[TV SPOILERS] Best five actors in the show

[The Anti-Targ]

Peter Dinklage - Tyrion: I admit I had my doubts about Peter. Not doubts about him as an actor, just that perhaps there were other, what's the PC word for achondoplastics these days? who might have done well and fit the role better. Admittedly I'd never seen him in a funny man role. Even in comedies he'd played the straight man, albeit in Death at a Funeral he was both the straight man and the gay man at the same time.

Sophie Turner - Sansa: Choosing her over Maise because I think she's the better actress, and she had a tougher role to deliver. Well done Sophie. Maise deserves an honourable mention and I can see with the experience she's got from season 1 she can be brilliant in Season 2. But so will Sophie.

Jack Gleeson - Joff: Yep, he owns Joffery. Fantasic work from the young man.

Jon Bradley - Samwell: Loved him in every scene, he's a quality actor and I hope he goes far.

Conleth Hill - Varys: My word! I think he's the best of the lot now I think about it.

Overall a high quality cast, cruel that you only allowed 5, because the old hands (Lena, Sean, Mark, Charles et al) brought their great experience and maturity to the show which really established the show as a serious piece of work. But I feel, aside from Dinklage who is also an old hand, the newbies (or at least those I've never heard of until this series) had a lot riding on them and they delivered right out of the gate, so they deserve the recognition in a thread like this. The Stark boys (and Snow) deserve a shout out as well, and the Eastern crew too.

[mr. peasant]

Just thought I'd be a little different. Rather than name the best actors, I'm going to rank the actors I found most impressive:

5. Clive Mantle - Playing the Greatjon Umber, Mantle made a fantastic first impression in his initial appearance, in which he stole the scene from Richard Madden (Robb) even before the whole direwolf incident. Despite being essentially a one-scene wonder, he was instantly memorable. When people start thinking "holy cow, who is that guy?", you know you've done your job well. An honourable mention goes to Miltos Yerolemou (Syrio Forel). The only reason he loses to Clive is because he's essentially playing up an overdone stereotype(the cunning, Spanish swordsman).

4. Harry Lloyd - Despite playing an unlikable, one-dimensional asshole with no redeeming qualities (Viserys), Lloyd still somehow managed to make him sympathetic; getting me to feel sorry for Viserys when he received his 'golden crown'.

3. Maisie Williams - The main reason why Arya is likable is because she does a lot of cool/interesting things. However, that's the character and not the actor (which is why Peter Dinklage didn't make the list). What impressed me about Maisie is that she managed to rise to the challenge despite her young age and learning new skills (specifically, swordfighting - and left-handed to boot despite being naturally right-handed).

2. Jason Momoa - Like Maisie, Momoa learns a new skill in order to play Khal Drogo. While the same can be said about Emilia Clarke (Daenerys), the latter had quite a few lines in English to establish her character while Momoa featured more non-verbal scenes; having to rely more on facial expressions and body language to get his character across. And while the Khal is undoubtedly a simpler character than Daenerys, you always know what he is thinking or feeling - be it during the tender bed scenes, when he's watching Daenerys with pride as she assimilates into his culture, or when he's threatening to invade Westeros - without having to say a word.

1. Jack Gleeson - When I dislike a child character, it tends to be unintentional on the show's part - i.e. because s/he is annoying, overly cutesy or badly acted. When the child character is evil, I tend to try reasoning out why s/he is or see them as tragic. With Joffrey... I just feel like slapping the kid irrespective of any Freudian excuse he may have (which he does have, looking at how Cersei raises him). And while some of it is because of what the character does, a lot of it is from the way Jack carries himself when acting as Joffrey. So, for an actor to make me despise a child character on purpose, I think that speaks volumes on his acting skills.

Although not on my list, Sophie Turner (Sansa) deserves an honourable mention. While she didn't wow me this season, that's mainly because her character hasn't had much chance to do. However, she plays the lovesick teenager well plus, on the few occasions when her character does more than just that, Sophie's pulled it off quite convincingly.

A second honourable mention goes to Esme Bianco (Ros). However, what impressed me about her is that her character easily has the highest nudity-per-second out of any character in any show I've seen. :bowdown:

[Ramsay Bolton]

Seriously, there are just too many to pick from. There have been some legitimate complaints concerning pacing and other things, but the casting has been absolutely wonderful for the most part.

Sadly enough the characters I enjoyed watching the most are now dead: Addy and Bean brought their characters to life so well, their scenes together were both the funniest and the most heartfelt to me. After those two, it becomes simply impossible to name only 3, so I won't even try. One of the best ensemble casts ever.

[GreyJackal]

Dunno all the people's names so sorry.

1.Tywin - PERFECT. His delivery, look, and firmness nailed Tywin's character out of the park !! Whoo !!!

