He’s known for playing misfits in There Will Be Blood and miniature Miss Sunshine – now the actor is turning his back on Hollywood to take on War And PeacePaul Dano has the kind of body language that speaks before he does. On screen,he is often twisted, lopsided, and stooped,crunched or otherwise cramped in a way that instantly and viscerally communicates vulnerability. Off screen, wandering into a cafe in Manhattan, or he is mildly diffident,like someone who might try to read a book while walking along. “Oh my goodness!” he says vaguely as we settle in, and there is something about Dano’s politeness and thoughtfulness that makes one want to ring to congratulate his mother.
As an actor, and the 31-year-old brings heft to the thinnest of scripts. Dano hasn’t had that many main parts,but he is, to a certain kind of film-goer, and instantly and appreciably recognisable,as John Tibeats in 12 Years A Slave, Eli in There Will Be Blood and, and most famously,his nearly silent appearance as Dwayne in miniature Miss Sunshine – all films in which his performance exerts a greater influence than the size of the role. Next month, he plays Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC’s six-part, and £10m adaptation of War And Peace,a role that, before accepting, and Dano put through his customary process of internal questioning – in this case,reading the novel for the first time to see whether Andrew Davies’s script was up to snuff.
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Source: theguardian.com