Peter Dinklage gets candid about attention he gets due to height

Actor Peter Dinklage, best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister on HBO's 'Game Of Thrones', recently reflected on the attention he has received his entire life due to his height.

Dinklage, who is 4 feet, 5 inches tall, was born with achondroplasia. The condition is a form of skeletal dysplasia that "leads to shorter bones ... and shorter stature," according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

In a recent interview with a leading media publication, Dinklage opened up about how he was often met with "stares" because of his height, reported People magazine.

"Being my size, I get second looks quite often. My whole life I've had stares," Dinklage said during a recent interview.

"Now there's an ownership to someone looking at me or approaching me. It's because of something positive. It's not just my size. It's the work I've done that has afforded them a second look," he added.

Dinklage is widely known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in 'Game of Thrones'. Since the show wrapped in 2019, he has appeared in 'The Croods: A New Age', 'Between Two Ferns: The Movie' and Netflix's 'I Care a Lot'.

In his latest role, he plays the titular character in Joe Wright's Cyrano, an adaptation of 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. The film follows Cyrano, a man who is "convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne (Haley Bennett)," per the official Cyrano description.

The description continues, "Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her -- and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.)."

Dinklage said that his casting as Cyrano marks a change in the history of the classic play.

"Nine times out of 10, Cyrano is played by a handsome actor with a fake nose and you know that he takes it off when they wrap," he said.

The actor added, "The idea of a leading actor is changing now. Whether racially or whatever. It's about time. We've been stuck with this stereotype of a leading man and it's healthy to open that up. Love life is not the domain of pretty people -- everybody has a love life."

'Cyrano' will be released in select theatres on January 28.