When you read the books...

[bent branch]

Only the characters where the show got them "right". I put right in quotation marks because many of the actors in AGOT don't look like their characters in the book, but they have made their character their own in the show. For instance, I don't see Peter Dinklage when I'm reading Tyrion. He just isn't the same as book Tyrion (too good looking, too tall, etc.). However, Conleth Hill is absolutely perfect.

This should all be understood as how I see them in my head, which may be different in your head.

[House Beaudreau]

15 hours ago, jontargaryan said:

Do you picture in your head the actors they play on the shows?

 

 

Ie. When you read about Jaime, do you picture Nikolai's face? Likewise with Jon etc.

They made a show? 

[RoamingRonin]

12 hours ago, apovsic said:

No, I don't imagine events. I really don't know how to explain this. I have some abstract idea of the event but no picture of it.  Don' know how to tell it other way.

Or for example a character: when I read Eddard Stark, I do not mentally get a picture of Ned, but some kind of abstract idea of him.

It's really hard to explain 

Me tooooooo! All those descriptions of clothing and such go right over my head because I don't envision it when I'm reading. I'll just note he's wearing his house colors and such. 

[WSmith84]

I'm in the same boat as apovsic. Even when I do picture characters, they're all kind of grey, faceless people. Occasionally Charles Dance or Rory McCann pop into my head when I read them.

[Florina Laufeyson]

13 hours ago, StarkofWinterfell said:

For some reason I always thought Melisandre was black.

Whoa! That would be really wiggy tbh.

Quote

Mance

Oh yeah, my Mance does not look like Carian Hinds. I love you, Mr. Hinds, but you werent really Mance.

[Elisabetta Duò]

Yes I do picture the actors, unless I thought the actor was somehow 'miscast' or I just imagined him/her very differently.

For example, I never picture the actress who played Lisa Arryn in my mind when I re-read the books … she was as creepy in the books as in the series, but in a very different way. She was supposed to be short and fat and soggy, while the actress is tall, very thing, 'strained'. I just imagine book-Lisa when I re-read.

Another one I imagined differently is Renly, for example, I never think of the actor.

Some of them, depends: I kinda think of the actor, but slightly different (Littlefinger - smaller and thinner - than the actor; Sansa - shorter and more similar to show-Catelyn Michelle - than Sophie, etc.)

Most of the others, I picture tham as in the show, even when I know they are somehow different, especially Peter Dinklage and Conleth Hill, I always have them in my mind when I read about Tyrion or Varys.

 I reach the absurd with Charles Dance, because when I read about Tywin in the books, being bald with big sideburns and more a warrior than the elegant man Charles Dance is, I kinda think like 'that's not Tywin!', which is of course totally distorted as a perception  because the 'true' Tywin is GRRM's not HBO's, but still, that's how I feel.

 

[The Fresh PtwP]

It is alot easier to pick the ones the show got "right" because there is fewer...

Margaery, Cat, Varys, Sansa, Jon, The Reeds, Walder Frey are all really really close to how i pictured.

Charles Dance is more Tywin than "real" Tywin.

The actors who play Theon and Ramsay should swap (it annoys me to NO end that Ramsay smirks better then Theon.

Robb, Renly, Stannis, Mance, Asha/Yarra, Bronn, Sandor are IMO all wrong.

[PCK]

I try not to, but it's hard not to with some characters. I imagine Cersei to look something similar to Charlize Theron. 

[Jon Fossoway]

I began reading the books after the third season but, strangely for me, I never pictured the actors in my head as the characters even if I tried. Robb seemed to me more boyish (not physically boysh but sturdier, immature), not rough and masculine like the series's Robb. Eddard felt younger and more complex and insecure than Sean Beans's quiet and solemn Ned. The closest character I got from the series to the books is Cat.

[The Dames do Moan]

I picture some of the actors / actresses I like / I feel fit better than my original version I had pictured in my mind. Sansa, Margarery, Ygritte, Samwell, Grey Worm. Hizdhar was pretty close to what I imagined originally too.

Some are way different, like when reading the books if I thought of Missandei as the show version I think I technically could get arrested.

To be honest though a lot of my minds eye versions don't actually line up with the details in the books. I read and understand them but for some reason just picture something different. 

