Height of the mountain in the show

[3sm1r]

In some scenes it seems that he's a giant (like in a scene in season 5, when he crushes the head of a random drunk dude), in others that he's just a very tall man. How tall is see at the end? I don't mean the actor, I mean how tall the character is supposed to be.

[falcotron]

1 hour ago, 3sm1r said:

In some scenes it seems that he's a giant (like in a scene in season 5, when he crushes the head of a random drunk dude), in others that he's just a very tall man. How tall is see at the end? I don't mean the actor, I mean how tall the character is supposed to be.

In the books he's described as nearly 8 feet tall.

On the show, I don't think anyone's ever said anything more specific than that he's possibly the tallest man in Westeros and "freakish big" and similar things.

I think that both the original viewers' guide and the DVD extras gave the 8 feet, but at least one of them worded it as "said to be nearly 8 feet tall", so it's possible that "said to be" is intended to give them some wiggle room—maybe he's just over 7 feet (like the actor who was playing him at the time, although he's been recast twice since then) but people exaggerate, so he's said to almost be a foot taller than that.

So, there you go, a long-winded answer that basically means "I don't know", but hopefully it helps somehow…

[goomba]

7'9-ish in the books i think, close to 8ft.

not sure if his specific height was ever mentioned in the show, but i think its trying to pass him off as atleast 7ft.

[3sm1r]

10 minutes ago, falcotron said:

So, there you go, a long-winded answer that basically means "I don't know", but hopefully it helps somehow…

Yes, it does. Thank you

[Iron Mother]

2 hours ago, 3sm1r said:

In some scenes it seems that he's a giant (like in a scene in season 5, when he crushes the head of a random drunk dude), in others that he's just a very tall man. How tall is see at the end? I don't mean the actor, I mean how tall the character is supposed to be.

I noticed that too.  In some scenes, especially when The Hound was standing by him in the dragon pit, they looked almost the same size.  The Hound is NOT as big as The Mountain.  I think they messed up.

[mankytoes]

4 minutes ago, Iron Mother said:

I noticed that too.  In some scenes, especially when The Hound was standing by him in the dragon pit, they looked almost the same size.  The Hound is NOT as big as The Mountain.  I think they messed up.

Harsh. It's a lot easier to write "he was eight feet tall" than to cast someone eight feet tall. Espeically as there have only been ten confirmed people of that height in human history, and I don't think any of them have had anything like the build of Gregor.

[Iron Mother]

Just now, mankytoes said:

Harsh. It's a lot easier to write "he was eight feet tall" than to cast someone eight feet tall. Espeically as there have only been ten confirmed people of that height in human history, and I don't think any of them have had anything like the build of Gregor.

But the actor who plays The Mountain is 7ft tall (Hafthor Bjornsson).  I doubt The Hound actor is that tall but I could be wrong.

[3sm1r]

40 minutes ago, goomba said:

7'9-ish in the books i think, close to 8ft.

not sure if his specific height was ever mentioned in the show, but i think its trying to pass him off as atleast 7ft.

 

11 minutes ago, Iron Mother said:

I noticed that too.  In some scenes, especially when The Hound was standing by him in the dragon pit, they looked almost the same size.  The Hound is NOT as big as The Mountain.  I think they messed up.

 

4 minutes ago, mankytoes said:

Harsh. It's a lot easier to write "he was eight feet tall" than to cast someone eight feet tall. Espeically as there have only been ten confirmed people of that height in human history, and I don't think any of them have had anything like the build of Gregor.

Thank you all. Yeah, I guess the height of a basketball player sounds reasonable. Especially since I have re-watched the scene I've mentioned and actually he has a pretty impressive but still human size even there. Probably the poor drunk man was very short.

[falcotron]

5 minutes ago, Iron Mother said:

But the actor who plays The Mountain is 7ft tall (Hafthor Bjornsson).  I doubt The Hound actor is that tall but I could be wrong.

Hafthor is only 6'9". (Ha, "only".) The original Mountain actor, Conan Stevens, is just over 7'0". The one in between, Ian Whyte (same guy who plays Wun Wun and most other giants) is 7'5".

Rory McCann, who plays the Hound, is 6'6". I think the character is supposed to be around that height. (He's described as very tall but not quite freakish, and a few inches taller than Brienne, and around the same as Greatjon—whose actor, Clive Mantle, is also 6'6".)

