Daniel Day-Lewis Put Paul Dano Through a Tough Time by Slapping Him Repeatedly

Actor Daniel Day-Lewis indulged in deep method-acting to get into the role of Daniel Plainview for There Will Be Blood. The highly praised role would see him get physical with another actor, who described the intense experience.

Daniel Day-Lewis slapped Paul Dano in the face every take

Day-Lewis collaborated with several actors for his 2007 classic feature, There Will Be Blood. One of those actors was Paul Dano, who Day-Lewis had already worked with in The Ballad of Jack and Rose. 

Dano was initially cast in a small role alongside Day-Lewis in the film. But circumstances later had Dano playing two completely different roles in the film, giving him more screentime with the retired actor.

Working alongside Day-Lewis twice was a memorable moment for Dano, who got to see the Oscar winner’s work up close. Dano remembered one specific sequence where Day-Lewis’ performance caught him entirely off guard.

“Because we didn’t really rehearse and so sometimes, I didn’t know how big something that was gonna come out of him was gonna because he’s so powerful,” Dano once told Collider. “And I don’t really want to say specific instances. I think you can probably imagine hearing some of the lines from that ending scene on the page but then, you know, the real deal is just a whole [other] level, you know, from that. I definitely had moments like that. It was cool.”

But perhaps the most difficult sequence for Dano was when Day-Lewis was scripted to slap him repeatedly.

“I got slapped in the face for every take,” Dano once revealed to HuffPost. “And that first slap always provided me with a good amount of inspiration. But then, after a couple of takes, someone saw the mud and added that into the equation. And sure enough, before long I’m getting slapped and dragged by the hair, and having Daniel stuff handfuls of mud into my mouth. It’s tough in the moment, but when you look back on it, it’s actually sort of fun.”

How Daniel Day-Lewis felt about Paul Dano

Day-Lewis had his eyes on many up-and-coming young actors at the time. His There Will Be Blood star was one of them. Day-Lewis confided that he and Dano kept their distance from each other. Still, he admired both Dano’s skills and his character as a person.

 “I certainly knew enough about Paul and I hope he’d say the same, to know that he’d be somebody I’d know I wanted on my side in a scrap,” Day-Lewis said in an old interview with Chicago Movie Mag. “I admired him so much in Rebecca [Miller]‘s film. We never really spoke, and we never met socially during that time because the work led us in different directions. He understood implicitly, as I did, that it was important to keep that distance between us. But we got to know each other a little bit after that and I like him so much as a man – which always helps – but as an actor I think he’s undoubtedly one of the most promising young actors working at the moment.”

Paul Dano was cast in ‘There Will Be Blood’ because of ‘The Ballad of Jack and Rose’

Dano’s previous collaboration with Day-Lewis in Jack and Rose led to his casting in There Will Be Blood. Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson became a fan of Dano’s soon after seeing him in their previous feature.

“It was, because the first time I had seen Paul was in The Ballad of Jack and Rose. I called Rebecca Miller [the director and Day-Lewis’ wife] to tell her how much I loved the film and to tell Daniel how much I loved the film. But really the first question on my mind was ‘Who the hell was that?’ I thought he was so terrific,” Thomas Anderson once said according to Black Film.

So when it came time for Thomas Anderson to cast There Will Be Blood, he eventually had The Batman star in mind.

“I think I had just finished writing the script, so I knew I had to find somebody to play part. I had originally, insanely though that we should have a 12 or 13-year-old boy,” he said. “And that kind of seemed ridiculous. He certainly got a good recommendation from Rebecca and from Daniel. I had to meet Paul for myself to know, and it was pretty clear that he was a terrific young actor. I was very lucky.”