“There Will Be Blood would stand a better chance to be in number 1 or number 2 if it didn’t have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano,” he said on the most recent episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, noting that he doesn’t think the actor could keep up with Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar-winning performance. “Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, and it’s also so drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander.”
Tarantino continued to insult Dano’s abilities. “He is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister,” he said.
“So you put him with the weakest male actor in SAG?” Tarantino responded. “The limpest dick in the world?”
The filmmaker later clarified, “I’m not saying he’s giving a terrible performance. I’m saying he’s giving a non-entity performance.”
Ellis then asked if Tarantino had ever enjoyed Dano in any project. “I don’t care for him,” the filmmaker responded. “I don’t care for him, I don’t care for Owen Wilson, and I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.”
The film is pretty far from the novel, even. It keeps the themes, but none of the transgressive delivery that is itself a message in that genre. So you might be in for a surprise if you ever decide to check out the source material.