“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” is set to conquer thousands of screens throughout the land today.
The sequel to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the story sends the Pevensie children from wartime London back to Narnia, where they once ruled as kings and queens.
Of the newcomers setting foot in director Andrew Adamson’s version of C.S. Lewis’ magical realm, it isn’t Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian who makes the most winning impression. It is Peter Dinklage.
Granted, this may be because Trumpkin the Red Dwarf has the movie’s tastiest lines.
“And you wonder why we don’t like you,” he quips to baddie King Miraz while facing his demise.
“Oh, that’s not patronizing at all,” he says upon hearing little Lucy Pevensie’s nickname for him. And there are plenty more Trumpkin sound bites.
More likely though, our pleasure comes from the fact that, beneath layers of makeup, behind a yak- hair beard, beats the performance of a gifted, handsome and amused actor. Asked what moviegoers may not know about Trumpkin (admittedly a silly query), Dink lage, 38, says on the phone from his New York City apartment, “He loves a good game of poker.”
He adds, “I don’t know. It’s hard to come up with a back story for a guy who lives in a tree.”
In 2003, the New Jersey-born actor (who’d already appeared in a few indie films, among them “Living in Oblivion” and “Human Nature”) broke through with his performance as Finbar McBride in Thomas McCarthy’s friendship dramedy, “The Station Agent.”
Calling from London, director Adamson says he knew from the start he wanted Dinklage.
“I knew him from ‘The Station Agent.’ I was relieved when he said he’d do it,” Adamson says. “I didn’t realize how funny he is. He’s really smart about how he works with other actors. I was pleased with how he was able to work with (Georgie Henley, who plays Lucy). It has a lot to do with Peter as an experienced actor.”
In “No Bigger Than a Minute,” a wry documentary about dwarfism made by Denver filmmaker Steve Delano that aired on POV in 2006, Dinklage talks about how kids relate to his dwarfism.
They tend, he says, to express a kind of untainted curiosity.
In “Prince Caspian,” the actor seems to bring this understanding of kids to his exchanges with Lucy — though he says the movie’s young stars were dauntingly professional.
“These kids are more professional than I am. When I was their age, I don’t know what I was doing — putting firecrackers in my ear,” he says and laughs. “What the heck.”
Last fall, Dinklage appeared in an off-Broadway production of his good friend Jonathan Marc Sherman’s “Things We Want.” The play was directed by Ethan Hawke and starred Dinklage, Paul Dano and Josh Hamilton as brothers whose parents committed suicide a few years apart by leaping out the same window.
“That’s one of the reasons I love living in New York; I can do theater,” he says. “It keeps you on your toes. Film shoots can be pretty tedious.” Or, in the case of “Prince Caspian,” very long.
“If you’re an actor, there’s a lot of downtime. Whereas in theater, you’re on your toes all day. I enjoy both equally; it’s sort of apples and oranges. I love going back and forth.”
Summer plans include performing in a production of “Uncle Vanya,” directed by wife Erica Schmidt.
Most recently, Dinklage could be seen in Mark Palansky’s “Penelope,” starring Christina Ricci as a girl born with a pig snout. Reese Witherspoon also starred and was a producer.
“I thought it would do really well,” Dinklage says. It didn’t. “It was sort of magical and sweet.” It was. And Dinklage’s turn as a reporter captured the resentment — but also the empathic reflexes — of outsiders.
“It’s funny. You do a project like that, and you think the world’s going to see it. You do a project like ‘The Station Agent’ and you think only your friends are going to see it. Then it flips. You never know with films.”
Well, you may never know, but sometimes you have a good idea.
Eh, Trumpkin?
