Peter Dinklage has been in his fair share of interesting roles, and you don’t have to look further than his iconic portrayal of Tyrion “The Imp” Lannister in HBO’s Game of Thrones to see him in a role that breaks genre barriers. 2022 is bringing some different sides of Dinklage out in his upcoming films, as he is playing two more very different classic characters, one of which is the titular protagonist in Troma’s The Toxic Avenger. Dinklage has now revealed why he signed on for such a “crazy, over-the-top” role, especially when following the very different role of Cyrano de Bergerac.
In an exclusive interview with Empire, Peter Dinklage reflected on his reasoning for taking a role in a Troma film, even though the company has a reputation for putting out films with more of a B-movie ranking and he has now risen to have quite the name recognition and star power. Apparently Dinklage is down for the pure fun of it, saying:
It’s a lot of fun. I just wanted to do something that I’ve never done before. So why not be a monster in an over-the-top, crazy movie, and why not sing in another one?
Traditionally, the Toxic Avenger is a meek man who becomes a superhero after falling into a whole bunch of toxic waste. What emerges is a pretty monstrous mutant avenging nerds everywhere in a very “over-the-top” and “crazy” way. Peter Dinklage won’t be singing in The Toxic Avenger, but he is referencing his part in Cyrano, where he again plays the titular character in the musical. Dinklage seems to have the right idea, thinking that if he’s having fun, he’s not really working.
If Troma films are as fun to make as they are to watch, Peter Dinklage is certainly on to something. The original version of The Toxic Avenger originally released back in the ‘80s and is one of the crown jewels of Troma Entertainment. In the same interview, Dinklage made it clear that his upcoming film is not, in fact, a remake, but it will follow the same mold as other Troma films in how it approaches itself. Here’s what he says, exactly:
It's not a remake. I just like guerrilla filmmaking. Those movies – they just made them, no matter what. They just did it because they love doing it. Some of them are not the best, but some are so much fun. When you make movies too clean, it can distance the audience. They want to feel the dirt under their fingernails. I think those Troma films definitely dipped the audience in toxic waste.
Even though Troma is known for its low budget B-movie horror films, a lot of big names have been in Troma films before they got their big breaks. This includes Samuel L. Jackson in Def by Temptation to Billy Bob Thornton in Chopper Chicks in Zombietown. With names like that, how could they not be a blast to film?
Peter Dinklage, although not at the beginning of his career in any way, seems like the perfect fit for a Troma film, especially one with such a cult following like The Toxic Avenger. It sounds like he’s at the point in his career where he just wants to have some fun on the job, and I honestly can’t wait to see him take up the Toxic Avenger’s mop and sling some bad guy brains as pretty much the strangest superhero ever.
