Quentin Tarantino Throws Shade at Loki Star After Trashing Paul Dano

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When Quentin Tarantino has an opinion on something, especially about a movie or its star, one can be damn sure that he is not going to hold back on sharing it, right down to the most soul-shattering detail. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has been making headlines this week for that very reason, and his latest victim is Loki's Owen Wilson.

Tarantino appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast to share his 20 favorite movies of the 21st century so far, one of which is 2011's Midnight in Paris at Number 10. However, he would have loved Woody Allen's fantasy-comedy even more if not for its star, Owen Wilson, who is also known for playing Mobius M. Mobius on the aforementioned hit Marvel TV show.

"I really can't stand Owen Wilson, I mean, I can't stand him."

The Pulp Fiction director, whose two-part revenge epic, Kill Bill, is being re-released as a single edit called The Whole Bloody Affair, went on to describe his three viewings of Midnight in Paris. The first time, he loved the film but hated Wilson; the second time, he admitted that he may have been a little harsh on the Wedding Crashers actor and tried to view his performance through new eyes; and the third time, he could only watch the actor, but supposedly in a loathing manner.

Tarantino is largely in the minority on this matter, considering Wilson received wide praise and a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Midnight in Paris as a vacationing American writer who finds himself mysteriously transported to 1920s France in the middle of the night. The film also stars Tom Hiddleston as author F. Scott Fitzgerald, with whom Wilson later reunited as co-stars on Loki.

Quentin Tarantino Also Criticized Paul Dano's Acting Ability

Wilson is not the only star of a popular comic book adaptation to be subjected to savage ridicule by Quentin Tarantino this week. His first widely-talked about victim was Paul Dano, who recently received praise for his unsettling portrayal of The Riddler in The Batman from 2022.

During his same visit on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino also cited the masterful 2007 drama There Will Be Blood as one of his favorite 21st-century films. However, the one "big, giant flaw" in Paul Thomas Anderson's Academy Award-winning period piece, in his eyes, is Dano.

The filmmaker would go on to describe Dano's performance as young, ego-driven, fanatically religious preacher Eli Sunday as "weak sauce." He even goes as far as calling him the "weakest f—ing actor" in the Screen Actors' Guild and shouts out Austin Butler, one of the stars of his 2019 hit, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as a better fit for his role, ignoring the fact that the Elvis star was only 16 at the time There Will Be Blood came out.

Once again, Tarantino is mostly alone in his opinion of Dano, whose reputation as one of his generation's most talented performers is largely predicated on his performance in There Will Be Blood. The actor was especially revered for being able to hold his own opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in an Academy Award-winning performance as ruthless oil baron Daniel Plainview, with whom Eli engages in a furiously adversarial relationship.

Matt Reeves' previouslt uncredited co-writer on The Batman and, thankfully, credited The Batman Part II co-writer, Mattson Tomlin, is one of many who have come to Dano's defense on social media. Tomlin tweeted how pleased he is to see people standing up for the Riddler actor, touting him as a terrific performer before plugging his directorial debut, Wildlife, from 2018.

Tarantino, who has never cast Owen Wilson, Paul Dano or even Daniel Day-Lewis, for that matter, in any of his widely acclaimed pictures, named Ridley Scott's fact-based 2001 war flick Black Hawk Down as his favorite 21st-century film so far. He has claimed on numerous occasions that he plans to write and helm his tenth feature film before retiring from directing, which was meant to be a drama called The Critic before the project was scrapped.

Loki is available to stream on Disney+.