Peter Dinklage was a big part of Game of Thrones, the HBO series that became one of the world's most popular TV series. When he won an Emmy for best actor in 2011, he achieved a measure of professional recognition that vindicated all his acting dreams. In the role of Tyrion Lannister, the misunderstood but resilient black sheep of the powerful and cruel Lannister family, Dinklage emerged as a central player in what is arguably the greatest epic series in the history of television.
With vast audiences globally, Game of Thrones was an example of how television has become increasingly relevant and compelling in recent years in the wake of pathbreaking series like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Damages, Dexter, House of Cards, et al. Together with Emilia Clarke's Daenerys, the blonde maiden turned crusading Mother of Dragons, Dinklage's Tyrion was by far the most popular character on the volatile, violent and unpredictable series, and his legacy lives on, even though Game of Thrones does not.
Born and raised in New Jersey, the son of an insurance salesman father and a mother who taught music, Peter Dinklage learned to live with his short stature (he suffers from achondroplasia, the genetic disorder responsible for dwarfism). However, he admits to having had a "tough time" in high school. He attended an all-boys Catholic high school where his love of acting was sparked by an eccentric priest fond of auteur cinema who introduced Dinklage to the films of Cassavetes, Truffaut, Fellini, and Antonioni.
A top student, Dinklage, studied drama at prestigious Bennington College in Vermont. In his twenties, he began acting in theatre in New York. He became friends with a circle of actors and directors, including Steve Buscemi (who starred in Living in Oblivion, Dinklage's first film), Alexander Rockwell, and Tom McCarthy, the director. The latter cast him in The Station Agent. That low-budget film about a man seeking solitude in an abandoned train station in New Jersey served as Dinklage's breakout performance (it also earned him a 2004 Screen Actors Guild nomination for best actor), and he has been working regularly ever since.
Now, Dinklage stars as a male lead in Cyrano, a musical romantic drama film directed by Joe Wright, based on Erica Schmidt's 2018 stage musical of the same name, based on the 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac.
It premiered at the 48th Telluride Film Festival in September 2021 and had its theatrical release in the United States in January 2022.
Dinklage lives in New York with his wife, theatre director Erica Schmidt, their two children, and a 100-lb Great Dane/Labrador mixed breed dog.
STRIPLV: Cyrano is a romantic musical drama based on the life, of course, of Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac. How did we get here? DINKLAGE: I think in myself I wanted to progress to something new, something different. I've certainly had the opportunity to do that in the aftermath of Game of Thrones and through the superhero genre, which I've had a whole lot of fun exploring. What's really special to me is finding that line between quirky characters, mystical characters, or fun cameos. Cyrano feels somewhere in the middle. STRIPLV: And of course, it allowed you to sing? DINKLAGE: I'm not saying that was the thing that attracted me to the role, but again, to step outside of what I had done previously and to explore new ways of finding myself in a role. That's as important to me as it was two decades ago. A romantic lead is another step on from this as well, and the story is so wrapped up in wonderful cinematography and incredible music. It's one of my most proud moments, that's for sure. STRIPLV: Could this be your first Oscar nomination? DINKLAGE: That's a long way from my mind, and the bottleneck of films is going to produce a huge amount of competition! A lot of distributors have a lot of catching up to do. STRIPLV: What was it like working with Joe Wright? DINKLAGE: Well, he is one of those directors whereby you know what is about to confront you. Consider Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Darkest Hour – these are voluptuous films created with art and beauty in mind, so I never had any doubts that Cyrano would come out the same. I have spent a few years looking after box office or premium channel productions, but this is a different stratosphere entirely. In accepting it, it was very similar to Game of Thrones – I was sold right from the start. STRIPLV: How far through the script did you get before you agreed to take the role of Tyrion? DINKLAGE: What script?! I agreed to do the part even before I read the script. I knew I had been waiting for that role for almost all of my acting life. STRIPLV: Why? DINKLAGE: Tyrion is a fully realized human being and was very much a central figure in the story. A womanizer, a drinker, and a flawed human being who still has a greater moral compass than most of the other characters in the series. I loved playing the role as much for the quality of the