Actor Peter Dinklage has spoken about Hollywood ‘opening up that box’ when it comes to telling different romantic stories, diverging from the idea ‘beautiful white people own the rights’ to them.
The Game Of Thrones star, 52, who portrayed scheming nobleman Tyrion Lannister in the popular series, will next be seen playing the lead role of Cyrano de Bergerac in musical film Cyrano.
He previously played the role in a stage musical written by his wife Erica Schmidt, which was an adaptation of the French play by Edmond Rostand.
The film, directed by Joe Wright, sees his character, a wordsmith, become entangled in a love triangle when he is too self-conscious to pursue the woman he is in love with, Roxanne – played by Haley Bennett – and instead helps a young man called Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr) win her heart by writing love letters on his behalf.
He told The Big Issue: ‘Who says beautiful white people own the rights to romantic stories? Unfortunately, Hollywood has always done that through the decades, but I feel like we’re opening up that box more these days.
‘There are love stories outside that Hollywood box and it’s making movies more interesting. Writers are more diverse than ever, and they are telling their personal stories. I’m just surprised it has taken this long.’
The actor, whose wife has also written the screenplay for the film, spoke about the death of his father too, sharing that he ‘would love to have one last conversation with him’ after missing the chance to be by his bedside when he died 18 years ago.
The award-winning actor also said of advice for his younger self that he would ‘warn my teenage self that there is a guy called Donald Trump and he is going to become president’, although ‘he wouldn’t believe me’.
Dinklage added: ‘But I’d tell him to always stand behind the right thing, the morally sound thing and never be afraid to speak your mind. Although some people make fun of you because you’re an actor and what right do you have to speak your mind about anything political?’
‘Just don’t be afraid. Who cares who you offend? There’s right and there’s wrong out there – and you have always got to be on the right side of history.’
The star also recently weighed in on Game Of Thrones’ controversial final season, which resulted in intense outrage from fans, urging fans to ‘move on’.
Speaking to The New York Times, the Emmy Award winner explained: ‘I think the reason there was some backlash about the ending is because they were angry at us for breaking up with them.
‘We were going off the air and they didn’t know what to do with their Sunday nights anymore. They wanted more, so they backlashed about that.
‘They wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together. By the way, it’s fiction. There’s dragons in it. Move on,’ he concluded.
A copy of The Big Issue can be purchased from your local vendor or you can purchase a subscription here. Cyrano will be released in cinemas from January 14.
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