Did Michael Cera really respond to Quentin Tarantino with ‘incredible’ Paul Dano nightclub photo?

Half of Hollywood has shared messages of support for Paul Dano after Quentin Tarantino decided to slate him publicly – but social media users thought they’d found one that went ‘harder’ than any in a recent post featuring Michael Cera.

A viral post on social media appeared to show Cera responding after Tarantino called Dano as “weak sauce” during an appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast.

The acclaimed director launched into a scathing appraisal of Dano’s performance in 2007’s There Will Be Blood, calling him the film’s “big, giant flaw” before adding: “He is just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest f***ing actor in SAG.”

As soon as the podcast was released, major figures in Hollywood launched passionate defences of Dano.

However, none of them come close to Cera’s most recent post in the eyes of many social media users – or so they thought.

The picture appears to show Cera and Dano in the 2000s, sitting at a table in a nightclub with a bucket of beers and vodka in front of them. The caption for the post, which has been seen by more than 4.5 million people and racked up 340,000 likes, reads: "f*** Quentin Tarantino."

While it’s not clear where the image originated from, users have pointed out that the image of Cera actually could have come from another image and been photoshopped into the picture of Dano.

The original image which was screengrabbed on Twitter/X was also posted by the "michaelcera" Instagram account, which has the words "not michael cera" in the bio.

While it appears that, sadly, the picture of the pair together might not be real after all, plenty of stars have responded to comments for real.

An Instagram account purporting to be Day-Lewis posted on Tuesday that “Paul Dano is one of the best and most talented actors of his generation.” Representatives for the record-holding three-time Oscar winner informed The Guardian that the account was fan-run, but maintained that the British actor endorsed the sentiments.

Ben Stiller, who directed Dano in the 2018 series Escape at Dannemora, wrote on X that “Paul Dano is f***ing brilliant.” Reese Witherspoon, Dano’s former Inherent Vice co-star, added on Threads: “Paul Dano is an incredibly gifted, versatile actor. More importantly, he is a gentleman.”

Why not read…?

• Quentin Tarantino reveals most tense moment from his films
• Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary reveal how heroin-fuelled night inspired cult film on Joe Rogan podcast

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