IT'S NOT PETER DINKLAGE!!!

Good lord. I've already read three accounts in which the wee actor in Sundance Festival opener In Bruges is cited as Peter Dinklage. Box Office Psychic praises the work of "diminutive Sundance legend Peter Dinklage" in the film. David D'Arcy refers to Dinklage in both his Green Cine Daily and Screen Daily reviews, effusing in the latter that Dinklage is "hilarious" and "cock sure."

One problem, fellas: Peter Dinklage ISN'T IN In Bruges. The dwarf, or midget, in the film, a dyspeptic sybarite named Jimmy, is in fact played by one Jordan Prentice, as a visit to the IMDB might have told you. Or....what the hell, your own eyes and/or ears might have told you, as Prentice actually doesn't look, or more significantly, talk like Dinklage, who has a deep, rich, Shakespearean style voice. Here are pictures of the two.

That's Dinklage at far left, Prentice (who, if the IMDB is to be believed, was the guy inside that Howard the Duck suit back in 1986) in B&W. I bring this up only to highlight a very shameful form of bigotry: the idea that all sardonic dwarves/midgets look alike. Let's get sensitive, people. UPDATE: The Green Cine review's been fixed. I'd recommend Screen Daily and Box Office Psychics get cracking, before Dinklage and Prentiss team up, buy some machetes, etc.,etc.

Comments

[Jessica]

Um, dwarf? Midget? It's it me or does this remind you of when a person is referred to as "Oriental"? (i.e. rugs are Oriental, not people). Speaking of people, not to get all PC/new school on you, but, these days, aren't "dwarfs" or "midgets" more appropriately known as "little people"?

[cadavra]

And dwarves and midgets are two different things anyway.

[Glenn Kenny]

The points made by the two above commenters are addressed in the movie in some priceless bits between Ferrel and Prentice, actually.

[Zack]

As Sarah Silverman points out, "little people" is the only PC term actually more offensive than the one(s) it replaces.

[Tess]

My vote is for "gnome."

[Jingle]

The only thing funny about Sarah Silverman is she looks like she'd smell funny.

[Jill]

I think the most galling thing here is that there are so few notable 'little' actors. For anyone to make such a lazy and truly offensive mistake in identification....(!) Jordan Prentice is a great actor in his own right with vast experience, struggling like so many others to break through the stereotype. And it's hard because these midget, dwarf, leprauchan, elf, 'comedy' roles are a little actor's bread and butter. Has anything changed since The Wizard of Oz? Not much apparently.

[the real guy]

I have to say, I honestly believed that the man I saw on screen tonight was Peter Dinklage. I am mortified personally (not) that I was not able to spot the difference between Dinklage on the one hand and this Prentice person on the other, but is that really my fault and my own parochialness? I have no vested interest in thinking that all "little people" are the same --- if in spite of that, I truly see no difference in the physical appearances between these two actors, might this not perhaps point to the possibility that in fact all midgets look the same?

Or maybe the only realistic conclusion to be drawn here is that after Dinklage's success, only midgets that looks like him can become successful actors.

At any rate, I think this author's indignation at the confusion of the three accounts between Dinklage and Prentice, is a little over stated.

[Steven]

I like to think of them as Hobbits.

[Jason]

It isn't an act of unforgivable insensitivity to suggest that Dinklage and Prentice look alike... because they do look alike. It is holier than thou to suggest this error of mistaken identity reflects prejudice simply because the two men were affected by similar genetic unusualness at birth.

[Carol]

I just watched "In Bruges" and loved it, and I can see why viewers might mistake Jordan Prentice for Peter Dinklage. If I hadn't just watched another great Dinklage performance (Death at a Funeral) just a couple of days ago, I might have made the same mistake. Now, if you mistook Verne Troyer for Peter Dinklage, then you could quite rightfully slap yourself. Repeatedly.

[Gregg]

they have very different noses. But their voices and demeanors are quite similar, you wee fuck.

[Phil]

I am utterly stunned and offended at some of the comments posted on this website. I cannot believe that people would think they were being clever or amusing in posting comments such as "my vote is for gnome" or "I like to think of them as hobbits". They are people, they do not all look the same and the last time I checked the two main organisations that support people of restricted growth are called the Little People of America and The restricted growth association so that might give a clue to the more ignorant people who use this website as to what is an acceptable description is.

[zxcvb]

I agree, Phil. The people above you would have been the ones gleefully using the term "darkie" and "chink" fifty years ago. America has a long way to go...

Anyways, I hear "short-statured" is both the preferred and most accurate term (there are many kinds of "dwarfism").

