The actor, 41, tells PEOPLE that he didn't want anyone to make a fuss about the day
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NEED TO KNOW
- Paul Dano hid a secret from his Little Miss Sunshine castmates while filming 20 years ago
- The actor turned 21 on set, but didn’t tell anyone
- He only revealed this at the 20th anniversary celebration of the movie in Sundance
Paul Dano quietly celebrated a milestone on the set of Little Miss Sunshine — but made sure his costars were out of the loop.
“I hid turning 21 while we filmed," the actor tells PEOPLE at Sundance. "Because I remember you were supposed to celebrate that birthday, right? 21."
"I remember being like, 'Oh, I don't how should I [tell people] … I don't want people to know how old I am,'" he reflects.
Dano, who played 15-year-old Dwayne Hoover in the 2006 dramedy, jokes that, "luckily, I looked like a teen."
The There Will Be Blood actor, now 41, played a moody teen with dreams of being a pilot, who was under a vow of silence for most of the movie. In addition to Dano, the film also starred Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear.
Dano, Breslin, Kinnear and Collette reunited and caught up with PEOPLE at Sundance, where the 2006 film originally premiered 20 years ago, on Jan. 28 to talk about the movie and its impact ahead of a special anniversary screening.
At a dinner the night prior, Kinnear tells PEOPLE they raised a glass to Arkin, who died in June 2023 at age 89.
Looking back on their favorite on-set memories with the late actor, Dano reflected on a moment from "rehearsal" when they were told to "go out in the van as a family" to a bowling alley and diner.
“I remember the second the van took off from the production office with Greg driving, Alan said, ‘I have to pee,’” Dano recalls. “And Greg refused to pull over so he could pee — it was a bit, I'm assuming."
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Dano says that Kinnear was so committed to the bit that he nearly ran a red light, all because he
"didn't want to give Alan the chance to get out of the van to go pee."
"And so you blew right through it," Dano adds, which Kinnear admits was "true."
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Little Miss Sunshine earned four nominations at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Arkin won Best Supporting Actor, and Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
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