Arriving in cinemas today, Cyrano (you can read our review here) is the beautiful new drama from director Joe Wright, who has reinterpreted Edmond Rostand’s classic 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac as a sorrowful musical starring Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor Peter Dinklage (TV’s Game of Thrones) as the titular poet.
To coincide with the film’s release, our Peter Gray was invited to speak with Dinklage about his role in the film, his relationship with comedy, the fear of live singing, and what draws him as an actor to his roles.
I think comedy is something you truly excel at, especially comedy with subtlety and realness to it, which is something exercised in Cyrano. I look at Death at a Funeral (prior to going off the rails in its finale), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and I Love You Too. Is comedy something you’ve always felt comfortable performing?
I adore it. My favourite films are comedy films from the Marx Brothers, all the way through to Peter Sellers and Will Ferrell. There are so many different variations on what comedy is and what it means to people. I feel like if it’s not getting a laugh, you know immediately it’s not working. Comedy is a shortcut to doing a good job and knowing if it’s working or not, which I’ve always appreciated. It’s such an art form as well. What makes someone funny is an unknown quality that we’re all trying to figure out. I love it. I want to continue to explore it and make people laugh. It’s a great leveller, especially in a time like this, when everyone’s having a tough time. We look to comedy to get out of our heads.
This film is based off the play that your wife wrote. Whose idea was it to remove the nose from the character? Something that has traditionally been associated with the character.
It was 100% unequivocally Erica’s (Schmidt) idea. I came to the project later on. She was commissioned by a theatre company to adapt an original piece. She always has a very clever way in to something that’s classic. What she did was pretty risky. She thought of what would happen if you got rid of the nose. It’s something that is referred to throughout the entire play. Cyrano refers to it with both confidence and insecurity. And then what happens if we take these long monologues about love and turn them into love songs? And I thought that was a really modern take. Both choices were very modern and a clever way into the piece.
For me personally, and it might be just for me because of my size, but I always thought “Oh, that’s a handsome actor and a fake nose”, and he complains a lot about it and uses it as a crutch to his advantage and his disadvantage. He gets to take that nose off after the show and go about his day. For someone who can’t take their physical difference off, it arises many questions within me as an actor and as a human being. Erica did not write this for me, but I thought it opened the door and I wanted to play the part.
You played Richard III in 2003 in New York’s The Public Theater, and there are quite a few commonalities between the characters of Richard III and Cyrano…
Thank you, that’s such a smart (observation). Richard III, much like Cyrano, was such a complex character. They have such contradiction (going on) because they’re both brave and confident in so many ways, and yet in the face of love or family they have such a lack of confidence. I think that’s really rare in the hero roles. I know Richard III is something of an anti-hero, but he’s the protagonist (of that story), it’s his show. I love that with Richard III and Cyrano that they’re not heroes across the board. They have heroic aspects to their life, but they’re cowardly in others. That complexity always draws me in as an actor.
This feels like a story that’s been around longer than it actually has. What was your introduction to Rostand’s play?
I watched the beautiful Gerard Depardieu version of the film, which was so lovely and he’s so good in it, and it’s so beautiful to have it in the original French language too. After seeing that film and reading the original play I saw a taping of a live production that starred Kevin Kline, and then, of course, Steve Martin in Roxanne which is a completely different version (again). I think (it being a comedy) meant the nose worked better in that than it did it other iterations. The Gerard Depardieu film was my introduction though.
Going back to being open to the part, how was it when it came to the singing aspect?
(Laughs) I think it’s a good sign when I’m afraid of something. I think actors can be, at least for me, too comfortable in their skillset. They know what they can do and they stick to that. You’ve got to keep an eye on that. When you come across a challenge, like singing or something you’ve never done before, it’s worth the risk because life is all about the risk. With great risk comes great reward, as the expression is, and you just have to surround yourself with very talented people.
Did singing live on set add to that fear?
Yeah, we sang everything live, and I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. Because of the nature of these songs, you know there’s no big chorus number, it was really just two or three other people singing, or me alone in a room. If I had to lip-sync to a pre-recorded version of myself, I’d probably just crack up laughing. I’d think it would be so absurd. You can’t help but think of 80’s cheesy music videos, and suddenly it would take on that quality. At my age they were so wonderful at the time, but feel so retro now (laughs). I’d have too much of a sense of humour about it whilst trying to sing this emotional song.
Having said that, putting that aside, it really helped me connect to the (song) and the other actors you’re singing alongside. And what’s brilliant is that these songs really are just a continuum of the narrative. We don’t stop and sing a song, like so many musicals do, this is just the dialogue blending. The dialogue becomes a song and then it ends and you continue. To do that live with the nature of the storytelling was very beneficial.
Cyrano is now showing in Australian theatres.
