(rshsdepot) "The Station Agent"

["jdent1_@_optonline.net" <jdent1@optonline.net>]

From the LA Times, not exactly depot news, but=2E=2E=2E

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
Rising up to play first starring role
Peter Dinklage has won many new admirers for his performance in Tom
McCarthy's 'The Station Agent,' a film that refuses to trade on its star's=

height=2E
By Manohla Dargis
Times Staff Writer

January 21 2003

PARK CITY, Utah -- Peter Dinklage is sitting outside one of the larger
hotels, smoking a cigarette in the afternoon sun=2E Sunday was the world
premiere of "The Station Agent," the first feature in which the 33-year-ol=
d
actor has the starring role, and now Monday journalists and fans have come=

calling=2E

Given the film's enthusiastic reception it's not surprising when a group o=
f
admirers, raver types in baggy black, cluster around seeking autographs=2E=

The fans are young, teenagers, and although none stand much taller than 5'=

7" you can't see Dinklage because he's a good foot shorter than they are -=
- -
the most unremarkable thing about this gifted actor is that he is a dwarf=2E=


In "The Station Agent," Dinklage plays a loner named Finbar ("Fin")
McBride, a train aficionado who inherits a derelict railroad depot in
western New Jersey=2E The depot, named Newfoundland, sits at the grassy ed=
ge
of town so depopulated that Fin's arrival constitutes something of an
event, an unattractive proposition for a character who has spent his life
inuring himself against the world's curiosity=2E Almost against his will, =
Fin
is drawn into close friendships with a painter (Patricia Clarkson), who's
grieving over the death of an only child, and a boisterous man hungry for
companionship (Bobby Cannavale); against expectation, he also becomes
involved with the town's melancholic sexpot librarian (Michelle Williams)=2E=


That may make the film sound intolerably cute, even cloying, but it's
neither=2E Written and directed by Tom McCarthy, "The Station Agent" avoid=
s
clich=E9, principally by refusing to make a fetish out of either its
characters' hurt or its star's height=2E In this sense, the film isn't abo=
ut
a dwarf but a brooding, darkly handsome outsider who happens to be a dwarf=
=2E
The wonder of the performance is that as the story evolves, Fin's height
matters less and less=2E

Beautifully played and often very funny, "The Station Agent" is, finally,
about how people sometimes are with one another -- spiky, hurtful,
emotionally careless -- rather than how many movies would like us to be=2E=

Nobody achieves closure; life just goes on, only different=2E

Dinklage met McCarthy about six years ago when the latter cast him in a
play about P=2ET=2E Barnum in which the actor played, as he puts it with
relish, "an angry Tom Thumb=2E" Several years ago, while the two were out
drinking, McCarthy, who had been working on a piece about isolation, becam=
e
struck at his friend's facility for shutting out unwelcome attention=2E

"I was at a brunch with Robert Redford," says McCarthy, "and it's the same=
=2E
Redford walks through a room and he can't let everybody in so he gets this=

tunnel vision and sees you and not others=2E Peter's got to do the same
thing=2E If he let every stare in, he wouldn't have any energy left=2E The=

character he plays is much further down that road but that was Peter's
connection to him=2E"

"Tom and I talked a lot about the reality of who I am as a dwarf," says
Dinklage, his cigarette extinguished and the fans dispersed=2E "We'd have
long conversations about how to work it into the story and when not to=2E =
I'd
give him feedback about situations that I've come across, daily situations=
=2E
I talked about children and how honest they are with me, and how wonderful=

that is=2E"

"He's a good friend," says McCarthy, "and I didn't want to say, 'Tell me
all your worst secrets=2E' But through time we would communicate=2E Someti=
mes I
would come up with an idea and say, 'Is this happening?' And he'd say 'Oh,=

definitely, sometimes more=2E' The thing about Peter, and it happens in th=
e
movie, is that people, once they break the barrier of being afraid of
talking to him because he's different, feel like they can tell him
anything=2E They really open up with him=2E I think part of it is people f=
eel
they won't be judged by someone who's judged their whole life=2E"

For Dinklage, judgment sometimes comes in the form of a role=2E "I try to =
be
very careful," he says, explaining how he will turn down parts because he
loves acting too much to let other people ruin it for him=2E That said, he=

isn't interested in grandstanding or "blowing stereotypes=2E" If only the
movies, where dwarfs are too often cast as gimmicks used for some sort of
metaphor, were as generous in return=2E

"Somebody asked me, 'Do you ever play characters that aren't written for a=

dwarf?' " Dinklage pauses=2E "I mean, I am one=2E Why would I play a chara=
cter
that's not? We don't have to shove it down your throat=2E It's got to be
addressed but that's what I love about Tom's movie -- I think that it sort=

of disappears, hopefully=2E It becomes about the three of us, the friendsh=
ip=2E
Many times dwarfs or people who are different become saintly figures; they=

have to be these precious people to learn from=2E"

Suddenly, Dinklage affects a mocking stentorian voice: " 'I'll guide you
down the path to the pretty girl because I'm a dwarf but I'm not going to
be able to get her because I'm asexual,' you know?" He laughs=2E "Come on,=

man!"=20



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railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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