Gwendoline Christie as Brienne

[daimonionen]

Gwendoline Christie (who looks just like a women whose taller than average, no one would ever say she's anything other than pretty)

Sure they would. She's not pretty. Average/kinda cute, I'd say. Wonder what pics you've seen of her.

[The GRRumbler]

I think she will have to do some training to build some muscle, i just think she is too skinny.

[Padraig]

She isn't the living incarnation of Brienne but it was impossible to find a decent actress with that build. Given they did manage to find somebody so tall is very impressive in itself. They can easily hide her build with armour etc. Its not an issue.

[Urien the Ragged]

Sure they would. She's not pretty. Average/kinda cute, I'd say. Wonder what pics you've seen of her.

she's what they call tv ugly, not ugly ugly. nobody wants to see some 7-foot former soviet basketball player that looks like andre the giant or georghe muresan.

and i thought that brienne was just 6 foot tall, not 6-6. where does it say that she's 6-6?

[Urien the Ragged]

and my big problem with christie will be her hands, she has dainty little girl paws, and brienne's hands are much larger than the evenstar's.

[mediocre cheese]

she's what they call tv ugly, not ugly ugly. nobody wants to see some 7-foot former soviet basketball player that looks like andre the giant or georghe muresan.

and i thought that brienne was just 6 foot tall, not 6-6. where does it say that she's 6-6?

Hasn't Muresan appeared in films?

Brienne is as tall as robert who is 6'6 according to the ssm: "Just off the top of my head, I would say Brienne is taller than Renly and Jaime and significantly heavier than either, but nowhere near the size of Gregor Clegane, who is the true giant in the series. Shorter than Hodor and the Greatjon, maybe a bit shorter than the Hound, maybe roughly the same height as Robert"

Clearly in terms of TV an ass kicking is girl is going to look like katie sackoff, just like "ugly" jorah is a rugged older man with a beard. I'm saying in terms of real life, someone like Semjonova would be able to destroy men in a fight (just like brienne does) whereas Christie wouldn't.

[Tyrionthebest]

and my big problem with christie will be her hands, she has dainty little girl paws, and brienne's hands are much larger than the evenstar's.

OK, we get it nothing can be as close to the book . It was the same in season 1 as it is now so why are you making such a big fuzz about it ?

[Urien the Ragged]

OK, we get it nothing can be as close to the book . It was the same in season 1 as it is now so why are you making such a big fuzz about it ?

i don't think i was making a big "fuzz" about it all, really.

[Brienne the Beauty]

If they'd insisted on finding a qualified actress who was as huge, muscular and ugly as Brienne in the books, they still wouldn't have cast the role. I doubt there's a woman in the world that matches that description (and she'd also need to be a fluent English speaker with European looks, so they can't search the whole world). I'm impressed that they managed to get a genuinely impressively tall woman rather than just putting a 5'10 actress in tall shoes.

[Padraig]

i don't think i was making a big "fuzz" about it all, really.

Well, you did say it was a "big problem". :)

I'm impressed that they managed to get a genuinely impressively tall woman rather than just putting a 5'10 actress in tall shoes.

Exactly. I would be shocked if she looks like Katie Sackoff. People will criticise the show for not having Brienne look as ugly as she looks in the books but at the same time, I don't expect they will make her look attractive.

D&D have remained pretty faithful so far. Jorah's uglyness wasn't particularly important to the story. Brienne's is. I also don't understand why people think they cann't make the actress look more powerful than she is in real life. These are professionals after all...

[George Snow]

Brienne is as tall as robert who is 6'6 according to the ssm: "Just off the top of my head, I would say Brienne is taller than Renly and Jaime and significantly heavier than either, but nowhere near the size of Gregor Clegane, who is the true giant in the series. Shorter than Hodor and the Greatjon, maybe a bit shorter than the Hound, maybe roughly the same height as Robert"

She's shorter than The Hound, if you believe that in AFFC that the Gravedigger is The Hound, as the gravedigger was described as being even bigger than Brienne.

GH

[mediocre cheese]

D&D have remained pretty faithful so far. Jorah's uglyness wasn't particularly important to the story. Brienne's is. I also don't understand why people think they cann't make the actress look more powerful than she is in real life. These are professionals after all...

Jorah's uglyness is really important to the story imo. Dany rejects jorah as a romantic partner, despite seeing him as her closest friend and most trusted adviser largely because she isn't physically attracted to him. Poor jorah, stuck in the friend zone.

[Asha—Not Yara!]

