The 2001 scene Paul Dano can’t believe he got away with: “Now it would weigh on me”
Paul Dano has quietly navigated Hollywood for over 25 years, rarely making headlines. He keeps to himself, instead morphing across the screen in roles that are deeply challenging, whether that’s as a villainous antagonist, a pathetic figure, or perhaps even Brian Wilson.
The actor always surprises, most recently slipping into the shoes of a sinister spin doctor with a British accent in The Wizard of the Kremlin, a far cry from the quiet indie teenager in Little Miss Sunshine. Dano always delivers, though, no matter the part, even if Quentin Tarantino would beg to differ.
But before Dano was the Riddler in The Batman, before he took on the twin roles of Paul and Eli in Paul Thomas Anderson’s phenomenal There Will Be Blood, and even before he appeared in the 2000s sex comedy The Girl Next Door, he starred in one of the most shocking roles of his career.
When Dano was just 17, he bagged his second-ever role in a movie about paedophilia, playing a 15-year-old boy who becomes involved in a strange relationship with an older man, played by Brian Cox. LIE, directed by Michael Cuesta, was a bold movie for Dano to make his proper theatrical acting debut in, especially considering that he wasn’t even an adult, but he played the part terrifically.
In his hands, the part is both tender and troubled, a vision of confusion, loneliness, and grief. Cox’s ‘Big John’ meets Dano’s Howie after the teen robs his house with some friends, but they form a bizarre friendship charged by John’s hopes of a sexual relationship, and he becomes an unusual father figure to Howie.
In one scene, John shaves Howie’s face with a razor, something you’d expect from a father-son bonding moment. Instead, this becomes an uneasy, intimate moment between the two, the shadow of John as a father figure looming over the scene with intensity. When Dano looks back at the scene, he can’t believe that such a daring moment was captured so well and that the film got away with it.
“My first thought now is: ‘How did we do that?’” the actor told The Guardian. In fact, when he reflects on the film, he can’t quite believe that he starred in such a controversial project so early on in his career.
He added, “When you’re young, you’re like, sure, whatever. Now it would weigh on me more, frankly. It was a good experience, though. I love Brian, and he was lovely to me”.
It set the tone for Dano’s career in a way, though, because he would then go on to pick roles that similarly challenged him. The actor was never going to become your typical Hollywood star, and LIE proved that. Movies like Prisoners, 12 Years a Slave, and Swiss Army Man only serve as further evidence, although it makes you wonder what Dano’s career would look like if he hadn’t taken on such a subversive role that early on. It set him up on a path that he has rarely strayed from, thus becoming one of the most talented actors of his generation.
