Saturday. Clooney said in his speech,
By the way, Paul Dano and Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard, I would be honored to work with those actors. Honored.”
He adds that Jay Kelly was “made by people who love actors — that’s an important part. People I’ve known most of my life… actually, most of them are actors. I have a great affinity [for them], and I don’t enjoy watching people be cruel.” Then, Clooney concluded, “We are living in a time of cruelty. We don’t need to be adding to it.”
Bad blood between the Gecko brothers
Despite starring together in the 1996 horror film From Dusk Till Dawn, Tarantino also had some choice words for Clooney, which got under his skin. Back in 2024, Clooney told GQ, “Quentin said some shit about me recently, so I’m a little irritated by him. He did some interview where he was naming movie stars, and he was talking about [Brad], and somebody else, and then this guy goes, ‘Well, what about George?’ He goes, he’s not a movie star.”
