Bobby Cannavale Says Studios Wanted to Recast Peter Dinklage’s Character in ‘The Station Agent’ to ‘Forget That He’s a Dwarf’

"I can’t tell you how many studios were willing to take the movie on, so long as you can just recast Pete with other A-list-type actors who could play the role."

As Bobby Cannavale recalls it, “The Station Agent” almost didn’t get made because of Peter Dinklage‘s casting.

Cannavale, who co-starred alongside Dinklage in the acclaimed 2003 feature, told Vanity Fair that numerous studios passed on the project because Dinklage wasn’t an “A-list-type actor.” Dinklage plays a train afficianado who moves into an old train station. Cannavale stars as a hot dog vendor who works outside the station. Writer/director Tom McCarthy’s film co-stars Patricia Clarkson and Michelle Williams.

“I remember everything about that movie, because it took forever to get made,” Cannavale said. “It took us four years of doing readings for different people, for small independent companies. Getting rejection letter after rejection letter because people wanted to recast Pete [Dinklage]. I can’t tell you how many studios were willing to take the movie on, so long as you can just recast Pete with other A-list-type actors who could play the role. And just ‘forget that he’s a dwarf,’ when really one of the fucking points of the movie was that he was this outcast.”

“The Station Agent” eventually debuted at Sundance, where it was acquired by Miramax.

“I remember Pete and I taking the bus from the little house that the producer rented for us into Park City, and nobody knowing who we were. Us stepping off the bus, and the first person we saw was Pauly Shore passing out flyers for his movie. And everything changing 12 hours later when the movie premiered at Eccles,” Cannavale said, pointing to how the film made Dinklage a breakout star. “Pete could not walk around. It was an incredible experience. Then the bidding for it, and Harvey [Weinstein] buying it for Miramax. The attention that the movie got when it came out, the critics loving the movie, it winning all those awards at Sundance — I’ll never forget it.”

Cannavale added, “It also fucked me up because that was the first movie I’d ever really had a good part in, and so I just thought, ‘Well, this is how it’s going to be every time!’ I’ve never had another experience like that.”

Cannavale also reflected on his flop “Vinyl” a decade later, saying that he hoped he didn’t disappoint series director and creator Martin Scorsese.