Paul Dano finally breaks silence after Quentin Tarantino brands him the 'weakest f****** actor' in Hollywood

Paul Dano has finally addressed Quentin Tarantino after the director took a surprising shot at the actor.

Quentin Tarantino is perfectly fine with being controversial, but last year his comments about actor Paul Dano certainly raised some eyebrows.

The director often talks about Hollywood, films and actors he loves and some things he hates but even for him it seemed a bit out of left field.

Back in December, he spoke on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast and revealed that the 2007 film There Will Be Blood ranks as his fifth favorite movie of the 21st century.

But there was something about the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film that brought it down for him.

He said: "There Will Be Blood would stand a better chance to be in number one or number two if it didn't have a big giant flaw in it, and the flaw is Paul Dano.

“Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. [Dano] just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy.

Tarantino's comments didn't go down well... (Gilbert Flores/WWD via Getty Images)

He continued to slam Dano as 'the weakest male actor in SAG', describing him as the 'limpest d***' in the world.

Tarantino was asked if he's enjoyed any projects Dano had been involved in, to which he responded: "I don't care for him. I don't care for him, I don't care for Owen Wilson, and I don't care for Matthew Lillard."

After the shock of the comments wore off, many celebrities came to his defense and Dano has now addressed this in a brief statement.

Speaking to Variety while celebrating the 20th anniversary of Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Film Festival on Wednesday he said it was ‘really nice’ that fellow actors came to his defence.

He added: “I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.”

Dano’s fellow Little Miss Sunshine co-star Valerie Faris also weighed in saying: “You know what was interesting was the people coming out to defend Paul. There was immediately… he is loved by so many. He is so smart.”

Paul Dano thanked other celebs for coming to his defense (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

The film’s director Jonathan Dayton also called Tarantino’s remarks an ‘embarrassment’ adding ‘I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed’.

Other celebs who defended Dano included Ben Stiller who at the time, wrote on X: “Paul Dano is f-ing brilliant'.

Alec Baldwin also took to Instagram to say: “I love Paul Dano,' before telling critics 'if you don't love Paul Dano...' before putting his finger to his lips.