Which actor would have made a better Robert Baratheon than Mark Addy on GoT?

[Prince of the North]

On 9/12/2016 at 4:41 PM, nara said:

Gerard Butler or Russell Crowe.

Yeah, I was thinking a "fatter" Gerard Butler could have pulled it off.  However, I agree with everyone saying Mark Addy did a fine job.  The only very minor complaint I had with Addy was that, for me, he really didn't have that physical stature/martial presence that has now gone a bit soft that I think someone like Butler could have pulled off a bit better.  But Addy's performance as King Bob more than made up for that for me.

Hell, I feel much the same about Sean Bean as Ned.  While Bean doesn't really fit with my mental picture of Ned (think closer to Benjen's actor Joseph Mawl) he did such a good job that it really doesn't matter

[thehandwipes]

I think Mark Addy did a very fine job, especially at being a hard drinking loves to laugh kind of king.  But they never really tried to go into Robert's darker side.

James Gandolfini is hands down my King Robert.  He could play lovable and menacing with one hand tied behind his back.  He had a pre-existing relationship with HBO (one that could of brought in some of the Sopranos fans who tuned out for Rome).  And he would of lent a lot of gravitas both to the show (in its first season) and the character.

And I think casting more Latin character for the houses south of King's Landing would helped establish that Westeros is continent, not a country.  It's a big world that somehow feels like its about the size of England on the show.  It also would have helped show only fans get an idea of who everyone is and where (roughly) they're from.

Besides, Miguel Ferrer has been my head cannon Stannis Baratheon since before there was a show and not even Stephen Dillane's great performane will ever change that.

[Free folk Daemon]

On 15/09/2016 at 5:52 AM, Cron said:

Yeah, a number of the characters have their heights off.

I'm a huge fan of NCW, but he's a few inches short to be Jaime, too.  They could have given him those inches of height as well, same as Addy/Robert.

Cersei was about spot on for me, though (you mentioned she was not as you imagined her, I believe).  I love Lena Headey's work, and to me Cersei is, hands down, the most physically attractive woman in the entire series.

I guess I imagined book Cersei to have lighter golden hair than Lena Headey's in the show, though I think it is described simply as golden in the books, I may be wrong there, trying to find quotes on her appearance.

Same with book Jaime's. I can't remember how tall he is meant to be in the books but certainly had in my head a significant height difference between him and Ned. Slightly more than between the show's actors anyway. NCW has the charm I imagined of book Jaime and is great at showing the difference between Jaime's reasons for doing things and the characters who judge him, often without the knowledge of a situation that he has (the killing of Aerys, for example).

Saw Cersei as more angry and outwardly unhinged in the books than Lena Headey's performance, though I think she is as I said amazing in the role and every other role I've seen her play. Appearance-wise she's the most attractive woman on the show for me as well. Have you seen her as a brunette (which I think is her natural hair colour)? Even more stunning! 

[Free folk Daemon]

3 hours ago, thehandwipes said:

I think Mark Addy did a very fine job, especially at being a hard drinking loves to laugh kind of king.  But they never really tried to go into Robert's darker side.

James Gandolfini is hands down my King Robert.  He could play lovable and menacing with one hand tied behind his back.  He had a pre-existing relationship with HBO (one that could of brought in some of the Sopranos fans who tuned out for Rome).  And he would of lent a lot of gravitas both to the show (in its first season) and the character.

And I think casting more Latin character for the houses south of King's Landing would helped establish that Westeros is continent, not a country.  It's a big world that somehow feels like its about the size of England on the show.  It also would have helped show only fans get an idea of who everyone is and where (roughly) they're from.

Besides, Miguel Ferrer has been my head cannon Stannis Baratheon since before there was a show and not even Stephen Dillane's great performane will ever change that.

Would have loved to see what James Gandolfini would have done with the role! Such a great actor, as good as Mark Addy (and I imagine a lot of people would say better) RIP

[Free folk Daemon]

On 15/09/2016 at 6:46 PM, Prince of the North said:

Yeah, I was thinking a "fatter" Gerard Butler could have pulled it off.  However, I agree with everyone saying Mark Addy did a fine job.  The only very minor complaint I had with Addy was that, for me, he really didn't have that physical stature/martial presence that has now gone a bit soft that I think someone like Butler could have pulled off a bit better.  But Addy's performance as King Bob more than made up for that for me.

