You must have heard ascetics talking that the only limit of a man is what he sets for himself, that everything, almost everything, can be gained or achieved by any man. We have often learned about men achieving almost exceptionally albeit their dilapidated and ramshackle life conditions and medical decadence but how often do we learn from them? Peter Dinklage is no exception. We now know him as clever lush Tyrion Lannister and marvel at his humour and ability to wag but when he was simply Peter, a dwarf, life wasn’t that simple as it seems now for him.
Peter was born with a disease called achondroplasia
Born in 1969 and growing up in Morristown, New Jersey, Peter was diagnosed with a disease called achondroplasia, an inherent skeletal disorder beginning before birth, resulting in dwarfism. This kind of dwarfism affects the bones limiting its growth and Dinklage found it hard to cope with this disease especially when the people around him were not so willing to accept it either. “As an adolescent, I was bitter and angry, and I definitely put up these walls,” he told MSNBC. “But the older you get, you realise you just have to have a sense of humour. You just know that it’s not your problem. It’s theirs.” No wonder why his performance as an ingenious dwarf was so uncanny.
Struggled to live with a friend and innumerable rats in his apartment
Dinklage moved to New York after graduating from college in 1991 and went on to pursue acting. He rented the apartment with a friend and got befriended with the myriad of rats while living in that apartment. Rumours are to declare that Dinklage has to buy a cat for himself to wipe off his apartment free of rats.
Turning down the roles one after another
Peter, in real, was never a dumb headed man with a dwarfish stature. With the very beginning, he knew that he would be offered roles to exploit his conditions with their insensitive and senseless roles and because of that, he turned down roles one after another until a role came to him that did not mock his nanism and had some depth in his character.
His debut performance to becoming the most loved Lannister
After turning down roles to save himself from further mockery over his dwarfism, Peter appeared in a low budget independent comedy-drama living in oblivion where he played a role of a frustrated actor who broods about his dwarfism and the roles he gets for it. Albeit a small role, his performance brought him critical acclaim and was shot to fame by that role.
Since 2011, Dinklage has played Tyrion Lannister and became a household name with his portrayed of an opulent high-born lad despised for his dwarfism. His role did not generate pity for him but outright love for his wit and ability to wag around. He continues to be a part of this famous Epic series establishing himself to be one of the most important characters of the play which embarks awe, fear and veneration altogether.
In 2005, Dinklage married Erica Schmidt, a theater director and have a daughter born in 2011. His life history does not only tell us about the kookiness he felt among other intellectuals unable to swallow his bodily decadence but also that truly a man is capable of accomplishing any goal he has set for himself provided he should work accordingly to achieve it.