Peter
Dinklage caught my attention the first time I saw him, with his miniscule but
hilarious role in Elf. It took a couple more appearances (both of
which make this list) for me to fully board the Dinklage train, but once I did,
there was no turning back. I’ve seen a
wide swathe of his film and television roles, and these, for my money, are the
best.
Tito (Living
in Oblivion)
Dinklage
made an excellent debut in this odd little indie film about the making of an
odd little indie film (it also features dream sequences about filming a dream
sequence – meta, thy name is Living in
Oblivion.) Tito, a long-suffering
actor, voices his disapproval throughout the shoot, first passive aggressively
and later explicitly in this epic rant about dwarfs in dream sequences.
Fin McBride (The Station Agent)
Fin is
definitely Dinklage’s breakout role and, for me, the “I will love this actor
forever” role. It’s a subtle but searing
performance of a quiet loner slowly coming into a family. By turns, he’s wonderfully deadpan,
righteously indignant, heartbreaking, falling apart at the seams, and gently
courageous. He’s a fantastic introvert
protagonist; I love introducing people to this character.
Maurice (Tiptoes)
Make no
mistake – Tiptoes is a hot mess of a film. It’s all over the place, an interesting idea
with really haphazard execution.
However, I’ll basically forgive all of it (including the weirdness of
casting Gary Oldman in the lead as a man with dwarfism, not to mention one meant
to be the same age as Matthew McConaughey) for the sake of Dinklage’s
performance. He’s awesome as Maurice, the immensely watchable friend of Oldman’s
character with a lust for life, a penchant for trouble, and a somewhat
ridiculous French accent. True, it would’ve
made far more sense to cast him as
the lead, but then we would’ve missed out on this unforgettable performance.
Arthur Ramsey (Threshold)
Though Threshold, a short-lived series about a
cobbled-together team of experts investigating an alien invasion, isn’t as good
as it could have been, Ramsey is made of win.
I hadn’t known that a cocky, hard-drinking, womanizing linguist was
something I needed in my life, but it totally is. Dinklage does equally well with Ramsey’s
self-destructive tendencies, his probing intellect, and his more reflective
side.
Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones)
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