Peter Dinklage relates to real-life midget actor he plays in HBO film

Back in 1977, there was a little TV series called Fantasy Island that ran for seven years.

A huge part of its success was French-born actor Herve Villechaize, who played Tattoo, sidekick to the mysterious Mr Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) who presided over an island that allowed his rich guests to live out their fantasies.

Also achieving worldwide recognition for his role as evil henchman Nick Nack in the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun, Villechaize was subsequently fired from Fantasy Island when he demanded a salary on a par with Montalban.

In 1993, at the age of 50, he committed suicide in Hollywood shortly after giving an interview to British journalist Sacha Gervasi.

Now, Gervasi has written and directed a film for HBO based on that meeting, called My Dinner With Herve, starring Game Of Thrones (GOT) star Peter Dinklage as Villechaize and Irish actor Jamie Dornan.

It premieres on Oct 21 at 8am (with a repeat telecast at 11pm) on HBO Go, HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601) and HBO On Demand (StarHub TV Ch 602).

Dinklage, 49, talked about how long the movie took to happen at our interview at the Andaz hotel in New York City.

"When Sacha and I first started talking about this project, everything that he gave me to watch Herve on was on VHS tapes. So, it has been a while."

The US actor - who was born with achondroplasia, a common form of dwarfism - added: "Sacha told me all about meeting Herve and what that was like. And over the course of the next 15 years, we spoke all the time about it.

"It was serendipitous because I think I was too young to make it (at first). Now, I am about the age Herve was when he passed on, so it all worked out. And HBO came in and saved the day."

There was a lot of prep to get into character, especially the replicating of Villechaize's distinct voice and accent.

Said Dinklage: "Because he had such a specific voice and even if it is just (Tattoo's famous line) 'De plane, de plane', everybody knows what that sounds like and it is unlike any other voice. Sacha used to say it is like a baritone sucking some helium, because he had this weird lower register in there. I listened to a lot of audio recordings of him."

EYEBROWS

Dinklage continued: "Herve also had such a specific form of dwarfism. I just don't look like him.

"We didn't use any prosthetics on this movie. I used chompers, dental things to pump up my cheeks. Contact lenses. Plucked my eyebrows - that is the most horrible thing in the world. But I had to do that because he had these beautiful eyebrows."

When the conversation turns to how Villechaize was treated because of his dwarfism, Dinklage - of course - can relate.

He said: "People are stupid and insecure. They just want to feel better about themselves. Don't get me started. You know, that just comes from a deep insecurity in oneself and seeing somebody literally smaller than you, you want to remind them of that, so you feel bigger.

"But Herve also beat them to it. He was a proud man from what I know of him without having met him. I just know from talking to his brother Patrick and his girlfriend Cassie. Proud of who he was. Owned it. Wore a T-shirt (that said) 'Bionic Midget'. Who does that?"

Of course, we have to talk about Game Of Thrones, the hit HBO show that cemented Dinklage's career, for which he just won another Best Supporting Actor Emmy last month, and on which he gets top billing playing fan favourite Tyrion Lannister.

(The eighth and final season is scheduled to premiere in the first half of next year.)

Dinklage, who has two kids, aged seven and one, said: "We just wrapped up (the whole series) in July. It was pretty heartbreaking because it was a great role. It was a great show, but it was also our lives.

"I had children going to school over in Ireland (where it was filmed). People met, married and broke up on that show. It was nine years, including the pilot. So you dig your feet in deep in the community over there."

So how does he keep grounded in all of this?

He said: "I think, love. My wife (theatre director Erica Schmidt) is the most important person in my life. And I think it really helps to have somebody like that. That is maybe all you need and the rest of the world can go **** themselves.

"I think you have to, at a certain point, just accept who you are and that you are not going to change anyone else, and just meditate or drink less."

He added with a laugh: "Drink more, drink less, depending on the day."

The entire GOT cast has managed to stay in touch since.

"We have an e-mail thread that we are always like, 'What are you guys doing?' But I've got to check it. I am not too tech-savvy. Yet we are all on that. It helps."

The writer is the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a non-profit organisation of entertainment journalists that also organises the annual Golden Globe Awards.