Before he rose to fame as the lovable yet corrupt Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage was making his mark in the punk music scene, literally.
The 55-year-old actor has won several awards for his acting credits, including a Golden Globe, but it seems TV and films weren’t always his preferred choice of career.
In the 1990s, the star was a member of a ‘punk-funk-rap group’ called Whizzy, with the band thinking of themselves as the ‘Beastie Boys rip-offs’.
Sitting down with Hot Ones host Sean Evans, the actor admitted anyone who saw him perform would know it was a ‘very visceral experience’ as he not only had a ‘lot of fun’ and gave his performance his all, but also because there were times he would ‘throw up’ on the crowd.
‘Back in the day, I was like, “I’m not gonna be an actor. I’m not gonna do any silly commercials or any of that, I’m gonna do plays downtown for no money in which I’m gonna throw up on the audience and I’m gonna be in a punk band,”‘ he joked.
‘We were Beastie Boys rip-offs and yeah, we had fun. It was a lot of fun. And it was a couple years doing it,’ he said.
The star continued to say during their time performing, he once ‘got a cool scar on my temple’ and said that was the time he found out ‘head wounds bleed a lot’.
‘So I throw up on the audience, and I bleed on the audience. It’s a very visceral experience if you wanna see me live,’ he told Sean.
Unfortunately for curious fans, Peter’s band has not commercially released records, and there is no video evidence online, bar a few photos of the star performing on stage.
After his punk era, Peter, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, decided to seriously pursue acting but found the roles were so limited for people with his condition.
‘I was angry, I think, too angry for a long time. … I just knew what the entertainment business was serving up people who are my size, and that to me wasn’t acting,’ he said.
Peter continued to explain that he was determined to overcome the stigma surrounding actors with dwarfism and began making friends in the industry who he calls his ‘tribe’.
‘We just carried that friendship and working environment sort of one in the same into the future together. ‘Cause you can’t do it alone, I couldn’t do it alone.
‘And that’s the beauty of what I do for a living, is the collaboration. So I was just lucky to find really great people who inspired me. More so everyday,’ he said.
The actor revealed one of the friends and fellow actors he respects most is none other than his onscreen father, Charles Dance, who played Tywin Lannister in the hit HBO series.
‘I love Charlie Dance, he’s one of my favourite human beings, and he played my father on the show and all my father…did on the show was humiliate me and sentence me to death…so he made a habit, ’cause we would get really invested in those things…talk about great dialogue.’
Peter said he and Charles, 78, would have conversations in between takes where the veteran actor would reassure him that they had no qualms, only their characters.
‘Just like between every take, he would come over and just gently touch me on the shoulder. We wouldn’t hug it out ’cause of time, and it felt very paternal too.’
The actor said that while his friend played a ‘horrible’ human being, Charles is one of his favourites as a person.
He then cheekily quipped: ‘It was a shame how that one ended on the toilet.’
Game of Thrones is available to stream on NowTV and Sky Boxsets.
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