2.Tyrion - Considering that he is one of the most popular(and one of my favorite) characters I was worried. But Peter Dinklage knocked it out of the park. The intelligence, crudeness, and comic timing of Tyrion well done ! I actually felt pride watching him.

3.Robb - My favorite, favorite character in the books. At first I thought the guy who played him looked to crappy. But he has the determination and sense of purpose that Robb had down. Trulu awesome.

4.Jaime - Cocky, good looking, and mocking. We have Jaime Lannister folks.

5.Arya - You can really tell that she knew the character. Expressions, her tomboyishness all shined through well. Great job.

Honorable Mentions : Sean Bean.(yeah !) Kit Harrington(Was Jon really that good looking ?)

Unimpressed: Cersei(This lady just looked cocky all the time. Didn't really feel any of Cersei's viciousness from her)

[Dondarrion]

In no particular order (just listing character names):

Tywin -- Nails the role, but would it be so hard to shave his head and give him sideburns, like the book?

Tyrion -- What more must be said?

Arya -- Acting out is easy. But acting scared, like she did when seeing Ned die, was beautiful and sad to watch. Wonderfully done.

Viserys -- Made the role better than in the book somehow. A thankless role that the actor turned into a career maker.

Robb -- I didn't like the aging up of the characters at first, and I'm still not sure if I do. But either way, the character of Robb becomes something far more and greater in the TV show, thanks to Richard Madden's presence.

[NW Deserter]

You lot must be blind.

The best actor in the show is the young fella playing Pyp.

With this in mind, I also nominate Grenn's saliva for making several impressive on-screen appearances.

[TheEvilKing]

So hard to narrow down to 5. I'm not even going to try and order them.

Harry Lloyd as Viserys - a pleasure to watch, brought the Dothraki scenes to life in the first half of the season.

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion - probably a difficult role to play, but he's tearing it up.

Miltos Yerolemou as Syrio Forel - totally owned my favourite two scenes in the show. Maisie being awesome also helped, of course.

Conleth Hill as Varys - he is Varys. Straight out of the books. So inscrutable.

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey - incredible in his scene in the finale where he has the bard's tongue ripped out.

Honourable mentions: Cersei, Jaime, Tywin, Arya, Sam, Dany, Jorah, Luwin, Cat, Ned, Robb, Robert, Ser Barristan

The cast of this show is so good.

[Robb_]

Richard Madden, Maisie Williams, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Jerome Flynn.

[MyDogIsNamedDanerys]

With this in mind, I also nominate Grenn's saliva for making several impressive on-screen appearances.

I <3 Pyp, Grenn, and Sam. All so perfect - improving on their book counterparts.

[stevelabny]

I'm interested in the locations of the people who rate Dinklage's and Glen's performances. I'm British (Edinburgh) and i found Dinklage's accent to be beyond awful and into the sort of bad impersonation of an English accent you get on low rent sitcoms. It grated so much for me that i couldn't get past it and actually judge his performance.

Glen's delivery was also very distracting. He has a way of reading his lines that is so overblown and screams fantasy. 90% of his lines sound like he's doing the intro for an obscure RPG.

I was wondering if the people who like these guys are American and don't have their ears as tuned to the British accents in the same way that i probably wouldn't realise when someone mangles the Brooklyn or Texan accents.

I'll play. I'm a New Yorker. This being a fictional world, I don't care if they sound British or not. In general, accents only bother me when they come and go or the actor is really struggling with them. But even then, I only roll my eyes at McNulty on the Wire for a few episodes before it just becomes that character's random accent.

Tyrion's voice/accent is all over the place, but the reason I didn't include Dinklage in my best list is that so far, he has not been required to show the range of other characters.

As for Glen sounding over-dramatic and fantasy...yes, yes he does. Did you forget what you're watching? I mean you listed Harry's Lloyd's Viserys and his facial reactions were so over the top the could climb the Wall. But I agree they were awesome, which is why he made my list too.

Harry Lloyd: He managed to get across the disenfranchised little boy element of Viserys rather than just be a bit of a cartoon villain. Really looked deep into his character for a tragic figure and made him empathetical.

[Arya The Assassin]

5. Maisie Williams - The only reason she's not ranked higher on my list is because we haven't yet seen her be anything but a tough little weasel - because that's all that's been asked of her so far.

I'd say that she has indeed shown other sides of her personality as well. It's not as if Maisie has portrayed Arya as an emotionally one-dimensional character (at least not in my opinion).

For example, in episode 6, where she's training with Syrio, her sadness (after Ned's been hurt) shines through as Syrio tries to keep her focused on the training. When she starts to get verbally defensive, and Syrio interrupts her and hits her with his sword, you can see that she almost starts to cry. Her glassy eyes, her blinking and the way she was shaking and swallowing made it an honest, emotional and heartfelt performance, at least in my view (it also suggested that she was struggling to keep her emotions in check).

