Peter Dinklage remembers “Beastie Boys rip-offs” punk band he was in during the ’90s: “I threw up on the audience”
Peter Dinklage has been looking back on his music career as part of the 1990s band Whizzy.
Appearing on Sean Evans’ Hot Ones YouTube show, the actor was asked about his time in the “punk-funk-rap” group, and revealed that he had no desire for acting at that point in his career.
He said, “Back in the day, I was like, ‘I’m not gonna be an actor. I’m not gonna do any silly commercials or any of that, I’m gonna do plays downtown for no money in which I’m gonna throw up on the audience and I’m gonna be in a punk band.
“We were Beastie Boys rip-offs and yeah, we had fun. It was a lot of fun. And it was a couple years doing it, I got a cool scar on my temple. Head wounds bleed a lot. So I throw up on the audience, and I bleed on the audience. It’s a very visceral experience if you wanna see me live.”
Dinklage did become an actor – he’s best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister on Game Of Thrones – but it wasn’t easy. “I was angry, I think, too angry for a long time. … I just knew what the entertainment business was serving up people who are my size and that to me wasn’t acting,” he explained.
“But I surrounded myself with really brilliant people. Not intentionally, but just friendships. I call it the tribe. And we just carried that friendship and working environment sort of one in the same into the future together. ‘Cause you can’t do it alone, I couldn’t do it alone. And that’s the beauty of what I do for a living, is the collaboration. So I was just lucky to find really great people who inspired me. More so every day.”
Dinklage also spoke fondly of Charles Dance, who played Lannister’s father Tywin in Game Of Thrones. While the characters had a difficult relationship in the series, he described Dance as one of his “favourite human beings” in real life.
He described the “great dialogue” from the Game Of Thrones creators as being the reason for their emotional performances on set, saying, “It really felt really lived in. We would get really invested in those things. Just like between every take, he would come over and just gently touch me on the shoulder.”
While they didn’t have the time to “hug it out,” the interactions “felt very paternal, he continued. “He played a horrible human being, but he’s one of my favourite human beings.”
Meanwhile, an Iron Throne replica from the show fetched a huge $1.49million (around £1,070,930) at auction last week. The replica, a “touring” Iron Throne that “was crafted exclusively for promotional events and tours, such as Comic-Con, Hollywood premieres, and the Game of Thrones Touring Exhibition, which visited major cities worldwide, including New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Sydney” was sold on Saturday (October 12) via Heritage Auctions after a six-minute bidding war.
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Adam England
NME
