Peter Dinklage would vomit on the audience back in his punk-rock days

You may think you know what to expect from Peter Dinklage on Hot Ones. And sure, there’s a requisite anecdote about Charles Dance being super apologetic for all the mean things he was saying as Tywin Lannister on Game Of Thrones. But Dinklage, currently promoting the Prime Video film Brothers, is more than his Emmy-winning performance as Tyrion. “Just try to define me, man,” the actor jokes when host Sean Evans brings up his ’90s “punk-funk-rap group” Whizzy. 

“Back in the day, I was like, ‘I’m not gonna be an actor. I’m not gonna do any silly commercials or any of that, I’m gonna do plays downtown for no money in which I’m gonna throw up on the audience and I’m gonna be in a punk band,'” Dinklage says. “We were Beastie Boys rip-offs and yeah, we had fun. It was a lot of fun. And it was a couple years doing it, I got a cool scar on my temple. Head wounds bleed a lot. So I throw up on the audience, and I bleed on the audience. It’s a very visceral experience if you wanna see me live.”

Of course, Dinklage did end up becoming an actor, but not before years of toil and struggle. “I was angry, I think, too angry for a long time. … I just knew what the entertainment business was serving up people who are my size and that to me wasn’t acting,” he says. “But I surrounded myself with really brilliant people. Not intentionally, but just friendships. I call it the tribe. And we just carried that friendship and working environment sort of one in the same into the future together. ‘Cause you can’t do it alone, I couldn’t do it alone. And that’s the beauty of what I do for a living, is the collaboration. So I was just lucky to find really great people who inspired me. More so everyday.”