Little Miss Sunshine came out 20 years ago. When it premiered at Sundance in 2006, it was quickly bought and became a hit that summer, eventually winning Alan Arkin his first Oscar. Among the movie’s ensemble were Toni Collette and Paul Dano, victim of a recent drive-by from My Sensei on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast. I didn’t think anything of his comments at the time—he’s been similarly critical of Tom Sizemore, Sam Levene, and George Clooney in the past—but, as the world knows, someone in the entertainment press decided to run offense against him. It’s true that My Sensei makes the news when he does something as innocuous as talk about his favorite movies of the 21st century, or praises a movie everyone hated like Joker 2, but I didn’t think Dano was seen as this wounded bird who needed to be protected from the big bad director.
Everyone goes to the movies. Everyone has opinions about certain actors. We don’t like everyone, and there are some people that are dealbreakers. We’ve all met people in our life whom we avoid; whether it’s out of loyalty or personal safety, sometimes you just don’t fuck with someone else. That’s okay, it’s only right and natural. Keeping that in mind, do you expect a film director to have any fewer opinions on the art of acting? Isn’t judging a performance and an actor his JOB? Apparently, Toni Collette thinks not: “Are we really going there? Fuck that guy! He must’ve been high… it was just confusing. Who does that?”
My Sensei does that. Qualm?
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, directors of Little Miss Sunshine (and The Smashing Pumpkins music videos “1979,” “Tonight, Tonight,” and “Perfect”), added that My Sensei’s words were “an embarrassment,” guessing that, “I can only think that his rawness of his performance made Tarantino uncomfortable. He couldn’t be easily filed.” What does that mean? Can’t everyone just accept that My Sensei didn’t like Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood? Is it so hard to fathom that a FILM DIRECTOR would have a shortlist of actors he doesn’t respond to? Keep in mind, he never disparaged Dano (or Owen Wilson or Matthew Lillard) personally. He criticized their work and their work alone. And that’s considered “an embarrassment”? Grow up.
To Paul Dano’s credit, he had little to say. He thanked everyone for supporting him. “That was really nice. I was also incredibly grateful that the world spoke up for me so I didn’t have to.” What would he even say? “You’re wrong”? I think this dude knows which side his bread is buttered on. Toni Collette is a nut—she reminds me of Monica lowkey—and Dayton/Faris sound like Joe Biden’s White House staff in the summer of 2024. Oh, Dano’s performance was so “overwhelming” that it “couldn’t easily be filed”? Again, what does that mean? Words matter. My Sensei filed Dano’s performance pretty succinctly, I thought: “It was a non-entity performance,” from “the limpest dick in town.”
Wow, stop the presses. Who gives a shit? It’s amazing to me how people get just as mad, or even more so, at people who confidently express their opinions, no matter how unpopular, as, say, murderers, rapists, and drug dealers. Sean Penn is nominated in every category he’s eligible for this year, and in the late-1980s, he tied Madonna to a chair and beat her with a belt. You don’t see anyone talking about that EVER!!! My Sensei would never. And yet he’s the one who the world decides is the villain. Why? Because he believes in himself. The world is a vampire sucking the life out of anyone with any kind of energy. A wise man once said this, and then he told it to me, and I then told it to Billy Corgan, who turned it into a hit song. I’m not looking for credit, but I’d accept a royalty check every now and then. A little free something would be nice. My Sensei has already given me trunks full of “free shit” people send him simply because he’s world famous. He’s a good man, a nice man. Why are so many people aligned against him? It’s just not right…
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