After playing a character for a decade, it is not surprising that an actor may feel relieved when the time comes to move on. For Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, however, the relief he felt when the show ended was for a couple of specific reasons. Having played the role of Tyrion Lannister in the George R. R. Martin fantasy series from the beginning, the fan-favorite brought a book accurate version of the character to screens, but the final seasons saw some changes made that fans were not quite so happy about. As for the actor himself, he opened up to The Graham Norton Show’s host about how his emotional farewell to the series wasn’t simply about moving on from the character.
“Yes [I was relieved that Game of Thrones came to an end]. Yes, I mean it’s time to move on. As hard as it is. That’s the tricky thing about… I mean that’s what we do for a living. We go off for a couple of months and we have great friendships, then you don’t see each other again - and that one was a family. I lived in Ireland basically, and it wasn’t just the show it was the life. I had children there. My daughter had an Irish accent… but truly…Belfast: the community up there is so beautiful and I made so many good friends. So for me, the life rather than the show itself. That’s the hardest thing to walk away from,” Dinklage explained during the New Year edition of the U.K. chat show.
The comments made by Dinklage, while not saying anything bad about filming the series, alluded to the same kind of sentiment that others such as Kit Harington have spoken about recently, where they have said the work on the show had a serious impact on their mental health and on their lives in general, both for them and their families. As Dinklage noted, that is sometimes the job of an actor and in the last year for many, it has become even tougher with Covid travel restrictions meaning many stars were unable to return home for months while filming movies during the pandemic.
Although Dinklage is seemingly done with Game of Thrones now, the wider story of the Seven Kingdoms is expanding in a few ways, including the upcoming prequel series House of The Dragon, which is once again based on one of Martin’s books and takes a look at the Targaryen dynasty thousands of years before the events of the flagship series. With other previews and spin-offs also being considered, the world created around Game of Thrones is a long way from being done yet, and many fans just hope that whatever comes next will avoid the same disappointment that overshadowed the finale of the main show back in 2019.
Away from Game of Thrones, Peter Dinklage appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, and his next project is the musical romance Cyrano, in which he plays the title character and has already gained advance praise and a number of award nominations for the role. Additionally, he will also be appearing in the remake of the schlock horror comedy The Toxic Avenger.