Like Doran kids are all 1/2 black (admittly very light skinned). I know Areo Hotah isn't described as black in the books, but I always pictured him black even before the show. I just felt like it fit better.  And that obviously turned into all Norvosi people turning black in my head, which meant Doran's wife Mellario was.

i know they reference Randyll as "lean" but I always figured he'd be bigger cause Sam was, so he is a short stocky muscular man similar to how Marwyn is described.

 

[Good Guy Garlan]

I'm super weird because I have this very complete casting of actual actors in my head, and I made sure all or at least most of them are British or Irish, so there wouldn't be many different accents (like, I'm sorry, but NCW's accent is very distracting at times and takes me right out of the scene), and they're also like no "big name" actors, so they *could* have been cast in the show in an alternate dimension or something. Oh, and there are cases where I think the show got the actors mixed up, like I think Alfie Allen and Iwan Rheon should switch roles, and Natalia Tena and Gemma Whelan too. 

I could tell you my complete fan cast right off the top of my head, I'm so weird. 

But the ones that do match my headcanon and I can't imagine other actor in the role are:

Ned, Varys, Tyrion, Arya, Sandor, Bronn, Sam, Tywin, Brynden, Davos, Pycelle, Olenna, Hodor, Ygritte, Walder, the Reeds, Joffrey, Drogo, Jeor, Edd, Balon, Fat Walda, and I think that's about it. Everyone else got recast in my head, even characters that didn't make it into the show. 

[Ebrose]

The ones that say that Cat is perfect.. are you aware that book-Cat is supposed to be in her thirties, right? 

[The Holy Goat]

I never picture the actors when reading the books. I keep the two mediums separate.

[SuicideSheep]

12 hours ago, WSmith84 said:

I'm in the same boat as apovsic. Even when I do picture characters, they're all kind of grey, faceless people. Occasionally Charles Dance or Rory McCann pop into my head when I read them.

Same here . 

[HotPieForever]

When I first started reading a couple years before the show, I based some of the looks of characters with people I already knew/celebrities with similar descriptions. But they are more like an impression of a persons features then super accurate renditions. So for example , my original minds eye version of Jaime Lanister was kinda based on Brad Pitt in Troy. Where as Jon kinda looks like my friends older brother.Brans looks like my little brothers friend when he was 8 etc.

 

now some of the show actors who I feel are good replacements ,can replace or sort of merge with my original idea.

 

sometimes it's fun trying to conjure up your original depiction.

[Lord Vance II]

I kind of have a strange mix. I totally understand the poster who said they don't really put faces on characters in the book. I honestly don't really take a lot of stock in how people look in real life (I couldn't tell you the eye color of most of my best friends). I kind of treat them as a collection of traits put into like a stock body. The big exceptions are Taena of Myr, who I always picture as Christina Hendricks from Mad Men (I know the hair color is off, but I don't care), putting purple/red eyes on Dany/Millisandre and making Jorah bulkier.

I also hate how Daario looks in the books so I was relieved when they scrapped the blue dye thing. 

I saw a couple seasons before I started reading so mostly characters look like they do in the show and I just suspend my knowledge that they are wrong. I like to picture them a few years older than they are because it helps suspend my disbelief that these teens are doing all this stuff. 

I wholeheartedly agree with whoever said Charles Dance is more Tywin than Tywin...he just never comes off as a sideburns guy to me. And with whoever said Season 1 Gregor is the Clegane-iest. 

 

[Jennifer of Oldstones]

I know this is going to sound crazy but....when Varamyr Sixskins' wolves appear in the story, I always picture Old One Eye with an eyepatch.  Seriously.  I've read these books too many times.

[Lady_of_the_black]

No, I picture this amazing woman's portraits of the character. These are my favorite interpretations.

http://elia-illustration.deviantart.com/gallery/33534735/SONG-OF-ICE-AND-FIRE

I don't think cersei is beautiful enough in the show. her portrait in this series is perfect. I also really like ygrittes, and catelyns portraits. But sometimes they are a little off.. Like ashara dayne has light hair, but isn't it described as dark? Oh well, this art is still really amazing.

[Lord Estermont]

Most were slightly different than the actors,Jon and Arya though were completely different and i read the books after the show.What i noticed is the picture i had of Euron from the books didnt match at all the show's when i saw him.I could not imagine Varys and Littlefinger any different from the show however

[YOVMO]

On May 23, 2016 at 2:38 AM, Coren82 said:

Only for Eddard, Sansa, Cersei.

The other characters are different in my mind.

Pretty much same but oddly I would add both mormonts, pyat pree and Roose Bolton