Why Didn’t Game Of Thrones Cut Off Tyrion Lannister’s Nose?

We all know that the Game of Thrones books and shows had a lot of differences. And one of them was in the character and story if Tyrion Lannister. We discussed that previously, but the show also made a small change in his appearance. George RR Martin cut off his nose in the books! So, why did HBO omitted that detail from the show?

George RR Martin explains the “nose” situation

In a public interview and gathering at Brown University, Martin explained first how easy it was to cut off Peter Dinklage’s nose in his books, A Song of Ice and Fire:

Tyrion’s nose is a good example. I mean, yeah they didn’t cut off his nose. I can write “yes and they cut off his nose” and then I can make references in the subsequent books to him having half a nose or having a big scan and ow it itches and he scratches it. That’s relatively easy for me to do.

Furthermore, he explained how impractical it was to have the same effects on Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones:

Actually cutting off Peter Dinklage’s nose was prohibited by the actor’s guild. So, well if we wanted to do that, we would have to essentially put a piece of green screen, a little green kind of thing at the end of his nose that he would have to wear in all of his scenes. And then, we could CGI every moment he appeared, you know, the nose scar and it was just way too expensive and it’s the practicalities of doing it.

Martin further explains why Tyrion Lannister was one of the many changes Game of Thrones made from the books:

Again, a lot of the changes that occur between a movie or a television show are dictated by practical considerations, like questions of budget and shooting time and what can be done and what can’t be done.

How did the Tyrion Lannister look like in the books?

To put it simply, Peter Dinklage is a very good looking guy. However, he is too good looking to play Tyrion Lannister, and that’s putting it lightly. In the books, Tyrion was shorter, limped on one leg, and just looked demonic! Many of the common folk simply despised looking at him. Here’s a comparison:

Therefore, going out of the way to make Peter Dinklage look too much like Tyrion Lannister from the books wasn’t only costly, but kind of unnecessary. What makes Tyrion one of the best characters of Game of Thrones is his personality and wit. His looks do play an important in building his personality and how his family and everyone else looked down upon him. However, that didn’t mean that the show had any reason to go to the extra length of cutting Tyrion’s nose off. So, Game of Thrones made the right decision in not cutting off Tyrion Lannister’s nose. It wasn’t needed.