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the Mountain is supposed to be more than 3" taller than the Hound, even though the actors are only 3" apart. If I thought the show had a specific answer in mind, I'd guess it was somewhere near 7'5".

[mankytoes]

14 minutes ago, Iron Mother said:

But the actor who plays The Mountain is 7ft tall (Hafthor Bjornsson).  I doubt The Hound actor is that tall but I could be wrong.

He's six foot nine, Rory Mccann is six foot six. Not much in it really, but Bjornsson is also insanely muscular.

It does bug me a little how often people are described as "six and a half feet" or "seven feet" tall in the books. Those are pretty rare heights. I justify it by thinking that they are only estimates. When "giants" used to be big in freak shows, their heights would always be exagerated, usually by quite a lot.

[falcotron]

1 hour ago, mankytoes said:

It does bug me a little how often people are described as "six and a half feet" or "seven feet" tall in the books. Those are pretty rare heights. I justify it by thinking that they are only estimates. When "giants" used to be big in freak shows, their heights would always be exagerated, usually by quite a lot.

I think that's intentional. I vaguely remember (but can't find in a search, so I could well be wrong…) an SSM where GRRM says that Greatjon is the kind of person everyone describes as "nearly seven feet" but if you look at the actual descriptions given you can see that he's actually more like six and a half.

So, since the books are written from characters' PoVs rather than an omniscient narrator's, you see the Mountain repeatedly described as nearly eight feet, but that doesn't necessarily mean he really is that tall.

ETA: PS, Icelandic people get confused if you call them by their last name, which is not a family name, but a patronym (in other words, his father's name is Bjorn, and his kids won't be Bjornsson like him, they'll be Hafthorsson). At least he has a second name (Julius); otherwise you'd basically go with "Hafthor the weightlifter" (that's how the phone book works). Or just hold your hand up really high while saying his name; that'd probably work.

[pinoyathletics]

He looked like he had shrunk, he used to be considerably taller than the Hound in Season 1 at the Tourney. Now they seem eye to eye almost.

[Apoplexy]

8 minutes ago, pinoyathletics said:

He looked like he had shrunk, he used to be considerably taller than the Hound in Season 1 at the Tourney. Now they seem eye to eye almost.

The actor who played him in season 1 (Conan Stevens) is taller than the actor who plays him now (Bjornsson)

[Obsidian Knight]

Yes, when he stood before his brother, The Mountain looked much smaller. And ugly indeed. Sandor could be glad.

[4 Eyed Crow]

Let's just assume that Qyburn had to shrink the Mountain by about 1/2 a foot to a foot in order to save his life after the fight with Oberyn. 

[Dragons 7th Eye]

They did mess up the scene. All they needed was a box for the mountain to stand on.

Think of all the scenes with Tom Cruise with women that are much taller than him in real life

[Lurid Jester]

Rory McCann is 6'6" and the actor who currently (?) portrays The Mountain is 6'9" according to the inter-webs.  

Not sure how accurate that is since some scenes showed Brienne (6'3") as the same height as the Hound, and others where the Hound looked taller than the Mountain.  

Could have just been bad camera angles though.  

[Apoplexy]

59 minutes ago, Lurid Jester said:

Rory McCann is 6'6" and the actor who currently (?) portrays The Mountain is 6'9" according to the inter-webs.  

Not sure how accurate that is since some scenes showed Brienne (6'3") as the same height as the Hound, and others where the Hound looked taller than the Mountain.  

Could have just been bad camera angles though.  

It was the camera angle. Brienne looks the same height as the Hound when they were talking to each other, but when you see them in the background when Bronn is talking, brienne looks shorter than the hound.

[Danny-]

I started readinng the book last week.

i believe ned says the mountain was foot taller than everyone he saw at the hand's tourney but he's shorter than a simpelton in the north called hodor.

[falcotron]

2 hours ago, 4 Eyed Crow said:

Let's just assume that Qyburn had to shrink the Mountain by about 1/2 a foot to a foot in order to save his life after the fight with Oberyn. 

That would explain how he was able to send Gregor's skull to Dorne in the books.

Well, no, it wouldn't really explain it at all. In fact, it actually makes it even harder to understand if you have to imagine Qyburn stretching all the skin down to fit around a headless skeleton. But trying to imagine what it would look like is kind of entertaining in a Troma horror movie sort of way. No wonder he always wears his helmet.