[ MOVIES ]
Small role, big heart
Peter Dinklage is trudging through melting New York City snow and dodging raindrops.
"Hi, thank you," he says to a fan while doing this interview on his cell phone.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"Station Agent" star Peter Dinklage has appeared most recently in "Elf."
"Great, wonderful that you loved the film; please go see it again," he says to another.
"An autograph? Sure, happy to do it," he says.
Someone else asks for a picture with the 4-foot-6-inch actor, star of the critically acclaimed "The Station Agent," which opened yesterday in Hawaii theaters.
"This is crazy," he whispers into the phone after ducking into a store. "It's like everyone has seen the film and knows me."
Dinklage plays Finbar McBride, a handsome dwarf who simply wants to be left alone. When his train store boss dies and leaves him an abandoned train depot in rural New Jersey, Fin hopes this is where he will finally find solitude. Instead his life unwittingly intersects with two other people: a grieving female painter who nearly runs Fin over by accident and a lonely, talkative hot dog vendor starving for conversation.
"The comedy of the film is that there's this dwarf, who wears black suits and moves to a small town to live in an abandoned railroad station, where he thinks he'll be left alone," Dinklage says. "Of course, he becomes the town's center of attention. If he really wanted to be anonymous, he should move to New York City."
Dinklage has appeared in several films since he graduated from college more than a decade ago, most recently in "Elf," where he plays a take-no-prisoners businessman. He brings a solemn dignity to the proud Fin, who, despite his small stature, never seeks sympathy or favors because of it.
"Fin doesn't ask for or expect favors because he's short; there's nothing in this film about pity," Dinklage says. "His need for solitude, wanting to be left alone, isn't just because he's small; it's part of his personality."
Being small "is another aspect of who I am, but I don't spend all day thinking, 'I'm a dwarf, I'm a dwarf, I'm a dwarf,'" he said.
"Being a dwarf is like, uh, having a real big birthmark. It doesn't cover your whole body, but it's there to be seen by all. The fact is I'm a very social creature, and I just happen to be a dwarf."
DINKLAGE'S character in the film loves trains, both the hobby kind and the real ones. Trains are who Fin is, and when he moves into the long-vacant train station, it's not long before it becomes a meeting place for many of the town's lonely, to Fin's dismay.
"The train station and trains are a wonderful metaphor," Dinklage said. "A century ago, train stations were the only way society was connected. It was the place that mail came to town and where all the hubbub began. People gravitated to, relied on and respected the station agent."
After Fin meets these other people, he realizes he's been missing an important part of living.
"The lovely thing about the movie is it shows how loneliness will eventually catch up to you," Dinklage says.
The role of a loner is an unusual one for the outgoing Dinklage.
"I'm very social, but you have to be as an actor," he said. "I have a need to always make people laugh -- a desperate need, probably. I love a great sense of humor. The people I sort of surround myself with have that.
"But as an actor, you do have to have a personal connection to a role to get it across, and being a dwarf, I do have a very personal connection."
Director-screenwriter Thomas McCarthy and Dinklage discussed the Fin character for years.
"He wanted my perspective because of my size," Dinklage says. "How I reacted when I was teased by kids. I do have a tendency to shut off unwanted attention, because you can't let everything affect you, or you'll go nuts."
But with shutting down emotionally, you eliminate the good with the bad, Dinklage says.
"I like unlikable sort of antihero characters like Fin," he said. "I wasn't worried that he might not be an audience favorite. People have flaws, they make mistakes and that's what makes us human."
His character maintains a monotonic delivery that is convincing and resonates throughout the film.
"He's very direct in what he says; there is no question what he means," Dinklage says. "We don't give you any movie-of-the-week sentimentality."
The actor hopes "The Station Agent" will open audience's "hearts and minds and convey a sense of 'love your neighbor.'"
"We need each other in this life and shouldn't be afraid to connect to the person sitting next to us on the train, whether he's a dwarf or not," he said.
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