If they'd insisted on finding a qualified actress who was as huge, muscular and ugly as Brienne in the books, they still wouldn't have cast the role. I doubt there's a woman in the world that matches that description (and she'd also need to be a fluent English speaker with European looks, so they can't search the whole world). I'm impressed that they managed to get a genuinely impressively tall woman rather than just putting a 5'10 actress in tall shoes.

Yeah this. It's not fair but unfortunately women who actually match the Brienne book description are NOT going to be getting into the acting business. Personally, as a woman I HATE how there's this double standard when it comes to men's looks and women's looks. Female actresses always seem much more harshly judged and pressured to stay young and beautiful.

However, this reality is not going to change anytime soon. I think Gwendoline Christie was the best we could hope to get lookwise for the role. She's very tall and has Brienne's coloring. I don't think she's ugly, but she's not what I'd call traditionally beautiful. I'm confident the right amount of makeup (or lack thereof), plus the bulky armor she'll be wearing through all of season 2 in addition to a work out regimen she's undoubtedly going through for the show will make her effective for the character.

[daimonionen]

She's very tall and has Brienne's coloring.

And she has those large, pretty eyes. Yeah, I think we were pretty lucky with her.

[Roose Seal]

Dot Jones, with the right wig, would've made a perfect Brienne. Sure it's typecasting, but Dot Jones is pretty much exactly how Brienne is described : an arm wrestling champion, very tall (Dot is 6'3) with an uncomely face and thin lips but pretty blue eyes (Dot Jones has very pretty blue eyes) and very bulky.

I'm curious as to how they're going to "uglify" Gwendoline though.

[Padraig]

Poor jorah, stuck in the friend zone.

Exactly. People can get stuck in the friend zone even if they aren't ugly. :) Dany can reject Jorah for a lot of reasons. Because she sees him as a friend. Because he is much older than her. Because she is still getting over Drogo. Brienne's appearance is way more important.

Dot Jones, with the right wig, would've made a perfect Brienne.

Except way too old. Her age is important. :)

[The GRRumbler]

Just as i said they could use physical training to make her more muscular they could also use make up to make her ugly, like that actress in the film monster.

[Bastard of Boston]

George has a tendency to describe his ugly characters as like... ridiculously, inhumanly ugly. Like so ugly that there aren't actually any people that ugly out there. He tends to get quite repetitive in his descriptions and so I think we start to get this idea that these ugly people are COMPLETE MONSTERS...

Like Brienne's face was sooo ugly, it uglied up all the ugly! ANd there was extra ugly on top. Oh and by the way her nose was HUGE and her mouth was ugly and her teeth were crooked and overall just... yuck so ugly! And Did I mention the ugly? and BTW Jorah is covered in black hair. Everywhere. Except his head. Because he's bald. Because bald people are ugly, too. Oh, and did I mention that he's ugly and hairy? And has back hair? And black hair on his arms. Because, yes, ugly, hairy, balding Bear-man.

So yeah I think it was literally impossible to cast someone ugly enough to match GRRM's description of Brienne unless it was someone with a genetic disorder or who'd had a terrible accident involving a chainsaw to the face. :P Gwen will do fine.

Good post. Sometimes I read the text and think, "Damn, George, we get it." To me, the hardcore ugliness achieves the opposite of its intended goal. Instead of convincing me that the person is ugly, it just makes me think, "This person can't possibly be that ugly...there is severe exaggeration going on unless people aren't being turned to stone." I've seen many unattractive people in my life, but I've never once seen someone who I thought was utterly repulsive to look upon.

While many people call Brienne ugly, I think it's important to note many of the POVs we're seeing. Jaime is extremely image conscious and shallow. For him, an ugly person is highly offensive because he views his world through his own standard of beauty. So, when he considers how repulsive Brienne is, it's important to know the source. And, when Brienne fixates on her appearance, it's natural that she would exaggerate her ugliness as well. She's clearly suffering from low self-esteem, and she's her own worst critic.

Essentially, I really don't view Brienne as being that repulsive. I view her as being someone who so completely goes against conventional beauty, that everyone around her is shocked.

[Roose Seal]

Yeah I never got the impression that Brienne was the monster she's usually described as. She's just very tall and stockily built and has uncomely features but she's not a monster by any means. If she was lowborn, people probably wouldn't pay attention to her, but since she's highborn and has none of the distinctive qualities that make a "true lady", she stands out like a sore thumb. Kind of like Arya does, to a lesser extent.

Gender roles are extremely defined in Westeros so a girl who wants to be a knight is going to be shunned and ridiculed, as would a man who wants to be a seamstress.

When I see this picture, I can totally imagine her as Brienne :

[Urien the Ragged]

robin weigert isn't really ugly either, but they were able to ugly her up enough to play calamity jane.