20 years after its theatrical launch, Bobby Cannavale revisits the trail that led to creating the critically acclaimed movie The Station Agent. Throughout a current interview with Self-importance Honest, Cannavale reveals that the creation of The Station Agent lingered for 4 years, primarily resulting from Peter Dinklage’s casting.
Written and directed by Tom McCarthy (in his function directorial debut), The Station Agent facilities on Dinklage’s Finbar McBride, a person with dwarfism who inherits an deserted practice station in a small New Jersey city. There, he meets Joe Oramas (Cannavale), a sizzling canine vendor, and Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson), an artist, and the three develop a detailed friendship. On the time, Dinklage wasn’t an “A-list-type” actor, so studios had been seeking to recast him; in line with Cannavale, studios additionally needed to dispose of one of many movie’s central factors: Fin’s dwarfism.
“I bear in mind every little thing about that film, as a result of it took ceaselessly to get made,” Cannavale stated. “It took us 4 years of doing readings for various folks, for small impartial corporations. Getting rejection letter after rejection letter as a result of folks needed to recast Pete [Dinklage]. I am unable to let you know what number of studios had been keen to take the film on, as long as you possibly can simply recast Pete with different A-list-type actors who may play the position. And simply ‘overlook that he is a dwarf,’ when actually one of many f*cking factors of the film was that he was this outcast.”
In 2003, The Station Agent lastly premiered on the Sundance Movie Competition earlier than making its option to different festivals and theaters. It earned essential reward — it presently boasts a formidable 94% on Rotten Tomatoes — and racked up accolades, together with the BAFTA Award for Finest Unique Screenplay for McCarthy and the John Cassavetes Award. It additionally propelled Dinklage into stardom:
“I bear in mind Pete and I taking the bus from the little home that the producer rented for us into Park Metropolis, and no person realizing who we had been. Us stepping off the bus, and the primary particular person we noticed was Pauly Shore passing out flyers for his film. And every little thing altering 12 hours later when the film premiered at Eccles. Pete couldn’t stroll round. It was an unimaginable expertise. Then the bidding for it, and Harvey [Weinstein] shopping for it for Miramax. The eye that the film obtained when it got here out, the critics loving the film, it profitable all these awards at Sundance — I will always remember it,” Cannavale recollects.
Peter Dinklage and Bobby Cannavale’s Publish-Station Agent Success
Earlier than starring in The Station Agent, Cannavale was greatest identified for his position as Bobby Caffey within the NBC collection Third Watch from 1999 to 2001. He had additionally had minor roles in movies like The Bone Collector and 3 A.M., however The Station Agent marked a notable change for the now Emmy Award-winning actor:
“It additionally f*cked me up as a result of that was the primary film I would ever actually had a great half in, and so I simply thought, ‘Effectively, that is how it will be each time!’ I’ve by no means had one other expertise like that.”
Following The Station Agent‘s success, Cannavale earned Emmy Awards for Will & Grace (Excellent Visitor Actor) and Boardwalk Empire (Excellent Supporting Actor). He is excelled in drama and comedy, with notable tasks together with Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Blue Jasmine, The Irishman, The Watcher, and 9 Good Strangers.
Dinklage is greatest identified for portraying Tyrion Lannister in Recreation of Thrones. His efficiency garnered essential acclaim and a number of other accolades, together with 4 Primetime Emmy Award wins for Excellent Supporting Actor in a Drama Collection. Similar to Cannavale, Dinklage has proven his versatility in a spread of genres, with memorable roles in movies like Elf, X-Males: Days of Future Previous, Three Billboards Exterior Ebbing, Missouri, Penelope, the newly launched Brothers, and The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Presently, Dinklage seems in Depraved, the place he voices Physician Dillamond.
The Station Agent
, starring Dinklage, Cannavale, Clarkson, Michelle Williams, and John Slattery, is out there to stream on Prime Video.