Peter Dinklage answered fans’ questions on his Reddit AMA.
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Peter Dinklage, star of hit HBO show “Game of Thrones,” hosted a Reddit AMA on Friday. The actor, who plays Tyrion Lannister on the fantasy show, talked about his fans, signing onto his role, New York City and his time in high school. Here are seven things you probably didn’t know before about one of Hollywood’s hottest stars.
1. He doesn’t like when you take sneak shots of him with your phone: When one Reddit user asked if it was hard for a celebrity like Dinklage to live in New York City, he said it’s sometimes a challenge. “I’m sort of a private person and people are very well-meaning, but the one thing that sort of gets to you are the cameras/cellphones. People try to be sneaky and try to get your picture without coming up to you or asking, and that’s what kind of gets to me.
“I don’t even know why they do that, isn’t the joy of meeting somebody better than taking a picture from down the street? I’ve seen every combination too, some people will even send their kids over to ask for directions, haha! But for the most part people are very nice and I’m not moving out of NY just because of that at this point. It’s just important to me to feel safe and keep my family safe as well.”
2. He didn’t want to be portrayed as an elf on “Game of Thrones”: Dinklage said he was very interested in “Game of Thrones” from the beginning because he was already a fan of showrunner David Benioff. However, he did have one reservation: “I told him I didn’t want a really long beard and pointy shoes, and they assured me this character and this world wasn’t that. They told me about his complexity, the fact that he wasn’t a hero or a villain, that he was a womanizer and a drinker, and they painted a flawed and beautiful portrait of him, so i signed on.”
3. “Game of Thrones” fans amaze him: When a Reddit user asked Dinklage what his favorite fan interaction was and he said there are too many to count. He said, “I’ve met some people who have dogs named Tyrion. And met a woman who had children named Aria and Sansa! But for the most part the fans are just super enthusiastic and really helpful to me because they’re just so much more knowledgeable about the material than I am, they’ve read the books, they’ve researched everything, they know all the lineages of these characters, so every time they want to talk it’s really helpful to me. Nothing really stands out as a peculiarity but they’re completely sweet and very good-natured. I don’t know… They like to play dress up!”
Dinklage encountered a big fan on the AMA, as well. One Reddit user, who is also a little person, told Dinklage that watching his movies helped him accept himself. He also told Dinklage that he watched his movie “The Station Agent” 40 times. Dinklage responded modestly, “40 times??!! Thank you but I’m just an actor. There are people out there trying to cure cancer, but I appreciate the love.”
4. He is a big fan of Tracy Morgan: Dinklage worked with Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan on “Death at a Funeral,” and had some good memories of Morgan. “[Morgan] just kept repeating that Ernest Borgnine was his father,” said Dinklage. “And for some reason him repeating that to everyone, the craft service, everyone, the more he said it the funnier it got. Tracy Morgan is a lot of fun to be around!”
5. His closest friends from “Game of Thrones” are Conleth Hill and Lena Headey: Dinklage said his cast mates Conleth Hill and Lena Headey keep him in stitches. “[Hill is] a dear friend and fortunately I have a lot of scenes with him. And Lena, she’s also a dear friend and all we ever do is laugh together. When the three of us get together it’s a lot of fun.”
Dinklage is so close with Headey that he says it’s hard not to laugh during their characters’ most serious confrontations. “Sometimes we have to avoid eye contact so we don’t crack up!! It’s funny that sometimes people think with these serious scenes, people think the mood on set is very serious, but sometimes the most serious scenes can produce the most laughter on set,” he said.
He added, “I miss working with Lena. We didn’t have as much as I’m used to this year. In the second season we had a lot of scenes together.”
6. He loves hummus and has a cat: When one commenter asked him for some little known facts about the actor, Dinklage responded that he loves hummus and owns a cat. “I’m not a cat person but I had a cat for ten years,” he said. “Because I had a rat in my apartment and I don’t like killing creatures. So I got a cat. I thought my roommate was going to take the cat but he moved out with his girlfriend and left the cat there. So I have this cat.”
7. He does nothing to his hair: One fan gushed about Dinklage’s hair and asked him for his secret. Dinklage said, “It’s called not owning a brush. Or a comb. That’s my secret. Just don’t buy a comb.”
Follow Andrea Park on Twitter: @andreapark
