Hints on Not a Blog

[Eelia]

Has James Purefoy been suggested for Jaime?

Marc Anthony is lets say a boney pop singer, and Purefoy was on Rome as Marc Antony.

Also hmmmm, he was in George and the Dragon, and if you youtube this you get a couple of puppet show versions.

He also has something in common with Sean Bean - he was in Sharpe's Sword.

I think it's more likely that it's Alfie Allen, only that Lilly is not boney; and he said that who ever guessed Elizabeth Mitchell is on a good way and this is similar reasoning.

And he is maybe too old.

[Werthead]

Brude, you keep saying that actors or actresses aren't candidates for the roles cast in the pilot because of where they are in their career, and this seems like a highly logical point of consideration in trying to work out these clues. I was just wondering what your reasoning is on why Sean Bean has accepted the role of Eddard (awesome though that news is), from his career's pov. Im probably just wrong here but I would have thought that he too would be too big for tv now, in particular after lotr...

In addition to the points Brude mentioned above, Sean Bean has also likely 'peaked' in terms of where his career can go given what he wants to do. He doesn't want to move full-time to Hollywood, which is what he'd probably need to do to keep grabbing big roles in major films, and he seems to have eased off on chasing the really big roles in the last few years. Black Death, which wrapped a few months ago, is not a high-profile Hollywood movie and The Hitcher was a bit of a lame B-movie at best. Game of Thrones will actually likely be his biggest-profile role since LotR and Sharpe.

The biggest reason why on-the-rise movie actors will not commit to long-running roles in TV series is that they can make more money and usually achieve a higher profile for considerably less work. A movie may only take a few weeks to shoot, whilst a TV season can tie them up for six months of the year or more. With a few exceptions, they will also get paid a lot more. The likes of Kiefer Sutherland or the cast of Friends, who make/made many millions per season (rather more than they would in film) are quite rare.

The only reason why these big movie actors are being mentioned at all I think is down to the 'too good to be true' line, suggesting that one of the actors is a big, recognised name you wouldn't expect to be doing TV at this stage. I think that's where the brief flurry of belief that Nicole Kidman could be in it came from, since she's an actress who often chooses roles she finds interesting and challenging rather than because they are huge-paying appearances. I still find the notion that one of the three or four biggest actresses in Hollywood would commit to a multi-year TV series extremely unlikely, but then again Kate Winslet, probably in the same fame/pay bracket as Kidman, did agree to do another HBO series (although only a single-year mini from the sound of it) last week so you never know.

[Garlan the Gallant]

Good one Gytha, I never thought about Lena Heady becuase I always see here as a brunette, she makes a great blond and does have the atitude for Cersei as well. I have gone over so many options and look at all the suggestions and so many actors match well to the clues I have come to the conclusion GRRM did that on purpose. He can't have the clues lead to the specific actor, HBO wouldn't be very happy about that. The clues he has given can narrow the selection to 3,4 or 5 actors for the role and the one that has been picked is in that list.

Example: Jamie

1.) Alex. Skarsgard

2.) Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

3.) Toby Stephens

4.) Mathew Goode

5.) Rubert Friend

:cheers:

Is it possible that someone could do something similar, that is make a list of the top five most likely actors/actresses, for the 6 roles or at least the five characters that we know have been cast? :drool:

[iheartseverus]

or at least the five characters that we know have been cast?

Well, of the 6, the only two characters that we know have been cast are Jaime and Theon, so really, such a list could only be for them. Of the other 4, we know that two are 'unknown' kids, don't come up in Google searches or at IMDB, so there's no way to narrow those down. That leaves 2 castings, both adult female. Many of us presume, but don't really know, that those parts are Cersei and Dany. So, lists of the 'top 5 contenders' could be made out for them, I suppose. But for sure, I'm not the one to do it! I have brain fatigue after having spent two days and nights wracking my little gray cells over GRRM's clues! :stunned:

[Garlan the Gallant]

Thats true but the general consensus seems to be that the roles are Jaime, Theon, Cersei, Sansa, Arya, and Dany, right? So maybe someone could be kind enough to do the lists for those.... :bow:

[sakuradite]

Well, of the 6, the only two characters that we know have been cast are Jaime and Theon, so really, such a list could only be for them. Of the other 4, we know that two are 'unknown' kids, don't come up in Google searches or at IMDB, so there's no way to narrow those down. That leaves 2 castings, both adult female. Many of us presume, but don't really know, that those parts are Cersei and Dany.

Where is it said / worked out that the sixth is an adult female?

[iheartseverus]

Where is it said / worked out that the sixth is an adult female?

Well, when we had 5 to choose from, GRRM said two of them were Jaime and Theon and the other 3 were female. Then, he added #6, leaving us 4 (6 minus Jaime and Theon). Of those 4, he has said two are unknown kids, leaving us 2 unknown, presumably adult since he mentioned only 2 kids. And you're right, I guess of those 2, one of them (#6?) could be male.

My brain hurts.

