Paul Dano Breaks the Silence
Source: AOL
Posted: 09/11/08 11:04PM
Filed Under: 2008 TIFF Guide
By SORAYA ROBERTS
Since taking a vow of silence in Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano has been the talk of Hollywood. The soft spoken baby faced 24-year-old displays a quiet intensity that is generally reserved for more seasoned actors. Yet Dano's precocious talent seems fitting once he gets talking about his craft.
"You want to do things you like because it's a reflection of who you are," Dano says of his acting choices. "As an actor, this is how you choose to express yourself so your work does play part in your life."
Dano's life has been whipped up into a furour since he appeared in L.I.E. seven years ago. In the film, he plays a 15-year-old boy who gets involved in a relationship with an older man.
Only a few years after L.I.E., the young actor was suddenly starring in The Ballad of Jack and Rose alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, who was so impressed by Dano's performance that he recommended him to filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson for his next film, There Will Be Blood.
If he wasn't already, Dano became Hollywood's most sought after indie star following his portrayal of a fanatical preacher in Blood. Despite his accolades in Tinseltown, however, he sits before me in the Intercontinental Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival with such a polite and self effacing demeanor that you forget he counts Steve Carrell and Day-Lewis as his fans.
Dano is here promoting Gigantic, which screens as part of the Discovery section of TIFF. Matt Aselton's first feature revolves around a mattress salesman, Brian (Dano), who falls for a quirky customer named Happy (Zooey Deschanel). Despite its relatively thin premise, the film was beloved by TIFF audiences for its witty script and arresting stars.
"I just got it," Dano says of the Gigantic script. "I knew what it wanted to be and what it should be." It makes sense as Dano seems, for once, to share a lot of traits with his character. "I definitely felt some things very close to me, for sure," he accedes. "I'm a sort of soft-spoken low key guy."
In Gigantic Dano's character forges an unlikely relationship with Deschanel's kooky aimless character. Happy seems to find an island of calm in Brian while Brian seems to sparkle when Happy is around. "She sees a life inside of him that she's curious about," Dano says, "and I think she's the type of girl who brings something out of you."
Matt Aselton, director of Gigantic, insists that having Dano attached early on to his film allowed him to get his A-list cast. However, Dano "is not sure" he got John Goodman and Deschanel to sign on. In fact, he still sees himself as a sort of struggling actor.
"It's hard to be patient and wait for the right thing," Dano says. "I'm not quite there yet but I try to stick to things I would want to see." Lucky for him, his lax method hasn't let him down yet.
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