Peter Dinklage as Cyrano de Bergerac in 'Cyrano'. Image Source: Collider 

Four Primetime Emmy award winner Peter Dinklage who is popularly known for playing Tyrion Lannister in Game Of Throne recently spoke about Hollywood now being opening to stories that are romantic but diverging from the idea with ‘beautiful white people’ owning them. 

The actor who is critically acclaimed for his craft of acting will be seen playing the lead role of Cyrano de Bergerac in the musical film ‘Cyrano’. Talking to the correspondent Lesley Stahl the actor talked about his upcoming movie along with defending the ending of his successful show ‘Game of Thrones. 

Joe Wright directed, and Erica Schmidt wrote the screenplay for 'Cyrano', a musical love drama film. The film is based on Erica Schmidt's 2018 theatrical musical of the same name, which is based on Edmond Rostand's 'Cyrano de Bergerac' from 1897. Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Bashir Salahuddin, and Ben Mendelsohn star in the film. 

In this version, Cyrano de Bergerac is not a man with an outrageously large nose, but a man of short stature. Despite his wit, his high status, his valor in battle, he is mocked by the upper crust of French society for being short. So, even though his dear friend Roxanne appreciates his poetry and humor, he fears she'd reject him as a romantic suitor. Then a tall, dark, and handsome young soldier catches her eye. Christian is besotted by her but isn't so great with words. Thus, Cyrano — who can't stop his poetry or love for Roxanne — agrees to help Christian woo her, by being the romantic voice behind his pretty-boy face. Meanwhile, dastardly aristocrat De Guiche puts in action his scheme to make Roxanne his trophy wife.

Originally Cyrano is the one who has a fake nose that defines the character, but until the fake nose was not removed from the screenplay, Peter had no intentions to play the character. Explaining the same, he said, “It didn’t really speak to me. It was very theatrical, and it was all about a guy and a nose, and inevitably the nose was a fake nose, and [the role] was played by a handsome actor… I always thought, What’s the big deal? It’s just a handsome actor in a fake nose. He gets to take it off after each show.”

When Erica decided that her version of Cyrano will be a man of short stature, Peter shared, that “really spoke to me because it still had the same heart to it and the same vulnerability of this character. He still had the same complexity, because he’s so brave in one aspect of his life, fighting and war and all of that, but he’s totally nervous and doesn’t know what to do in the face of love.”

Erica Schmidt had shared, "I love the character of Cyrano. I love how uncompromising he is, that he is unwilling to be bought. I don't think he would post much on Instagram or Twitter. He really is his own person."

Peter Dinklage told The Big Issue that he is finally happy that Hollywood is accepting love stories that are out of the box and not restricted to just white people. He quoted, “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 cast of Cyrano at the London Premiere. Image Source: Tom and Lorenzzo 

Peter Dinklage also addressed the issue about the ending of Game of Throne's final season, which received massive backlash from the fans as they stated that they were not satisfied with the end and demanded to reshoot it with a different ending. The actor who played Tyrion Lannister on the show urged the fans to move on. He added, “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 backlashes about that. They wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together. By the way, it’s fiction. There are dragons in it. Move on.”

Peter Dinklage further added, “No, but the show subverts what you think, and that's what I love about it. Yeah, it was called Game of Thrones, but at the end, the whole dialogue when people would approach me on the street was, 'Who's going to be on the throne?' I don't know why that was their takeaway because the show really was more than that. One of my favorite moments was when the dragon burned the throne because it sort of just killed that whole conversation, which is really irreverent and kind of brilliant on behalf of the show's creators: 'Shut up, it's not about that. They constantly did that, where you thought one thing, and they delivered another. Everybody had their own stories going on while watching that show, but nobody's was as good as what the show delivered, I think."

Peter Dinklage played Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones. Image Source: Consequence.net 

Peter lastly added, "If you know your history, when you track the progress of tyrants, they don't start off as tyrants. I'm talking about, spoiler alert, what happened at the end of Game of Thrones with that character change. It's gradual, and I loved how power corrupted these people. What happens to your moral compass when you get a taste of power? Human beings are complicated characters, you know?"

Previously Emilia Clarke who played Daenerys on the show had also addressed the backlash, stating that even though she felt very ‘protective’ of her character it would have been ‘utterly impossible to please everyone. Emilia spoke to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and said, “I get it. I get why people were p***ed. I totally get it. But me being the actor, you can’t do justice to the character that you’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears into for a decade without getting on the same page. Do you know what I mean? So like, I’m not going to be there being like, “Fine, I’ll do the scene, whatever. So p***ed.”’

Game of Thrones ran from 2011 to 2019 for about eight seasons and was based on author George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels. It was a huge success and the audience still admires the character of the show. About “Cyrano” will be released on January 21 2022 in select theaters, with qualifying awards run already in play in some markets.