George Clooney Defends Paul Dano, Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard at AARP Awards

People reports George Clooney defended Paul Dano, Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard during a speech at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards on Saturday, Jan. 10, where he accepted Best Actor for his performance in Jay Kelly.

Clooney said he does not "enjoy watching people be cruel to actors" and added, "By the way, Paul Dano, Owen Wilson, and Matthew Lillard? I would be honored to work with those actors. Honored!" He also said, "We’re living in a time of cruelty, and we don't need to be adding to it," and told the audience, "It's gonna be a long, tough couple of years, but we'll all get through it together, okay?"

Tarantino, 62, sparked controversy in December on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast by calling Dano "such a weak, uninteresting guy" and suggesting he was "the weakest male actor in [the Screen Actors Guild]" based on his 2007 performance in There Will Be Blood; he also criticized Wilson's 2011 performance in Midnight in Paris and said he does not "care for" Lillard. In the days after those comments, stars including Ben Stiller, Simu Liu, Dano's The Batman director Matt Reeves, Josh Gad and Alec Baldwin publicly voiced support for Dano; Baldwin said in a short video, "I just want to say I love Paul Dano. And if you don't love Paul Dano, shh." Clooney also joked about aging and praised costars Laura Dern and Adam Sandler, saying of Dern, "We have been family ever since then."

Key Topics

Culture, George Clooney, Paul Dano, Quentin Tarantino, Owen Wilson, Matthew Lillard