Actors' Full Employement Act of 2011?

[Lucreel]

I haven't seen any of the HBO Series yet (though I hope to), but I've been reading the books. It seems to me like there are so many characters in the books (and not just the major characters, but lots of minor characters as well), that before it's all done, just above every actor in Hollywood, and many from Europe are going to have to appear (even if just in one or two scenes).

In the TV adaptation, have they reduced the number of characters somehow, or have they been having like 200 hundred actors just in the first season alone?

I suppose for a lot of non-speaking roles (like Knights, squires, etc who might be at a tourney, feast, or battle), they probably use unpaid, uncredited extras who are just hoping to earn their SAG cards, but still, the budget for this series must be *huge* - actors, sets, costumes, stunts, special effects, etc.

[Jayuk83]

I haven't seen any of the HBO Series yet (though I hope to), but I've been reading the books. It seems to me like there are so many characters in the books (and not just the major characters, but lots of minor characters as well), that before it's all done, just above every actor in Hollywood, and many from Europe are going to have to appear (even if just in one or two scenes).

In the TV adaptation, have they reduced the number of characters somehow, or have they been having like 200 hundred actors just in the first season alone?

I suppose for a lot of non-speaking roles (like Knights, squires, etc who might be at a tourney, feast, or battle), they probably use unpaid, uncredited extras who are just hoping to earn their SAG cards, but still, the budget for this series must be *huge* - actors, sets, costumes, stunts, special effects, etc.

Obviously they haven't made every minor character from the books in the series, but there are still a hell of a lot of characters - probably more than any series I've ever seen in the past.

Obviously there are a lot of extras and non-speaking roles, but yeah, they don't get paid the same, and they just use non-actors for those roles, but all the other roles, even if it's just a one-liner, are played by actors!

And you know what... despite the amount of actors they're using... I STILL haven't even had the chance to audition. It bugs the hell out of me. P.S. I'm an actor, by the way, otherwise, that would have been a random statement.

[DireLlama]

I haven't seen any of the HBO Series yet (though I hope to), but I've been reading the books. It seems to me like there are so many characters in the books (and not just the major characters, but lots of minor characters as well), that before it's all done, just above every actor in Hollywood, and many from Europe are going to have to appear (even if just in one or two scenes).

In the TV adaptation, have they reduced the number of characters somehow, or have they been having like 200 hundred actors just in the first season alone?

I suppose for a lot of non-speaking roles (like Knights, squires, etc who might be at a tourney, feast, or battle), they probably use unpaid, uncredited extras who are just hoping to earn their SAG cards, but still, the budget for this series must be *huge* - actors, sets, costumes, stunts, special effects, etc.

Yep, they need a lot of actors for this. They're not going to be taking every actor in Hollywood though, beacuse aside from one or two exceptions the cast is entirely British.

I think the bigger problem is not the number of actors required, but rather the changing importance of each role. Because this is literature and GRRM can do whatever the hell he wants with the characters, he can have a guy appear in two scenes in one book and then be a major player in the next one; or have important characters miss out on books entirely. That's a bit of a problem, particularly for busier actors. "Sorry, you don't get any scenes next season, but you've got some juicy stuff coming up if we're still going the year after that..."