Peter Dinklage attained fame with "The Game of Thrones" show and his wife is a successful theatre director. They complement each other perfectly.
Some couples are so well suited for each other that it becomes obvious from their actions that they are in love, even if they don't make a public display of their affection. They are so compatible that they complement instead of competing with each other. They see each other's intrinsic value than seeing their partner only from the outside. They grow together and embrace changes and challenges together.
Peter Dinklage and his wife Erica Schmidt, who have been married since 2005, are a couple like that. Instead of worrying about the attention he started receiving after he became famous for his role of Tyrion Lannister on The Game of Thrones, Schmidt is surprised that people are just finding out he's sexy only now.
"Lately, girls have been, like, licking his face," said Schmidt to Rolling Stones. "But what’s frustrating about it is that Pete is an incredibly handsome, charming, funny guy, but when he does a magazine or something it’s like, 'Isn’t it amazing he’s four foot five inches tall and he’s sexy?' You know, that’s just who Pete is. And the rest of the world has to catch up," she added.
Those who meet him always remember him for the confidence he oozes. Even his former colleague, Lena Headey, who played his sister Cersei on the show, said, "Pete is super flirtatious, the most successful flirt I’ve ever met. We literally walk down the street and people are like, 'Oh, hi, Pete!’ And I’m like, ‘When did you meet them? What have you been doing?'"
But he wasn't always this successful in charming the ladies. "I was socially a little bit of a mess, in terms of confidence with the other half," he told the magazine. But, this changed as he got older. "You get comfortable. Women respond to comfort, and a sense of humor. I was always able to make them laugh, so that helps a lot. Women on the whole are often not as shallow as men are. They can be, but they cut through things a little more easily than men do in terms of that superficial stuff," he added.
He wasn't always so sure of himself either. He went under the knife as a young child, to have painful bone-shaving operations that prevent complications from achondroplasia, the genetic condition that causes his dwarfism. He is four feet five and his wife is an average-sized woman but that didn't stop them from falling for each other.
His wife and he eloped to Las Vegas in 2005 after he charmed her and they are now parents of two kids. While he never imagined himself working for TV shows, he gained popularity because of one, and his wife is completely supportive. A successful playwright and director herself, she has her own career that she nurtures along with their kids. She has also directed her husband in a play, as per Goalcast.
That makes him more proud of her and he's proven to be a doting husband. She is "brilliant. She loves theatre. Unlike a lot of other people in our profession where film is the ultimate goal, theatre is sacred to her. It’s not entertainment; it’s art," he told The Guardian. He finds her "very inspiring." "She’s definitely the artist of the family," he adds, saying, "I am just the TV actor who pays the bills."
The couple has been part of the entertainment industry for years but they keep their relationship under wraps. They welcomed their first child in 2011 and nobody even knows her name, even though people on the internet think it's Zelig, but it's not. They welcomed their second child together in 2017 and they have revealed neither the name nor the gender, as per Goalcast.
He always shares his wins with his wife. When he won the 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, he proclaimed, "I love you, Erica. You’re amazing. I love you."
He's as much a loving father as he is a loving husband. He told Access Hollywood that fatherhood was "incredible" and "life-changing." He also keeps his humor about it and joked to Rolling Stone that his daughter was simply "beautiful" and "I wonder who the father is."
Becoming a father, helped him understand himself better and come to terms with his physical form too, as per Vulture. "When I was younger, I’d think in negative terms without believing in reincarnation I’d think, ‘What did I do in my past lives to deserve this scarlet D on my chest?’ Because a lot of the time it sucks," he said, adding, "I think everything gets easier as you get older. When you’re young your ego is so strong. Then you get older and you get freed from yourself. Maybe it’s having children that does it […] You’re not who you were before having kids."
References:
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/peter-dinklage-master-of-the-game-57152/
https://www.goalcast.com/2020/07/06/peter-dinklage-erica-schmidt-relationship/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1kbGMpM5uU
https://www.vulture.com/2018/10/peter-dinklage-in-conversation.html