In episode 9 and 10, before and after Ned's beheading, you also see her more vulnerable side. She may get angry at her father now and then (just like any rebellious teenager), but she does love him and seek comfort from him. It also seems to me that Jon Snow brings out her 'softer' side, probably because she genuinely likes him. She doesn't put on a tough facade when she's together with him, and I think one of Maisie's best scenes is the one she did with Kit Harington.

My impression -- based on the way Maisie portrays Arya -- is that Arya can be strong and feisty on the outside, but inside she's still a young and vulnerable girl. We don't get to see that side of her very often, but when we do, I think she does an excellent job. I think her personality and attitude is very faithful to her character in the book as well.

[Lion's Tooth]

There a lot of excellent choices here. I think Mark Addy was my favorite, because he brought more to Robert than we could glean from the books. I liked the character building moments like his conversation with Cersei and remembering his first kill.

NCW is pretty much perfect as Jaime and my second favorite of the bunch. His disgust for being the king's glorified bodyguard was palpable. I also liked his interaction with Catelyn in ep. 10. I hope they bring a good chunk of SoS storyline into next season.

I'll give the next two spots to Conleth Hill and Aiden Gillen as Varys and Littlefinger. They're pretty much straight from the pages of the book. Their little chats in the throne room are engaging and fit the heightened drama of a television program; we know they wouldn't be talking like that in there in the books, but get over it.

It took a lot of pondering to decide on a fifth, but I think I'll give it to James Cosmo as Commander Mormont. I've found the scenes at the Wall hard to like as much as the others, but he improves every one he's in and radiates authority and a sense of duty.

I really want to like Dinklage as Tyrion (my favorite book character), but the accent is extremely bothersome. I don't know my English accents any more than any other average American, but he does sound distinctly different from everyone else in the cast. That's not a good thing in my opinion. Cersei has been a bit of a disappointment too, not because of the added material and her apparent softening toward Robert, but because she only ever seems to have the one facial expression.

[Ser Kevan Raley]

Just five! That's not fair, that's impossible! Oh well, I'll try...

Maisie Williams. Duh! All the child actors were great, but her Arya really stood out and impressed me.

Peter Dinklage. He totally nailed the role of Tyrion. I cannot imagine anyone else as the Imp. My favourite book as well as TV character in the saga.

Conleth Hill. The sneaky bastard just came up from beind and demanded to be included in the list. He is the Spider.

Iain Glen. Didn't care much one way or the other for book Jorah, but Glen made him a great character.

Charles Dance. I've always liked this great actor and even without the huge sideburns he really personifies Tywin Lannister.

Honourable mentions to Sean Bean (Ned), Michelle Fairley (Catelyn), Mark Addy (Robert), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran), Emilia Clarke (Dany) and John Bradley (Samwell). They could just as easily have made the list.

[Raylan Stark]

So hard to pick just 5, especially considering some get a lot more to work with than others. There is only a couple I didn't like (and even then I was picking nits).

But since the major characters are the ones getting most of the attention (and I love Maise Williams' Arya, and Peter Dinklage's Tyrion), I'm going to go with secondary character performances:

1- Miltos Yerolemou as Syrio Forel: made all of us forget that he looked nothing at all like book Syrio. His chemistry with Maise really shined through. Bravo to the Braavosi

2- James Cosmo as Lord Commander Mormont: He wasn't given much to do besides appear imposing, intimidating yet simultaneously "grandfatherly," but he pulled it off. I cannot imagine anyone else in this role.

3- John Bradley as Samwell Tarly: A completely endearing performance for a character that I didn't find very endearing until ASOS.

4- Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne: It's not easy being in "Dickhead" mode 24/7. But from that arrogant, bullying, "whatcha gonna do about it?" sneer (traitor's bastard), to that condescending, self-satisfied smile as Jon finds out he won't be a ranger, Owen brought it every single frame. If you absolutely hate a character and wish nothing more than to punch him dead in the face, the actor did his job well. Jack Gleeson is incredibly good as Joffrey for the same reasons, but others are singing his praises already.

5- Natalia Tena as Osha: I didn't care for Osha in the books at all. Natalia brought a bit of spunk to the role and made me like the character after all. Just her expressions at Hodor were worth the price of admission. Having a go at Theon? Bonus.

[Aegonmyface]

Tywin, Tyrion, Bronn, Arya, Dany.

All nailed perfectly. Varys and Robert too.

In fact, I think the casting director deserves a medal. I'd say 90 percent right on target, maybe 8 percent potential misses (Cersei, Littlefinger) and only one or two misses (Shae).