[Jools]

Well, I'm glad I found this note. I saw a trailer for In Bruges quite a while back and was excited only because I thought that was the brilliant Peter Dinklage, who impressed me so incredibly in The Station Agent, as well as other movies in which he played those bread-and-butter comedy roles. I guess Fin was the role of a lifetime for a little person/dwarf.

At any rate, I'll look forward to renting In Bruges and seeing another small person give a brilliant and biting performance. Maybe things haven't changed much since The Wizard of Oz, but it looks like maybe they're starting too.

[washingtonsqparkgirl]

There are two little people that look almost alike when they are both wearing facial hair --- Peter Dinklage from Station Agent and William Huntley from Disney's Enchanted. I saw them both at the Public Theater in two brilliant performances! Peter is more theatrics and Shakespeare and William seems to be more of a character actor. Both are Brilliant! And I see them in NY all the time

[washingtonsqparkgirl]

There are two little people that look almost alike when they are both wearing facial hair --- Peter Dinklage from Station Agent and William Huntley from Disney's Enchanted. I saw them both at the Public Theater in two brilliant performances! Peter is more theatrics and Shakespeare and William seems to be more of a character actor. Both are Brilliant! And I see them in NY all the time

[dwarfdefender]

Perhaps I am best qualified to enter this fray as I am a person of short stature who has also been an actor, though in the country in which I currently reside the common affectionate term is either 'wee man', or 'big man'. I don't believe any of the more ignorant persons posting above would have the courage to live in a body which I did not choose, but which provokes laughter every single day of my life. I do not exist for the amusement of others and it demonstrates the lack of formal education and education in the home to discriminate against others if you are in the majority just because you are taller, whiter, more physically able, from a wealthy first world nation,speak english,are male or heterosexual. Having power due to being a more common majority is no license or platform to brandish your commonality, it is a cowardice born of assuming the minority can be bullied by their fewer numbers from your crass abuse of your status. And yes I do believe it is arrogance to believe it is not insulting to be mistaken for someone else, you would certainly not have that applied to yourself. To correct the misinformation above I prefer my name to a label, a box imposed by you in the majority, as it is not a box i apply on my identity anymore than you would like others to impose a label on you.Midgets are quite rare and are mostly due to a lack of a growth hormone emanating from the pituitary gland, this is mostly eliminated through supplimentary hormone treatment during childhood by parents and medical personnel assuming the child would make this preference once attaining adulthood. Dwarfism , on the other hand, is a genetic difference affecting particular bones in the body and not other bones and cannot be changed apart from surgery, which can have less than ideal results (pun not intended). Depending on which chromosomes are involved the impact on which bones of the individual's body are affected can give them quite different appearances to an onlooker. Some types of genetic dwarfism stem from a dominant gene making individuals with that dwarfism more numerous than others stemming from recessive gene dwarfisms.There are almost 200 kinds of genetic dwarfisms, most of which are recessive and thus rare and becoming less visible, or likely in an expanding population. Statistically there should be six individuals with my type of dwarfism worldwide, thus I will never meet one. These two actors Jordan Prentice and Peter Dinklage have a dominant gene dwarfism Achondroplasia, which may account for unobservant individuals mistaking them for each other. I have this mistaken identity issue fairly frequently with individuals to whom I quite distinctly do not bear a resemblance.So I say celebrate difference, us wee people have survived a lifetime of your disrespect and can still face the world outside our doors every day and contribute through our work and our loving and our being. What have you contributed...? Apart from your de-humanised humour and cold, calculating prejudice and indifference? ?

[Sandra Prentice]

Well said dwarfdefender...well said!
(and yes, I am Jordan's Mother)

[Nan Turner]

I abhor the remarks some people have made on here. I am engaged to a Little Person (LP) and find the remarks totally offensive. I am an "AP" (average person) though I am short by average standards. I am only 4'10". The only thing that keeps me from being a "little person" is the fact my height (or lack therof) is genetic rather than medical.
You people throw out the word "midget" like it's an endearment. You might as well say the "N" word to the face of an african-american. The "M" word has the same effect to a Little Person.
My fiance is an actor as well, not as renowned as Peter Dinklage, but he has played in a few top-notch films in his time, mostly ones that are as someoneput it "bread and butter roles for little people". He played an Ewok in Return of the Jedi and the Troll in Cat's Eye. He has several other films under his belt, all character roles. But this is what society expects from a small actor.
I'd better quit before I get really steamed up.
Peter Dinklage has become a new idol of mine and though I have yet to se Jordan Prentice I look forward to watching him as well.

[1866Umidget]

ah yes, the never ending debate on what to call "them," on how "they" all don't look alike and how the rest of society is so screwed up on how "average folks" relate to midgets, dwarfs and talented little people...

...while most of the talent at http://shortdwarf.com only care that their name is correctly spelled on the check! when will it end? :-)