Hell, I feel much the same about Sean Bean as Ned.  While Bean doesn't really fit with my mental picture of Ned (think closer to Benjen's actor Joseph Mawl) he did such a good job that it really doesn't matter

I had the same image of Ned in the books. Benjen's actor Joseph Mawle was much more like how I thought Ned would look like. Ultimately Sean Bean was excellent as the Quiet Wolf so that really didn't matter

[Cron]

6 hours ago, Free folk Daemon said:

I guess I imagined book Cersei to have lighter golden hair than Lena Headey's in the show, though I think it is described simply as golden in the books, I may be wrong there, trying to find quotes on her appearance.

Same with book Jaime's. I can't remember how tall he is meant to be in the books but certainly had in my head a significant height difference between him and Ned. Slightly more than between the show's actors anyway. NCW has the charm I imagined of book Jaime and is great at showing the difference between Jaime's reasons for doing things and the characters who judge him, often without the knowledge of a situation that he has (the killing of Aerys, for example).

Saw Cersei as more angry and outwardly unhinged in the books than Lena Headey's performance, though I think she is as I said amazing in the role and every other role I've seen her play. Appearance-wise she's the most attractive woman on the show for me as well. Have you seen her as a brunette (which I think is her natural hair colour)? Even more stunning! 

Not sure if I'm remembering this or where I picked the idea up, but I believe Jaime and Brienne are supposed to both be the same height  (6'2"), and Robert was 6'5".    Gregor Clegane is 8' tall (yes, that's my understanding, eight feet tall, even though the actor currently playing him is "only" 6'9"), and Sandor is supposed to be somewhere around 6'6" or maybe a little laller.

In terms of strength, Gregor would be 1st, then Robert, then Sandor, then Jaime, but Jaime is NO slouch in physical strength.  If I recall correctly, there's a passage in one of the books stating Jaime is actually the 4th strongest known man in Westeros (probably not counting Hodor, who was not very well known in Westeros).  If Jaime had both hands, I would say Jaime could cross off any of the others, cuz of his combination of size, strength, speed and skill.

From the books, I believe Ned is WAY behind all of them in terms of fighting ability (and smaller and slighter of build than the others, too, but he's no Howland Reed).  This was actually reflected a little bit in the show, when young Ned fought Arthur Dayne, and Bran and 3 Eyed Raven both observed that Dayne was far better.  In the show, though, for later Ned's later years in life they upgraded Ned's fighting a LOT (when he fought Jaime in Season One on the streets of King's Landing).   B/c Ned was the "hero" and "good guy," and to make it more suspenseful, I believe they made it so Ned was actually holding his own against Jaime for a little bit, which I found totally unrealistic, cuz book-Jaime would have defeated book-Ned in 10 or 15 seconds, in my view (in the book AGOT, Jaime never gets off his horse in that scene, so the fight doesn't happen between them, Jaime's men do all the fighting)

Lena Headey:   Kinda funny, but I prefer her blonde (Dany too, actually, I think she looks better blonde, but of course both Lena and Emilia are very good looking as brunettes, too, don't get me wrong).  But yeah, I've seen Lena brunette quite a few times.  Ever see the movie "Dredd"?   She's a brunette in that (she plays a major character in that, gets a lot of screen time, but she's not THE main character).  I thought it was decent as a movie, better than I expected, but then my expectations weren't real high.  As I recall, the movie is BIG on action, not a whole lot of plot or character development, but hey, sometimes a good popcorn action movie is the way to go for an evening (I thought Lena did a great job, but I'm biased in her favor, of course)

[Laughing Storm Reborn]

Robert is 6'6 aswell as brienne if i recall in the books, jaime's height is not numbered in the books but he is described as tall so 6'2 would be fine...

