Peter Dinklage: "I'm not here to change how someone my size is represented"

• LUIS MARTINEZ

  Madrid

Updated Saturday, March 5, 2022-02:06

• Share on Facebook

• Share on Twitter

• send by email

Comment

• Actor Peter Dinklage: the discreet personal life of the actor who in Game of Thrones only ate tofu (although it seemed like meat)

• Controversial Peter Dinklage calls Snow White a "fucking retrograde story" and Disney defends his remake

Peter Dinklage (Morristown, 1969)

presumes to be the opposite of a normal actor.

And by normal he understands himself timid in his statements, routine in his gestures and conservative in his choice of characters.

For the rest, he is clear:

I'm not here to change the world or how someone my size is represented.

That would be putting me before my job.”

It is clear.

Now, the one who raised Tyrion Lannister to the category of pop myth gives life to Cyrano de Bergerac in the adaptation that opens next Friday signed by Joe Wright.

And he does it without a false nose and in a musical.

Definitely nothing normal.

What is the distance between the theatrical adaptation that you yourself starred in and the Joe Wright film that is being released now? Not that much.

Now you have to be more precise with the historical setting.

The fact that it is a musical, on the other hand, determines everything.

You can take whatever liberties you want starting with turning someone my size into a seasoned soldier in the army.

For the rest, the close-up of the cinema makes the story acquire the intimacy it needs. You were part of a music group.

How has it been to see yourself in the role of rock star again? I wouldn't call what I did in the band singing.

It was just punk.

It was more about screaming and jumping.

In this case, the songs are perfectly integrated into the story and intertwined with the dialogue.

In fact,

It's not a usual Broadway-type musical where you sing and dance and in which I definitely don't see myself. What role does music play in your life? In mine and in anyone's.

There is nothing more beautiful than someone singing a song to you.

We sing our children to sleep at night;

we listen to love songs so we don't feel so alone in the world.

We all feel the same way before a song.

Suddenly Paul McCartney and John Lennon or Bob Dylan and Nina Simone are exactly like you.

It is not beautiful?

I grew up in a home full of musicians and that is one of the most important things in my life.

We sing our children to sleep at night;

we listen to love songs so we don't feel so alone in the world.

We all feel the same way before a song.

Suddenly Paul McCartney and John Lennon or Bob Dylan and Nina Simone are exactly like you.

It is not beautiful?

I grew up in a home full of musicians and that is one of the most important things in my life.

We sing our children to sleep at night;

we listen to love songs so we don't feel so alone in the world.

We all feel the same way before a song.

Suddenly Paul McCartney and John Lennon or Bob Dylan and Nina Simone are exactly like you.

It is not beautiful?

I grew up in a home full of musicians and that is one of the most important things in my life.

The original work talks about what it means to hide behind someone you want to be, but in truth you are not... I can think of no better definition of social networks. Yes, in fact the moral is that you have to be honest with the person you love

That is, indeed, love.

It is being you through the person you love.

That requires sincerity and courage to be who you really are. Actually, the question wanted to be more explicit in what the film also has as a social commentary... Yes, that's why I think Cyrano is now more relevant than ever.

The case of Christian [the one who provides the body and voice for Cyrano] is a faithful copy of what everyone on the Internet is doing right now: hide that we snore and that we are not as handsome as we would like.

In reality, with this attitude all we do is condemn ourselves to constant disappointment.

It is impossible to live up to what we want. Cyrano is a man who acts for another and Christian is an actor for whom someone writes the scripts of his life.

What does acting mean to you? It was Samuel Beckett, my most admired writer, who said that there are no mistakes, that you just have to try harder and fail better.

I think this phrase defines very well my work and life itself.

There are no failures.

You just have to get up and try again and again.

Acting is such an abstract, strange and elusive art form that there is no right or wrong way to do it.

You just have to trust your instincts and hope for the best. In this version, the false nose that always accompanies the character is openly rejected and you offer your own body to the plot.

Can this attitude be considered an exercise of responsibility? I am entirely what I am [Pause].

I am doomed to interpret who I am in, shall we say, physical terms.

But the catch and error is that dwarfism overwhelms the character.

It is a part of who I am, but it is not everything.

Many times the writing of the characters plays exclusively on that and I don't see myself there.

I am not interested in turning an obvious part of me into all that I am and can be.

Screenwriter Erica Schmidt's brilliant idea in this case was to get rid of the nose.

It's a bit of an imposture, what has always been done to play Cyrano as a handsome actor with a prosthesis that is removed in the dressing room. Let's say that the play is not about false noses but about something else... Indeed, it's about love,

It is simply about the terror of not being accepted by the person you love, of not seeing love reciprocated.

And there we are all regardless of the size of our nose or our body. Looking back, would you say that

was the definitive change in his career? Not exactly.

What has changed my life and my career the most is being a father.

Now that is a definite turning point.

And to return to the thread of the conversation, I find no better definition of what love is than parenthood.

It is an unconditional love that you put before absolutely everything.

Peter Dinklage in a moment from 'Cyrano', by Joe Wright.

I insist on the

Don't you think there is a lot in common between Tyrion Lannister and Cyrano?

Their handling of the word, their self-confidence... They are both very brave.

But there is something that puts Cyrano at a disadvantage.

He doesn't seem very daring to woo a woman the way he woos her, through another man.

That shows that he doesn't have enough respect for himself, that he doesn't think he's worthy of her love.

I don't think Tyrion would do anything like that.

He would probably go straight to that woman and clearly say, "I think I'm in love with you."

And that's something I personally identify with.

We can probably all do it.

We all like to be the smartest person in the room.

But on the other hand, he's a bit of a loner.

I enjoy being around people much smarter than me, because that somehow makes you smarter.

Why would you want to be the most intelligent person? It is impossible to say goodbye to Cyrano without doubting what his beloved's life will be like from that moment on, now that he knows that his love was not what he thought it would be and that it will never be like that again.

Dare you imagine that future?

.

Does he mean after Cyrano dies?

Well, I think she should look around and find someone who isn't afraid to tell her that he loves her.

That's the lesson she should have learned.

She should, why not, find a good and intelligent man, perhaps.

Perhaps now she can finally get over whether or not he is handsome.

What is clear is that you should not fall in love with a pretty face unless that pretty face loves you unconditionally.

I don't know if the answer is very simple, but this is

.

Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett in a moment from Cyrano.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• Internet

• movies

Oscars 2022Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz will compete as best actor and actress at the Oscars 2022

CineRidley Scott: many cameras, many projects and many bad grapes

CineZoë Kravitz, the cat on the roofs of Gotham

See links of interest

• Last News

• Work calendar 2022

• Davis Cup, live: Roberto Bautista - Gabi Adrian Boitan

• Davis Cup, live: Carlos Alcaraz - Marius Copil

• DSC Arminia Bielefeld - FC Augsburg

• International - Salernitana

• Alaves - Seville