writing and drama as for the fact that it totally exploded the dwarf stereotype, which was also important. Cyrano is similar. STRIPLV: Have you become used to the idea of being a Hollywood star? DINKLAGE: It's more interesting than being unknown and unemployed. Game of Thrones exceeded everyone's expectations, including mine. HBO took a huge risk with this series because nothing like it had been done before on TV and not on this scale. I loved the idea, but there was no way to predict how audiences would react, and I give a lot of credit to the writing, which hasn't tried to play down the violence or sex. We saw that there's a huge audience out there willing to watch cutting-edge drama and series which push the envelope. It was needed. As for what my career has given me before that and sine, I'm very grateful, very humbled, and of course always keen to find the next project, because an actor who lives off his past glories isn't really an actor at all. STRIPLV: You were working beforehand, of course, but this was indeed a whole new level? Was it uncomfortable? DINKLAGE: It took me a while to live with the idea that I'm going to be recognized a lot. The first few years, I didn't notice that much of a difference, but then suddenly, there was an incredible amount of attention. Being on the cover of Rolling Stone and Esquire will do that, as will appearing on talk shows! So, sure, I've had to adjust my thinking to all that, but I'm used to it now. STRIPLV: Each subsequent role must give you the chance to handle the attention better? DINKLAGE: Yes and no. I'm a pretty private person, and I still don't really handle the attention that easily, and if someone starts asking me very personal questions, then I'll handle it as badly now as I would have done 20 or 25 years ago. Success may change who you are on the outside, but it won't change who you are on the inside. It takes me a while to open up to people, and so I'm not the kind of actor who thrives on doing red carpets, doing press junkets, and so on. I often prefer to stay in the background more because I love my privacy, but obviously, that's not always possible. STRIPLV: What attracts you most to drama? DINKLAGE: The fact, most of it is actually a mirror to our own lives and the toil and struggle we have getting through each day. Central to what's taking place in most of my films is human instinct and personality and great conflict at work. It's all very real, brutally real at various points. People love to empathize with that kind of realistic portrayal of basic human emotions and struggles. STRIPLV: Are you happy about the way Hollywood treats physical stature? DINKLAGE: It's very rare in this business that I get to play characters without addressing the issue of height. In most of the work that I've done over the years, almost every single page and every single line is geared towards your height and is a constant reminder to you. In my day-to-day life, and for any person who is my size in day-to-day life, it happens, but it's not a constant. STRIPLV: Did your parents treat you in any unique way because of your condition? DINKLAGE: We never really talked about it at all. What could they say? They accepted the way I was, and I obviously had to accept who I was. They were pretty supportive, and I wasn't treated any differently. I don't think from how it would have been if I had been of normal height. My parents never behaved as if I was strange in any way, and it was more like I was taught to think of myself as unique because I didn't look like everyone else. And after a while, you stop thinking that way and just want to deal with people in a very normal way. STRIPLV: When you were growing up, did you have to deal with your fair share of taunting and prejudice? DINKLAGE: High school wasn't a very pleasant place to be because I was basically an outsider in a school that had a lot of jocks and lacrosse players. I wore black clothes and smoked cigarettes by myself and basically didn't have many friends. When I went to Bennington College, I became more sociable and felt better about myself even though I smoked too much pot and didn't get much sleep. STRIPLV: When you began working in film, what was your attitude when it came to finding specific types of roles? DINKLAGE: Although every actor is forced to take a lot of roles you would rather not play just to survive, I was kind of arrogant when it came to parts that were too stereotyped. We suffer enough ridicule as it is. I didn't want to play roles that made an issue of people my size and where there was nothing really interesting to the character beyond that. You do have to make a living. I do not fault anyone else who makes choices to play characters that they wished they hadn't. Because at the end of the day, none of us are happy with our jobs all the time. "No" is a very powerful word in our business, one that is very hard to use early on in your career, but I also think that even if I used that word maybe too much, it did help me with finding roles that I did like.