Peter Dinklage on Being Looked at in Public for More Than His Size: Now 'It's the Work I've Done'

Peter Dinklage is used to getting attention, but the actor says now, it's not just for his appearance but for his work in Hollywood.

"Being my size, I get second looks quite often. My whole life I've had stares," Drinklage, 52, said during a recent interview with U.K. outlet The Times.

Dinklage, who is 4 feet, 5 inches tall, was born with achondroplasia, according to The Guardian. The condition is a form of skeletal dysplasia that "leads to shorter bones ... and shorter stature," according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

"Now there's an ownership to someone looking at me or approaching me. It's because of something positive," he told The Times. "It's not just my size. It's the work I've done that has afforded them a second look."

Dinklage is widely known for his role as Tyrion Lannister on HBO's fantasy drama Game of Thrones. Since the show wrapped in 2019, he has appeared in The Croods: A New Age, Between Two Ferns: The Movie and Netflix's I Care a Lot.

In his latest role, he plays the titular character in Joe Wright's Cyrano, an adaptation of "Cyrano de Bergerac." The film follows Cyrano, a man who is "convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne (Haley Bennett)," per the official Cyrano description.

The description continues, "Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her — and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.)."

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Dinklage told The Times that his casting as Cyrano marks a change in the history of the classic play.

"Nine times out of 10, Cyrano is played by a handsome actor with a fake nose and you know that he takes it off when they wrap," he said.

The actor added, "The idea of a leading actor is changing now. Whether racially or whatever. It's about time. We've been stuck with this stereotype of a leading man and it's healthy to open that up. Love life is not the domain of pretty people — everybody has a love life."

Cyrano will be released in select theaters Jan. 28.