Paul Dano vs. Quentin Tarantino: why a “There Will Be Blood” hot take—and an Austin Butler name-drop—set film Twitter on fire

A fresh round of cinephile debate erupted after Quentin Tarantino used a podcast appearance this week (December 3–4) to knock Paul Dano’s work—singling out the twin roles of Eli and Paul Sunday in There Will Be Blood—and even suggesting Austin Butler would have been a better fit. The remarks ricocheted through Hollywood and fandom in hours, drawing swift defenses of Dano from writers, actors, and at least one performer tied to the oil-era epic.

Tarantino’s Paul Dano critique—and the Austin Butler comparison

On the podcast, Tarantino called Dano the “weakest” male actor in the Screen Actors Guild and tagged his There Will Be Blood performance as the film’s “flaw,” arguing the story couldn’t become the two-hander it might have been opposite Daniel Day-Lewis. He then floated Austin Butler—whom he directed in a smaller role in Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood—as the hypothetical replacement. That extra twist turned a pointed critique into a casting what-if: would a different foil have shifted the movie’s dynamic, or is the film’s power inseparable from Dano’s particular fragility and fervor?

Rapid backlash in defense of Dano

The pushback arrived quickly and from multiple corners:

• Filmmakers and screenwriters highlighted Dano’s recent run—The Batman, The Fabelmans, Dumb Money—as evidence of range and precision, praising his ability to convey moral ambiguity without grandstanding.

• Actors countered that the Sundays in There Will Be Blood are designed as measured counterweights to Plainview’s volcanic presence; muting the foil, they argued, sharpens the portrait of power, greed, and spiritual exploitation.

• A co-star linked to the film brushed off the Austin Butler swap as a thought experiment, lightening the mood while defending Dano’s choices.

• Fans and critics online posted side-by-side clips and rehearsal anecdotes, contending that the “weak sauce” label misunderstands how the character is written and cut.

Where “There Will Be Blood” sits in the canon

The dust-up revives a long-running conversation: why There Will Be Blood is frequently ranked among the century’s essential films, and what makes it tick. The consensus has typically credited not only Day-Lewis’s towering turn but also the movie’s oppositional geometry—church versus capital, sermon versus sales pitch—with Dano’s Eli Sunday as a necessary blade of doubt rather than a charismatic equal. By this reading, dialing Eli up might unbalance the film’s moral architecture. Others counter that a stronger force opposite Plainview could have pushed the drama toward even greater volatility. The argument is less about one actor’s résumé than about the film’s intended dialectic.

What the Austin Butler angle exposes

Tarantino’s Butler aside isn’t random name-dropping. Butler’s trajectory—from a vivid cameo in Tarantino’s own ensemble to lead stardom—makes him an easy marker for the maximalist, star-wattage performance Tarantino often prefers. But it also exposes a taste divide: is “great acting” the loudest note in the room, or the most precisely tuned one? Dano’s advocates say his restraint is the point; Butler’s advocates argue that intensity and magnetism redefine the scene partner’s ceiling. Both cases can be true, depending on the film you think There Will Be Blood wants to be.

Why the “Dano actor” debate matters right now

• Craft standards in the algorithm era: Viral hot takes can flatten complex performances into binary judgments. The Dano discourse reminds audiences how writing, editing, and direction co-author what we perceive as “strength.”

• Canon maintenance vs. revisionism: Even widely revered titles get re-litigated as new generations bring fresh reference points. This week’s flare-up shows the canon is a living object.

• Industry politics: Public praise or dismissal shapes casting conversations—especially when it comes from a filmmaker whose taste can move the market.

What’s next

Expect the back-and-forth to continue as more creatives weigh in. Awards-season retrospectives and anniversary screenings of There Will Be Blood will likely revisit the Plainview-Eli dynamic with renewed scrutiny, while Austin Butler—with multiple prestige projects in the pipeline—will remain a convenient stand-in for the “what if” school of casting debate. For now, the takeaway is simple: Tarantino reignited a question that keeps great movies alive—not whether Paul Dano is “weak,” but what kind of performance best unlocks a film’s design.