Dinklage recently opened up about the role to The Sunday Times (via Variety), admitting that he misses playing Tyrion but that the backlash to the series’ plot progressions (which exceeded even the original books’) was difficult to ignore — both for him as an actor and the series as a whole.
“I do miss Tyrion,” Dinklage said. “He was just lovely, funny and the writers were smart to not only give him the joke that ends up on a T-shirt, but also have him be more than that — in a world prejudiced against him. Every season we’d get all 10 scripts at the start, like a novel. I’d go through them ravenously. Not to find out if my character died, but just to enjoy it. It was really such a joy.”
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Dinklage also admitted that while online chatter about the series took its toll, it was all part of telling a compelling story for as long as “Game of Thrones” did. (The show ultimately enjoyed a seven-season run.)
“You try [to avoid the chatter], but that was impossible,” Dinklage said. “You’re reminded of it on a daily basis by the fans. They had deep knowledge, but if somebody loves something they have their version of it in their head, so we got criticism early. Then, when we were leaving, they criticized again because they didn’t want us to go. Some got angry. But if you appeal to everyone you’re doing something wrong. And we offended a lot of people.”
In another recent sit-down with The New York Times, Dinklage defended the controversial May 2019 finale that ticked off many devoted “GOT” fans.
“They wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together,” he said regarding any fan fracas over the finale, in which Bran Stark becomes King of Westeros (a turn that came directly from Martin himself).
Dinklage continued, “By the way, it’s fiction. There’s dragons in it. Move on,” adding after a laugh, “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.”
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