[Lady of payne]

1. Conleth Hill - Varys - ideal.
   
2. Aidan Gillen- Littlefinger- but scene with whores spoils everything.
   
3. Ned Stark- Sean Bean- I hated Ned in books. And love him on TV
   
4. Arya- Masie
   
5. Dane- Emilia- beautiful and talented girl.
   

[Manakhkubar]

1. Jack Gleeson

2. Conleth Hill

3. Charles Dance

4. Isaac Hempstead-Wright

5. Michelle Fairley

Sixth would be Coster-Waldau. I had to exclude Sophie Turner because of her lapses early in the season, but later on, she was absolutely great. John Bradley was great too, just a little bit too cartoonish.

Sean Bean, well, I think he overdid the "stupid Ned" part. More than half the time his face was on screen he wore that strange "can somebody please tell me what is going on" expression that really bothered me. His lines were great and I loved his York-ish accent.

Emilia Clark, well, she had great moments. But I'm not convinced overall, I still get too much of a stage actress vibe from her. However, the way they wrote the character for the show, it was a hell of a task, much more difficult than I expected.

Aiden Gillen, well, I'm not convinced. Several bad scenes, cheesy gestures, and his lines delivered somewhere in between "Gary Oldman"-villain and "ambiguous enigma", missing both.

Maisie Williams was okay, she had some great scenes and some really weak ones. And her lines were often rather badly acted.

I personally wasn't too impressed with Dinklage's acting, even though I'm not British.

[Jayuk83]

1. Jack Gleeson

2. Conleth Hill

3. Charles Dance

4. Isaac Hempstead-Wright

5. Michelle Fairley

Sixth would be Coster-Waldau. I had to exclude Sophie Turner because of her lapses early in the season, but later on, she was absolutely great. John Bradley was great too, just a little bit too cartoonish.

Sean Bean, well, I think he overdid the "stupid Ned" part. More than half the time his face was on screen he wore that strange "can somebody please tell me what is going on" expression that really bothered me. His lines were great and I loved his York-ish accent.

Emilia Clark, well, she had great moments. But I'm not convinced overall, I still get too much of a stage actress vibe from her. However, the way they wrote the character for the show, it was a hell of a task, much more difficult than I expected.

Aiden Gillen, well, I'm not convinced. Several bad scenes, cheesy gestures, and his lines delivered somewhere in between "Gary Oldman"-villain and "ambiguous enigma", missing both.

Maisie Williams was okay, she had some great scenes and some really weak ones. And her lines were often rather badly acted.

I personally wasn't too impressed with Dinklage's acting, even though I'm not British.

Most people are just listing their favourite characters really, as opposed to the best actors, which is really difficult considering they're all excellent.

Dinklage, Maisie Williams, et al, have the benefit of having the most show-y, fun characters, but their performances are great, too.

It's Richard Madden and Kit Harrington, as Robb Stark and Jon Snow respectively, who have the most difficult tasks, in my opinion, as the characters are quite introverted and therefore they could come across as boring or even a little bit wet on screen. But they don't. They do a great job. As an actor myself, I always feel inclined to fight for these type of actors, because they never get the plaudits that the more immediately interesting characters are bound to get. Sean Bean is also great, in my opinion, for a similar reason... and I used to think he overacts, but not in this.

You could almost have three lists: best actors, best characters on screen, best recreation of character from books.

[MyDogIsNamedDanerys]

Most people are just listing their favourite characters really, as opposed to the best actors, which is really difficult considering they're all excellent.

Dinklage, Maisie Williams, et al, have the benefit of having the most show-y, fun characters, but their performances are great, too.

I don't know about that. Especially in evidence is the fact that Jack Gleeson is on so many people's lists - NO ONE actually considers Joffery their favorite character.

Anyway a great performance is about 50% material and 50% acting. You just don't see actors being nominated for doing a great job with shitty material (not that I think any of the material in GoT is actually shitty, just some is better than others to work with - more wit, less clunky exposition etc).

[Jayuk83]

I don't know about that. Especially in evidence is the fact that Jack Gleeson is on so many people's lists - NO ONE actually considers Joffery their favorite character.

Anyway a great performance is about 50% material and 50% acting. You just don't see actors being nominated for doing a great job with shitty material (not that I think any of the material in GoT is actually shitty, just some is better than others to work with - more wit, less clunky exposition etc).

Yeah, but in the show Joffrey as a character is more interesting. Doing sneery, annoying and arrogant is kind of easier to do than, say, the quiet emotional intelligence of Jon Snow. But yeah, perhaps "favourite" character wasn't the right word.

That said, I agree about performance being 50% material. I often feel sorry for some actors on rubbish soaps who really have nothing to work with.