Why Quentin Tarantino Is Wrong About Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood

Quentin Tarantino’s objection to Paul Dano in There Will Be Blood is that Daniel Day-Lewis overwhelms him, leaving a supposed two-hander feeling one-sided. That is a fair description of how Tarantino experienced the film, but it is not proof that Dano’s performance fails. Dano plays two different Sunday brothers with distinct jobs in the story, and contemporary critics praised his range. The stronger case is not that he matches Plainview’s force; it is that he gives the film a different kind of opposition.

What did Quentin Tarantino say about Paul Dano?

In December 2025, while discussing his favorite films of the 21st century on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino ranked Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood fifth. He said it might have ranked first or second if not for what he called its “big, giant flaw”: Paul Dano. Tarantino argued that the movie was meant to be a two-hander, but Daniel Day-Lewis was so overwhelming that the pairing did not work. He called Dano “weak sauce” and “a weak, weak, uninteresting guy,” and said Austin Butler would have been wonderful in the role. He later clarified that he was not calling the performance “terrible,” but a “non-entity performance.” These are Tarantino’s judgments, not neutral descriptions. (The Guardian’s account of Tarantino’s remarks; Variety’s account.)

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It is worth taking the criticism seriously rather than turning it into a claim that Tarantino disliked the film. He admired its old-Hollywood craftsmanship and narrative focus, and its fifth-place ranking shows how highly he regarded it overall. His argument is narrower: Dano, in his view, keeps the central relationship from becoming the contest the film needs.

Was Paul Dano bad in There Will Be Blood?

That depends on what a viewer expects Dano to do. If the test is whether he can meet Day-Lewis at the same volume and command, Tarantino’s verdict has an intuitive basis: Plainview is the film’s gravitational center. But the movie need not make the two men equally imposing for their relationship to work. It can instead make their differences—oilman and preacher, private appetite and public authority—the source of its conflict.

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Paul and Eli Sunday are not the same character

Paramount’s official synopsis describes the collision between oilman Daniel Plainview and charismatic preacher Eli Sunday amid California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The studio credits Dano with playing both Eli and Paul Sunday. Paul is the brother whose tip draws Plainview toward the oil; Eli is the preacher who becomes Plainview’s public and spiritual adversary. Dano’s task is therefore not simply to be a single rival to Day-Lewis: he gives the story two different Sunday brothers, with distinct functions. (Paramount’s film page.)

Presence is not the only measure of opposition

Eli does not have to dominate Plainview to oppose him. A preacher’s authority operates in public and through religious language; Plainview’s power comes from money, ambition and the ability to make others depend on him. Dano’s performance can be read as playing Eli’s sanctimony and insecurity rather than trying to outmuscle Plainview. That reading does not require pretending the film is evenly balanced: Day-Lewis dominates it. The question is whether Dano’s contrasting register gives the conflict a shape, not whether the two actors occupy equal space.

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What does the production history tell us?

Dano was first cast as Paul Sunday. Kel O’Neill, originally cast as Eli, left the production, and Dano took on both brothers early in filming. The Guardian reported that the change came two weeks after shooting began and that Dano was 23 at the time. This is useful context for the scale and timing of the assignment, but it does not by itself prove that Dano succeeded—or that a different actor would have done better. (The Guardian on Dano’s casting and the dispute.)

Anderson described the film’s character sources at a Museum of the Moving Image event on December 11, 2007: “We did base it loosely on Edward Doheny, and pieces of it come from a character that Upton Sinclair created in Oil!” The film is an adaptation shaped by its own characters and dramatic design, rather than a simple record of a real-life oilman. (Museum of the Moving Image discussion transcript.)

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Why the case against Tarantino is stronger than “critics disagree”

Contemporary reviews offer a useful check on Tarantino’s judgment, though they cannot settle an aesthetic argument. Variety described Dano as moving “from politely deferential to frothingly enraptured” in a “powerful performance as the young man of God.” The Los Angeles Times reported that its film critic Kenneth Turan called Dano “smoothly effective” and gifted in 2007. Those responses show that Tarantino’s assessment was not the only serious critical reading; they do not establish universal agreement. (Variety’s 2007 review; The Los Angeles Times on Turan’s review.)

The most persuasive disagreement is about what counts as presence. Tarantino measures the pairing against the idea of a balanced two-hander and finds Dano too weak to sustain it. A viewer who sees Eli’s religious performance as a distinct kind of authority can instead find that Dano supplies a necessary counterforce without becoming Plainview’s equal. Both readings recognize Day-Lewis’s dominance; they differ on whether that dominance means the other performance has failed.

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What did Paul Dano and Daniel Day-Lewis say afterward?

Dano responded at Sundance in January 2026, saying that support from colleagues and the public “was really nice” and that he was “incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.” The Los Angeles Times also reported support from actors and collaborators including Ben Stiller, Reese Witherspoon and Matt Reeves. Such support documents the public response to the dispute; it is not a poll or an objective measure of acting quality. (The Los Angeles Times on Dano’s response.)

Day-Lewis’s representatives separately told the Guardian that he endorsed the view that Dano was among “the best and most talented actors of his generation.” The attribution matters: an Instagram account that appeared to belong to Day-Lewis posted a defense, but the Guardian later established that the account was run by a fan. The endorsement reported by the Guardian came from his representatives, not from a post authored by Day-Lewis. (The Guardian’s report and correction.)

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So, is Tarantino wrong?

He is entitled to his response, and his central point—that Day-Lewis overwhelms Dano—is a defensible account of the film’s imbalance. But calling Dano a “non-entity” treats that imbalance as evidence of an empty performance. The film gives Dano two roles, a marked shift between them, and a different kind of conflict from Plainview’s forceful self-assertion. Contemporary praise supports the view that the performance has range and purpose, even if viewers disagree about how effectively it balances the movie.

The fairest conclusion is that Tarantino identifies a real feature of There Will Be Blood but makes it too absolute a verdict on Dano. The film may not function as an evenly matched two-hander; that does not mean Dano contributes nothing to its drama.

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