Paul Dano’s There Will Be Blood co-star Daniel Day-Lewis has defended the actor after he was criticised by Quentin Tarantino.

The director took issue with Dano’s talents while discussing his list of the best films of the century on Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast. Tarantino said he would have moved Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 drama higher than No 5 had a different actor played preacher Eli Sunday.

“There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being No 1 or 2 if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano,” said Tarantino.

“Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He’s just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest fucking actor in SAG.”

Day-Lewis, who suggested Dano for the role after the original actor dropped out at short notice, posted on Instagram saying: “Paul Dano is one of the best and most talented actors of his generation.”

Dano and Day-Lewis had previously worked together on 2005 film The Ballad of Jack and Rose.

Numerous film industry names have also showed support for Dano, with Ben Stiller posting that Dano “is fucking brilliant”, while The Batman director Matt Reeves called him “an incredible actor, and an incredible person”.

Dillon Freasier, who played Day-Lewis’s adopted son in There Will Be Blood told TMZ the film is “perfect,” adding: “It’s a work of art. And it’s that way because everyone was perfectly cast.”

Others have flagged Dano’s prowess as a director, urging people to seek out his 2018 film Wildlife.

On Monday it was announced Dano would join Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz in the cast of Bunker, a thriller from The Son writer-director Florian Zeller.

Tarantino also said he “didn’t care for” the actors Owen Wilson and Matthew Lillard on the podcast. Speaking at a GalaxyCon event in Ohio, Lillard said such criticism “hurts your feelings”.

He added: “It fucking sucks. And you wouldn’t say that to Tom Cruise. You wouldn’t say that to somebody who’s a top-line actor in Hollywood. I’m very popular in this room. I’m not very popular in Hollywood. Two totally different microcosms, right? And so, you know, it’s humbling, and it hurts.”