Ethan Hawke became the toast of the internet on Friday after a clip of him weighing in on Quentin Tarantino’s dismissal of Paul Dano went viral.
The Oscar nominee expressed in a Thursday interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast that his biggest takeaway from the scuffle is that it doesn’t matter what the haters have to say.
“I love Ethan Hawke’s perspective on Paul Dano. He’s such a positive dude, and it’s great how he highlights the love people have for Dano,” one X user wrote on Friday.
The praise for the “Black Phone 2” actor stirred up after he shared his thoughts on Tarantino calling Dano’s performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 film “There Will Be Blood” a “big giant flaw.”
During his sit-down with Rogan, Hawke said Tarantino’s negative remarks only spawned positive support from the industry and Dano’s fans.
“There’s a great lesson … What I don’t think Paul Dano ever knew was that so many people loved him,” Hawke said. “Out of nowhere, Pau Dano’s just going about his life, he’s got to wake up one morning and find out this director’s just went off on him saying these hateful things.”
He added that anyone who knows Tarantino knows he is popular for making off-the-cuff, controversial statements, and those who are familiar with Dano, know that he’s a kind person.
“Anybody that knows Quentin knows he just talks, talks, talks, talks, right? Anybody that knows Paul knows he’s a great, world-class human being,” Hawke explained. “And all this love for Paul’s coming out, and it’s a great lesson in that you don’t have to worry about the negativity that people send your way. You don’t have to worry about it at all.”
Watch the clip below:
He went on to say that everyone’s not going to be a fan of your work, highlighting an instance when a director gave him a backhanded compliment on one of his performances.
“I’m positive, positive there are great directors that think I suck,” Hawke shared. “I remember once I met some director, and I won’t say his name, at a bar, just this dive bar in New York. He’s a really famous, big shot director. He’s sitting there, and he’d just seen my most recent movie. He’s like, ‘You know, you were pretty good in that one.’ And in the comment was, the subtitle underneath it was, ‘I have hated you for 27 years.’ It was so clear. I was like, ‘Wow, wow. Well, no wonder you’ve never offered me a movie.’ Directors have opinions, right? They have super strong opinions. What do they have strong opinions about? Acting.”
The video’s comment section and social media were filled with people praising Hawke for his honesty and kind words.
“Ethan entered a minefield and came out without detonating any, and looking like a badass,” one person said in comment section of the video. “The way he maneuvered his discourse without offending Quentin, and yet defending his colleague was a class act, you can tell he’s a really smart and standup guy.”
“I’ve always thought of Ethan Hawke as the philosopher of acting. Awesome actor, awesome guy. As is Paul Dano!” another comment read.
“Ethan Hawke is solid. Always has been. Not the typical Hollywood lead, but a scrappy underdog with serious chops,” wrote another.
Dano has not responded publicly to the unexpected attention this week, but rest assured that aside from one particular director, it’s been incredibly positive.
