Matthew Lillard has responded to Quentin Tarantino’s criticism, as the director called him – and a few other actors – out for being poor performers.
Lillard, 55, best known for his roles in Scream, the Scooby Doo live-action movies, and Good Girls, appeared at GalaxyCon this week to chat about some of his most iconic roles.
While on stage chatting to fans, he opened up about feeling ‘hurt’ by Tarantino’s recent comments about his acting.
‘Quentin Tarantino this week said he didn’t like me as an actor. Eh, whatever. Who gives a s**t,’he told fans while on stage in Ohio, per Deadline.
‘Listen, the point is that it hurts your feelings. It f*****g sucks, and you wouldn’t say that to Tom Cruise. You wouldn’t say that to somebody who’s a top-line actor in Hollywood.
‘I’m very popular in this room. I’m not very popular in Hollywood. Two totally different microcosms, right? And so, you know, it’s humbling, and it hurts,’ he said.
This comes after Tarantino lashed out at Paul Dano, and other actors, calling them weak performers in an episode of The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.
Quentin was tasked with listing his five favourite films of the last 25 years, and while saying he’d love to give 2007 epic period drama There Will Be Blood the top spot, he simply couldn’t. The reason? Little Miss Sunshine actor Paul.
While explaining his list, ranking Paul Anderson’s film as fifth, Quentin said: ‘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 that Paul couldn’t keep up with co-star Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance: ‘Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, and it’s also so drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. ‘He is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister.’
He then lashed out at two more actors: ‘I don’t care for Owen Wilson, I don’t care for Matthew Lillard.
Lillard has never appeared in a Tarantino film, but Wilson appeared in one of his favourite films on the list, Midnight In Paris.
Tarantino has received a lot of hate for his comments about the trio of actors, and various people in the industry spoke out in Dano’s defence.
Toni Colette shared an image of a scene of herself and Dano in Little Miss Sunshine, with a crown emoji over Dano’s head.
Meanwhile, Ben Stiller tweeted: ‘Paul Dano is f-ing brilliant.’
John Cusack also shared: ‘Paul Dano rocks. Great Actor.’
The Batman Part II co-writer Mattson Tomlin posted: ‘I am really pleased to see so many people cheer on Paul Dano this week. Not only is he a terrific actor, but he’s an astonishing director who exudes control and tremendous empathy. Check out Wildlife if you haven’t seen it.’
‘Paul Dano is an incredible actor,’ Simu Liu wrote on X.
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