8) Paul Dano In There Will Be Blood
Originally, Paul Dano was only to make a cameo in Paul Thomas Anderson’s turn-of-the-century oil epic There Will Be Blood, as Paul Sunday, the prospector who puts Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview on a collision course with his brother Eli. Anderson must have seen something more in Dano, though, because it’s this cameo that got him the part of Eli Sunday – when original actor Kel O’Neill dropped out during shooting – as well.
On the page, Eli Sunday is a self-righteous, holier-than-thou preacher with a thirst for power and wealth, but Dano makes him somehow even more despicable – a pathetic, sly and egotistical cult leader.
In most movies, Eli would be the villain; but as he’s up against the mighty Day-Lewis, playing one of the most cunning movie villains of this century, Sunday has to take second billing in the evil stakes. Dano makes a bloody good go of it, though.