In an interview with Vanity Fair, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the screenwriters for “Game of Thrones,” admitted that they once called Peter Dinklage on the phone to tell him that “Game of Thrones” had been canceled and he was out of a job. This was just a prank, which Benioff and Weiss enjoy, but Dinklage believed them for six hours. After all, most people are not used to being prank-called about losing their jobs.
Benioff said, “I think it was when the pilot was picked up. I was with [the original pilot episode’s director] Tom McCarthy and we called him from a Yankees game.” While Benioff enjoyed celebrating the success of his show, watching baseball while pranking Dinklage, the actor spent the next six hours crushed, believing temporarily that this show he was so excited about had been canceled so early on.
It is easy to imagine Dinklage’s relief whenever he realized that Benioff was just playing a joke on him, and “Game of Thrones” was, in reality, not canceled after all. And thanks to the fact the show lasted as long as it did, Dinklage will certainly be remembered well for the eight seasons in which he portrayed Tyrion Lannister on-screen.
