Paul Dano

Paul Dano’s interest in acting came through public speaking. He studied at a private school in Manhattan where his students were encouraged to speak in public from a very young age. He was good at it and the leap into acting, first in the school theater and then in a community one, was something natural. Performances at the New York theater made him aware that he could earn a living as an actor.

Paul Dano’s first major appearance on the big screen was as a co-star in LIE (Long Island Expressway) , a Michael Cuesta film nominated for best drama at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. In it, the actor played a fifteen-year-old boy. very sensitive, but also belonging to a very dangerous gang. His performance won him the Best Newcomer award at the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards.

However, this promising start did not translate into immediate success for Dano. The following roles of him were secondary in films without much significance. The work that put him back on the map was in Little Miss Sunshine , a film that won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2006. Dano’s character was a deeply introverted teenager obsessed with Nietzsche and vowed to silence until he achieved his goal of being a test pilot. His powerful performance captivated the film’s directors, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris , who gave him the opportunity to star in their next film, Ruby Sparks .

In this work Paul had the opportunity to show that he could act as a leading actor. The script, signed by Dano’s girlfriend and co-star of the film, Zoe Kazan , told the story of a writer in love with one of his own characters. This role suited him like a glove: the actor, who had started studying Russian literature at university, was a fan of writing. Unstable, kind, violent and histrionic, this character allowed Dano to show his acting skills.

In 2008 he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Wells of Ambition . Since then this actor has continued on that path away from the limelight in which he performs perfectly, with somewhat strange, introverted characters who always seem to hide something. Thus, Dano has appeared in successful films made by very promising filmmakers such as Looper ( Rian Johnson ), Prisoners ( Denis Villeneuve ) or 12 Years a Slave ( Steve McQueen ). His is a path very similar to that followed by other great names in cinema such as Ian McKellen or Steve Buscemi ., who normally work as supporting actors but occasionally shine as leads.