Quentin Tarantino went on Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast two weeks ago to give his top 20 films of the 21st century and ended up punching down at Paul Dano, Matthew Lillard, and Owen Wilson. While neither Dano nor Wilson have yet publicly acknowledged the comments, Lillard admitted at an Ohio GalaxyCon that being called out like that out of the blue “f-cking sucks” and “hurts your feelings.” A lot of people in the industry have risen to Dano’s defense, including Daniel Day-Lewis, Toni Collette, and Ethan Hawke. Lillard also has big names in his corner including James Gunn, Mike Flanagan, Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel and now Ryan Reynolds. Lillard just released a commercial for Mint Mobile, the cell phone carrier that Reynolds used to part-own, but now just advertises for. Reynolds narrates the spot while Lillard pokes fun at himself by alluding to Tarantino’s comments.
In a recent commercial for Mint Mobile, a company Reynolds used to be a shareholder in but now is a marketing spokesperson for, Lillard is referred to as one of two things people “universally” love.
Lillard then jokingly notes that the love for him is “not unanimous,” to which Reynolds’ voiceover then crosses him off the list. When Lillard asks why he’s there, Reynolds says that he’s not a fan of Lillard’s attitude, jokingly putting an affectation on his last name.
The new ad, which features the two stars who actually appeared together in the 2001 movie Finder’s Fee, comes after Tarantino had some less-than-kind things to say about Lillard. In a talk on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino said he was not a fan of Paul Dano, and also name dropped both Owen Wilson and Lillard as actors he didn’t like.
“I don’t care for [Paul Dano], I don’t care for Owen Wilson, and I don’t care for Matthew Lillard,” Quentin said.
This was a great clapback. It was short, sweet, and made its point in a funny way. Beyond that, it reminded people of Lillard’s most mainstream role as Shaggy in Scooby Doo and also showed that he has powerful “newer” Hollywood allies like Ryan Reynolds in his corner. I had no idea that the two of them were in a movie together in 2001. That was when Lillard was a bigger star than Reynolds was, too.
The industry’s reaction to Tarantino’s comments has been so interesting. Zach Woods (Gabe from The Office and Jared from Silicon Valley) was among those who spoke out against Tarantino. First, he came to Dano’s defense, then he doubled down. I thought it was interesting how many known, but non-A-list actors commented on his post. I understand why DDL, Collette, and Hawke spoke out, but they’re all A-list and don’t “need” to kiss a famous director’s ass. QT will be absolutely fine, but I think he went on Ellison’s podcast thinking that he was hot sh-t, so he ran his mouth, believing that he could say no wrong. Instead, he learned the hard way that while a lot of his colleagues may respect his work, he’s not as teflon as he thought.
Photos credit: Sadou Faye/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Kay Qiao/Image Press Agency/Avalon
This whole situation just proved that Tarantino is not universally loved in Hollywood.
I saw a post on Reddit that at that GalaxyCon, Lillard took extra time with one of his fans-a young person with autism.
Lillard made that young person feel seen and valued, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s an amazing person. As well as a great actor. Eff Tarantino.
I love Matthew Lillard. He’s incredibly fun to watch. There are actors that are SO serious and method to get into a serious character. And then there are actors who can fully submerge themselves into a wild off the wall character with ease and not discomfort or embarrassment – which frankly seems much harder to do. And they don’t hide behind the shield of method acting or whatever. They have fun, they take it seriously and they are infinitely watchable. Much more so than these other snooty guys.
Matthew Lillard. Brendan Frasier. Anna Farris. Owen Wilson. All early 00’s actors who made hilarious and amazing movies with heart that resonated deeply with people. Maybe that’s why QT hates them. Because they bring joy and authenticity to roles that are viewed as unserious and which they whole heartedly fully embrace. And which people respond to with equal joy and heart.
There was a time when my whole friend groups morning after drinking movie was Without a Paddle. Or random hangout. Or just a before bed movie. It lasted a long time. It’s hard for a movie to be able to be watched that many times and still be funny and heart warming. But that was the go to.
Two of the actors he targeted actually being genuine escapism to audiences. They are in movies you can watch over and over again. And appreciate each time.
Making a movie like that is incredibly difficult- and it usually falls to the actors to either make or break it. And it’s also not something QT has ever managed to do.
I don’t know what crawled up and died in these directors happy places – but they seem to despise movies that offer genuine enjoyment and a real escape from the grind of the day. A movie you walk away from feeling giddy for no particular reason.
They seem to celebrate suffering and refuse to acknowledge the worth of bringing happiness and joy and ease to people’s lives.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve suffered for my art. Now it’s your turn.”
Okay, I admit I haven’t paid any attention to Matthew Lillard since the first Scream movie, but he has really aged into his looks, kinda like Johnny Knoxville did. Maybe I need to go look something up that he did more recently than 1996…
Right? I think he’s aged well and is quite handsome. I hope this “snub” will have a silver lining and add up to more opportunities for him
So it is bleak, but he was great in a supporting role in a tv show called The Bridge, – the version about the US/Mexico border (the original version of the show was made in england/france).
It starred Damon Bachir (sp?) and Diane Krueger. It is fantastic, Lillard plays a jaded reporter.
I was so thrilled to see him after loving him in Scream and as Shaggy in that wonderful (to me) adaption of my favorite childhood cartoon.
I’ll add Good Girls to the list of recent projects he was great in.
Because Reynold’s type of humour works best in small doses, in my opinion, he’s really good at this. I’m glad he stood by Lillard. Yeah, QT is admired for his talent but I suspect most people can’t stand him.
Agree. And this is a cute commercial & great response. Subtle is good! Which is not something Tarantino understands.
It’s not universal. 😂 Brilliant. No notes.
Ryan Reynolds really does have an eye for these moments and a wonderful sense of humor.
I LOVE this ad, it is adorable.
Remember the one with the lady from the pelton ad- whose husband had gotten her exercise equipment for xmas, and in the ad she was nervous and off balance, and there was a big online discourse about how that read much more as abused wife than woman excited to get a peleton bike.
So Reynolds put the actress in a liquor ad, where she was at a bar with her friends talking about her breakup.
Honestly, kind of genius.
I will always love Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and tarantino is welcomed to tell whoever he wants about people he likes and dislikes.
But – and i saw someone say this before- it was like when Matthew Perry in his book, thought he was being funny and wrote something like River Phoenix is dead but Keanu Reeves is still alive? that’s not right.
And people were not amused about his joke about how useless the internet’s boyfriend was.
Because we don’t play about Keanu.
I’m just thrilled that Lillard is still working, hope he makes some money off of this.
David Dastmalchian made an extremely sweet post for Matthew Lillard on Instagram – apparently Matthew went out of his way to help with David’s young daughter’s birthday during the covid lockdown and David starts crying just talking about it.
Matthew was delightful on the Rachel Dratch podcast Woo Woo.
I wish him continued success!!
Well, as I said before, I LOVE Matthew Lillard. Great day, I wish Daniel Day Lewis would defend me. I think that would make it all worth it. What if Daniel Day came back and made another movie so he could star in it with Lillard. He could make Matthew’s shoes too. I actually wondered if QT did this so that these actors would be sympathized with and get more work. Do you think? At any rate, he landed on his feet. And QT is a peckish sort.
I have only heard good things about Matthew Lillard. Team Matthew
Best line from Scream “Liver alone!”