[TWR]

Ivan Kaye, King Aelle on Vikings. 6'4", burly & black hair

[StoneColdJorahMormont]

Robbie Coltrane using the height magic of harry potter.

[LatrineDiggerBrian]

On 9/16/2016 at 3:30 PM, Free folk Daemon said:

Would have loved to see what James Gandolfini would have done with the role! Such a great actor, as good as Mark Addy (and I imagine a lot of people would say better) RIP

Gandolfini was a good actor, but not really an actor with a whole lot of range. He kind of always played himself with little variations in all of his roles. Outside of his career defining role as Tony Soprano, he didn't really do too much else that was notable. Had bit parts as gangsters in movies like 8 Millimeter, True Romance and Get Shorty before The Sopranos and got bigger roles after the show, but nothing that was that memorable. I think it would be a real stretch to think he could pull off Robert Baratheon. Mark Addy was tremendous.

[Slaysman]

On 9/12/2016 at 4:41 PM, nara said:

Gerard Butler or Russell Crowe.

I think Gerard Butler would have done an awesome job as Stannis.

[the tower of albion]

Liam Neeson would of been my choice. (Not taking anything away from Mark Addy)

[Free folk Daemon]

4 hours ago, the tower of albion said:

Liam Neeson would of been my choice. (Not taking anything away from Mark Addy)

Think he has the acting skills to play Robert. Also think Liam Neeson would have been a good, if not better fit for Ned than Bob though Sean Bean was excellent.

[Adam Yozza]

On 17/09/2016 at 6:28 AM, Cron said:

In terms of strength, Gregor would be 1st, then Robert, then Sandor, then Jaime, but Jaime is NO slouch in physical strength.  If I recall correctly, there's a passage in one of the books stating Jaime is actually the 4th strongest known man in Westeros (probably not counting Hodor, who was not very well known in Westeros).  If Jaime had both hands, I would say Jaime could cross off any of the others, cuz of his combination of size, strength, speed and skill.

Not true actually. Jaime is quite strong, yes, but he is way weaker than you seem to think him to be. If we're talking purely living characters at the start of GoT, then you could bring up Gregor, Sandor, Yohn Royce, Brienne, Robert, Strongboar, Victarion and GreatJon to name a few who are all taller and stronger than Jaime. Of course, out of all them Jaime IS the fastest with the possible exception of Vic and easily the most skilled.

[Cron]

16 hours ago, Adam Yozza said:

Not true actually. Jaime is quite strong, yes, but he is way weaker than you seem to think him to be. If we're talking purely living characters at the start of GoT, then you could bring up Gregor, Sandor, Yohn Royce, Brienne, Robert, Strongboar, Victarion and GreatJon to name a few who are all taller and stronger than Jaime. Of course, out of all them Jaime IS the fastest with the possible exception of Vic and easily the most skilled.

Interesting conversation, I enjoy this discussion.

But like I said, I'm pretty sure there's an actual passage that says Jaime is the 4th strongest known man in Westeros.

Of the others you mention:  

We agree on Gregor, Sandor and Robert all being stronger than Jaime.  

Royce...I have no reason to believe he's stronger than Jaime.  

Brienne:  EXTREMELY unlikely.  There are many, MANY men on Earth who are MUCH stronger than the strongest woman.  This is a simple biological FACT, if anyone thinks I'm being biased against women, I invite them to go do research on the subject (and be advised, I'm practically an expert on it, if I may say so myself  Look at women's powerlifting world records.  They are nothing compared to what thousands and thousands, if not millions, of men can lift.  These are simple facts.).  

Strongboar?  Lyle Crakehall.  I'll have to look into this and get back to you, my understanding is that Jaime thinks about him in ASOS, I'll have to check the language.  

Victarion? Very unlikely, in my opinion.  

Greatjon Umber?  Okay, he's a beast, granted, I would expect him to be VERY strong, but again, my memory is that Jaime honestly believes himself to be the 4th strongest known man in Westeros (not counting Hodor, whom I have no doubt is stronger than Jaime, but is not well known).  I intend to look into all of this further.