[Silverstar]

I'm still convinced that the Harry potter connection was to Alfie Allen, which makes him Theon, not Robb. That was the clue that made me guess him in the first place.

[sakuradite]

I'm still convinced that the Harry potter connection was to Alfie Allen, which makes him Theon, not Robb. That was the clue that made me guess him in the first place.

It's quite likely, but there are a whole ton of British actors who were in Harry Potter or have close ties, so I don't think that clue is as definite as the latter two people are going on.

The only thing I'm kind of suspicious about is how obvious that one seems to be compared to the others (with the album title at the end of the blog), he surely must have expected people would guess that pretty quickly. But then I don't see why he'd include such things otherwise.

I think HBO will probably delay the announcement even further now. They're probably finding the obsessiveness amusing / disturbing.

[Morrigan]

ETA: I've never heard her name actually spoken aloud. I assume her surname is pronounced mer-SHANT, rather than merchant as in shopkeeper? (Interesting that she spent part of her childhood in Dubai. She should feel quite at home filming the Essos scenes in Morocco!)

I'm curious, why do you assume that? I know that in French, the translated name "Marchand" is also a surname (and not a really unusual one) and is pronounced as is, so why not in English? Is that kind of surname really unusual in English? Since you got surnames like Carpenter, Miller, Baker, Smith, etc. :)

From first set of hints:

Dutch treat - played John Amsterdam in the series New Amsterdam

Shows can get cancelled and so can characters, but two of them have been seen on American tv recently - played in the pilot of the cancelled series Virtuality where his character was 'cancelled' in the pilot

Music choice: Too Good to be True - a youtube search of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives you

as the third choice

Second set of hints:

Could be either:

Another has been seen wandering a castle exclaiming about roses - his debut role was Laertes in Hamlet who exclaimed about roses

or:

A third is too good to be true - see the youtube link above

Out for coffee and a danish - he's Danish

Okay, the Castles and roses sets of hints are compelling, but I'm not certain the Dutch/Danish things are really hints at all. Of course I could be wrong and GRRM is really sneaky and wants to play on the neurotic fans a lot. :P Damn, I was hoping the "Too good to be true" was in reference to the fact that we got a really-awesome-but-unlikely actor, not a lame Youtube video reference. :(

[iheartseverus]

I'm curious, why do you assume that? I know that in French, the translated name "Marchand" is also a surname (and not a really unusual one) and is pronounced as is, so why not in English? Is that kind of surname really unusual in English? Since you got surnames like Carpenter, Miller, Baker, Smith, etc. :)

I had no reason at all to think that, only that mer-SHANT sounds cooler to me than merchant, and if I was an actress and had that name, I'd mer-SHANT it !! :lol:

LOL, this reminds me of a silly Brit sitcom that was on years ago 'Keeping Up Appearances.' She was a pretentious fool always putting on airs. Her name was Mrs. Bucket, but when anyone would call her that, she'd correct them and say it was pronounced 'Bu-KAY.'

[moirne]

Robert Sheehan as Theon - He's Irish, has something in common with Ned (starred in all three Red Riding films with Sean Bean), has something in common with Harry Potter - has Rupert Grint as a best friend in the film Cherrybomb.

:thumbsup:

I would love that! Much better than Alfie Allen as Theon.

[Piper]

Has James Purefoy been suggested for Jaime?

Doesn't he have a new show aleady?

[iheartseverus]

I would love that! Much better than Alfie Allen as Theon.

In that particular photo, he certainly does have the pouting, chip-on-his-shoulder look that I associate with Theon.

[Phoenix-torn]

Martin updated with

Ooops. Just realized, I screwed up one of my clues. That was Juliet's line, not Romeo's.

Time to reread my Shakespeare, I guess.

Sorry about that.

[Silverstar]

Martin's updated Not A Blog again.

Ooops. Just realized, I screwed up one of my clues. That was Juliet's line, not Romeo's.

Time to reread my Shakespeare, I guess.

Sorry about that.

[Coyotes Daughter]

Ooops. Just realized, I screwed up one of my clues. That was Juliet's line, not Romeo's.

hahahahaha

Well, I guess that sends my Alice theory out the window.

[iheartseverus]

Martin updated with

Ooops. Just realized, I screwed up one of my clues. That was Juliet's line, not Romeo's.

Time to reread my Shakespeare, I guess.

Sorry about that.

hmmmm, 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' That's from Romeo and Juliet, gotta go see who said it..

ETA: Ha! it was Juliet.

JULIET:

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

[Morrigan]

Hah! But if he's referring to the Roses line, it can't be in Hamlet, since it's apparently from Romeo and Juliet...

[iheartseverus]

Hah! But if he's referring to the Roses line, it can't be in Hamlet, since it's apparently from Romeo and Juliet...

Indeed. And now the brain-melting questions is--did he originally apply that clue to one of the males being cast because he thought Romeo had spoken the line? And if so, is that particular clue now moot because it turns out that Juliet and not Romeo said it?