Paul Dano on superhero fatigue and Daniel Day-Lewis: ‘If I could only play dorky guys with glasses, I wouldn’t want to be an actor’
I’m slightly embarrassed to speak about it under this circumstance,” Paul Dano winces. “Is it gonna lead somebody to listen?” The actor might hate me for mentioning it, but he used to be in a band. Found today in the deeper recesses of Spotify, Mook released two records. They were strange, muddy psychedelic things, made back when Dano was in his early twenties and a reluctant movie star. Little Miss Sunshine had been a big deal. There Will Be Blood had been even bigger. But public attention was tough, frightening. How he dealt with it was to go back to school and make stoner jams with his besties.
“I wanted a certain amount of distance from… whatever it is,” he says. These days he’s more comfortable with “it”, but he still tiptoes around words like “fame” or “celebrity”. “I was still fairly young, and personality-wise it was strange to start getting recognised. That wasn’t something that I was seeking. I wanted to work more and be in certain kinds of films, but also set boundaries with some of the other stuff that comes with it. I think it was just necessary.” And
