Peter Dinklage was a “self-saboteur” in relationships before he met Erica Schmidt.
Erica Schmidt and Peter Dinklage at a Game of Thrones premiere event
The ‘Game of Thrones’ star tied the knot with his wife Erica in 2005, and has said he used to “torment” himself prior to meeting his spouse by “falling for” people who didn’t feel the same way.
He said: "I was guilty of always falling for someone where it wasn't reciprocated because keeping it at a distance is more romantic than bringing it up close. You fall for people you know aren't going to return that, so it's even more tormented, and you're not interested in the people interested in you. That's how my brain worked because I was a self-saboteur when I was young.
“You get a bit older, and you realise that has nothing to do with anything. But it's okay because in your 20s everybody should be a mess."
Peter, 52, also said he use to feel “unworthy” in relationships, adding: "I was raised Irish Catholic, so I totally feel unworthy of everything."
And when asked how he let go of his self-sabotaging ways, the ‘Cyrano’ actor insisted it was actually meeting Erica than allowed him to move forward.
He said: "I think other people do that to you. If anybody's been lucky enough to experience love, it just grabs hold of you. You don't control how you feel, but you can choose what to do with it."
Peter went on to recall meeting Erica for the first time almost two decades ago, and said the experience was like a “romantic movie”.
He told The New York Times: "It was about 18 years ago now. We were all at a friend's house and someone said, 'They're walking the elephants through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.'
“The circus was in town, and it was snowing, and they were walking the elephants through Manhattan, a long line of them. It was like something out of a beautiful, fantastical, end-of-the-world, crazy, romantic movie. See? I always think about movies. So that's the night we met, the night the elephants walked through Manhattan."
Tagged in Peter Dinklage