Peter Dinklage Quotes

I think what's exciting about playing a villain - particularly a villain who's totally unapologetic about their evil intentions - is that it's not anything remotely like what you get to do in real life. You're never allowed to be evil and not feel bad about it afterwards, let alone be evil, period.

I would love to play just an all out bad guy who has fun being malicious. It would be totally unexpected, and that's what would make it exciting. Plus, bad guys don't see themselves as bad guys, so you could have fun with that.

When you're playing a good character, you have an idea that you're playing the hero and the good guy. Actually, I think you're more stymied playing the good guy than you are the bad guy. As the bad guy, you have no inhibitions. Nothing stops you from doing what it is you feel you have to do. You do it because it's what's required.

One of the things I've learned in playing a character like Becca from 'You're the Worst' is that there really is such a joy and freedom in behaving badly and in being a character that you do roll your eyes at. She's just so delicious to loathe.

I love the character of Jaime Lannister. He's just so complex - a character that we love to hate - but it's a lot more complex than hatred. It starts off, and he seems so arrogant and so smug.

I love playing bad. But my whole thing is usually villains that don't know that they're evil.

Very few of my characters are totally heroic or totally villainous.

I think I like playing the bad girl. I like complicated. I like flawed, messed up complicated. It's more interesting.

I much prefer playing the bad guys. I think they are always the most interesting characters. I liken it to painting: if you're playing the good guy, you get three colors: red, white and blue. But if you're the bad guy, you get the whole palette.

The bad guys are not typical; they are not just bad, they are interesting. They might be good or bad.

I've played a lot of villains. The villains are always fun because you can just go fractionally bigger than life. It's always a grey area because you don't want to end up mustache-twirling and making them a little false, but you always get to play a little more, whereas the lead guy has to be a little more straight.

I played characters with villainous aspect. But out-and-out villain? No.

I thought he was an interesting central figure, central character, one who is definitely not your typical central character figure in a film, who's easy to like. He's not easy to like. It forces you to involve yourself with what's going on.

That's sort of what I like about this character is that he's not the good guy, he's not truly the bad guy.

One of the things about the '70s films I love - the films 'Nightcrawler' is being compared to, like, 'Taxi Driver' - is that they never put their flawed characters into any one box.

A lot of the time, a moral compass is all that separates a hero from being a villain; otherwise, the two are very much the same. Both are generally the richest and most complex characters, and they get to have all the fun. I guess it's those types of roles that I ultimately gravitate towards.

The bad guys don't always get punished and the good guys are not necessarily pure.

I was really good at being a bad guy; I like that role. Not being bad to people - just talking bad.

In my career, I've been lucky to do the bad guys that are more interesting, where the audience wants to spend more time with them and get to know them. That's what I'm always looking for and trying to do.

A lot of the bad guys I've played just haven't had much dimension to them.

It's always more interesting to play the villain.

I love playing a villain. I think that there's something freeing about that, and it's a different kind of challenge.

I tend to enjoy roles that I very closely identify with: fringe people and complicated characters, who might even be bad guys, or bad characters that have one redeeming quality.

I've got everything against likable characters. Likable characters are usually completely forgettable, and we don't really care. I think we love villains... precisely because they show us these disturbing complexities that I don't think nice characters do.

There's something really charming about a character that is fundamentally flawed and does some pretty despicable things, but yet you still kind of love him.