Meanwhle, again, great conversation, I like talking about these things, so thanks for the feedback.

[Adam Yozza]

2 hours ago, Cron said:

Interesting conversation, I enjoy this discussion.

But like I said, I'm pretty sure there's an actual passage that says Jaime is the 4th strongest known man in Westeros.

Of the others you mention:  

We agree on Gregor, Sandor and Robert all being stronger than Jaime.  

Royce...I have no reason to believe he's stronger than Jaime.  

Brienne:  EXTREMELY unlikely.  There are many, MANY men on Earth who are MUCH stronger than the strongest woman.  This is a simple biological FACT, if anyone thinks I'm being biased against women, I invite them to go do research on the subject (and be advised, I'm practically an expert on it, if I may say so myself  Look at women's powerlifting world records.  They are nothing compared to what thousands and thousands, if not millions, of men can lift.  These are simple facts.).  

Strongboar?  Lyle Crakehall.  I'll have to look into this and get back to you, my understanding is that Jaime thinks about him in ASOS, I'll have to check the language.  

Victarion? Very unlikely, in my opinion.  

Greatjon Umber?  Okay, he's a beast, granted, I would expect him to be VERY strong, but again, my memory is that Jaime honestly believes himself to be the 4th strongest known man in Westeros (not counting Hodor, whom I have no doubt is stronger than Jaime, but is not well known).  I intend to look into all of this further.

Meanwhle, again, great conversation, I like talking about these things, so thanks for the feedback.

Your reasoning is 100% sound and I can see where you're coming from. If you can find the relevant quote then I will happily concede the point.

However, though I will need some time to find the direct quote, but there is a passage in ASOS where Jaime mentally concedes that Brienne is stronger than him; although I will admit that he is, at the time, weakened from captivity. So perhaps you're right. And I do understand your point about Brienne. It's not sexist. But at the same time she is descended from Dunk so who knows; she might be the exception.

In that same passage he mentions others like the Clegane's, Strongboar, GreatJon, Gerold Hightower and Arthur Dayne as others who were stronger than him. That's were my assumption comes from.

Yohn and Vic being included are based more on their physical stature than anything else. Yohn is described as being as tall as the Hound with large gnarled hands. This description just always gave me the impression of a very strong man, sort of like Robert or Gerold in their "heyday" as Jaime calls it. Vic is a "large and powerful man, with a bulls broad chest". I don't know about you, but that seems like he's at least in the same league as the others, even if he is the weakest of the strongest.

And we agree about Hodor.  

[lady_xanax]

I haven't read the books so can't say which actor would fit the book portrayal but for the purpose of the TV show, I think Mark Addy was a good choice- you can believe him and Ned would be friends.

[A Ghost of Someone]

the Physical description of Robert from the books and what we got on the show are quite different. Fat and bearded is the only thing that was transmitted on screen. Robert is a big, TALL man. about 6 and a half feet tall, muscular with a lot of fat that has settled on him. Black of hair with little grey in the beard.

Joe Manganiello wearing a fat suit would be the most accurate.

[Newstar]

I remember reading somewhere that GRRM modeled Robert Baratheon's appearance after Brian "GORDON'S ALIVE???" Blessed, whom he would have seen in projects like I, Claudius. Loads of charisma, booming voice, magnificent beard, aggressive bonhomie, the works. (Blessed's appearance on "Have I got news for you" a few years ago is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen.) Blessed would have made a cracking Robert Baratheon 30 years ago, but by the time GOT rolled around, the actor was too old, although you'd never believe he was 80 looking at him.

Brian Blessed is probably the closest thing to a real life Most Interesting Man in the World, too, which would suit an actor playing Robert Baratheon:

-had a boxing match with the Dalai Lama

-survived a plane crash

-trekked to the North Pole on foot

-summited Mount Kilimanjaro

-punched a polar bear in the face

-threw away an original Picasso sketch

-delivered a baby and bit through the umbilical cord

-made three Everest attempts

Mark Addy's Robert Baratheon was great. He didn't quite match physically I admit, but he inhabited the role well.

[John Doe]

Arnold Schwarzenegger