Arianne Martell - casting

[The Pain Yak]

Yeh exactly, the only one I can think of would be the Wire

Apparently, the most successful season of the Wire in terms of viewers was season 2, also known as the season when they stopped focusing on the mostly-black inner city drug culture and started focusing on the mostly-white stevedores. Otherwise, despite being lavished with critical acclaim, the Wire did poor ratings-wise. Pretty sure they had to fight to stay on the air season to season.

So yeah. If you want to have a show which is predominantly one shade, that shade will usually be white. I guess white people sell better.

None of this has anything to do with GoT, though. I don't think they would hesitate for a second to cast an Indian actor or actress, certainly not due to race. I mean, damn, they've actually already turned two white characters (Salladhor San and Ducksauce) into black guys without any real explanation.

[sennahoj]

If the showrunners were looking for actors and actresses of Indian descent to portray the Dornish, I think either

Rekha Sharma or Reshma Shetty would make a good Arianne.

[Xall]

If the showrunners were looking for actors and actresses of Indian descent to portray the Dornish, I think either

Rekha Sharma or Reshma Shetty would make a good Arianne.

I think they look way too old for the part.

[sausagekingchi]

If you can name five such shows, not counting reality shows or anything airing on BET, but mainstream basic cable television shows, then I'd love to see what you can come up with.

Sure:

1) Scandal - lead actress is Kerry Washington

2) House of Payne

3) Meet the Browns

4) For Better or Worse

5) Love Thy Neighbor

6) The Haves and the Have Nots

These are some I thought of off the top of my head. All of these are available on basic cable and not on the BET and not a single one is a reality show or talk show. I'm positive I could find another 10-15 shows that have at least one black lead actor on it. I could also find a dozen shows featuring asians or hispanic lead actors. Not that it is a race, but I could also find a bunch of shows featuring homosexuals.

[andrew_]

Sure:

1) Scandal - lead actress is Kerry Washington

2) House of Payne

3) Meet the Browns

4) For Better or Worse

5) Love Thy Neighbor

6) The Haves and the Have Nots

These are some I thought of off the top of my head. All of these are available on basic cable and not on the BET and not a single one is a reality show or talk show. I'm positive I could find another 10-15 shows that have at least one black lead actor on it. I could also find a dozen shows featuring asians or hispanic lead actors. Not that it is a race, but I could also find a bunch of shows featuring homosexuals.

Tell me about the size of the audiences for each show? Because I doubt they are in the region of 5 mil per episode. If you can name a few with huge audiences and are widely known (I've only heard of scandal on that list) then you've made a point.

[sausagekingchi]

Tell me about the size of the audiences for each show? Because I doubt they are in the region of 5 mil per episode. If you can name a few with huge audiences and are widely known (I've only heard of scandal on that list) then you've made a point.

My original point was that production companies don't hesitate to hire minorities in the US despite what some of the comments here suggest. They wouldn't keep doing that if it is proven that the audience wouldn't turn in because of that. Size of the audience has nothing to do with the ethnicity of a cast (shows like the Cosby Show kill that theory).

[andrew_]

My original point was that production companies don't hesitate to hire minorities in the US despite what some of the comments here suggest. They wouldn't keep doing that if it is proven that the audience wouldn't turn in because of that. Size of the audience has nothing to do with the ethnicity of a cast (shows like the Cosby Show kill that theory).

In this case size matters, this isn't your run of the mill cable drama, this is a genre defining flagship cable show that has a wide target audience, this isn't the Cosby show, this is a Game of Thrones. Now when your investing 60 million dollars into a show each season you make sure you appeal to the majority of viewers. Now going back to my original statement, the majority of viewers of Game of Thrones have most probably never seen a Bollywood movie in their life, let alone gone out of their way to watch one, so the hiring of big name successful Bollywood actors who will occupy minor roles seems illogical and waste of budget money. Not to mention they don't resemble any of the Dornish characters in the books.

Just because they have brown skin, doesn't make them a good choice, in fact from what I've seen of Bollywood actors (2-3 Bollywood movies) it would be a terrible decision as the majority lack basic acting skills scene in Western cinema.

But hey, that's just from what I've seen and it's just an opinion.

[Jon Icefyre]

Sure:

1) Scandal - lead actress is Kerry Washington

2) House of Payne

3) Meet the Browns

4) For Better or Worse

5) Love Thy Neighbor

6) The Haves and the Have Nots

These are some I thought of off the top of my head. All of these are available on basic cable and not on the BET and not a single one is a reality show or talk show. I'm positive I could find another 10-15 shows that have at least one black lead actor on it. I could also find a dozen shows featuring asians or hispanic lead actors. Not that it is a race, but I could also find a bunch of shows featuring homosexuals.

Are you kidding me? The only one of those shows that is even remotely considered to have decent sized audience is Scandal which has a pretty big ratings, but that show is not anything close to a show that ppl would describe as having an "entirely african american cast". Ya Kerry Washington is black but the vast majority of the rest of the cast isn't. With that being said, I still agree with you that D&D aren't going to shy away from hiring someone of color to play Arianne. I'm not buyin the whole they will "play it safe and stay white" bs that some ppl are trying to sell on here, as if it would be the end of the world if Arianne is not played by a white person. Smh

[sausagekingchi]

Are you kidding me? The only one of those shows that is even remotely considered to have decent sized audience is Scandal which has a pretty big ratings, but that show is not anything close to a show that ppl would describe as having an "entirely african american cast". Ya Kerry Washington is black but the vast majority of the rest of the cast isn't so this is not a very good example whatsoever.

Wow, you are still missing my point. The point is that production companies (who are investing millions of dollars) don't hesitate to put on tv shows with african american cast members. It doesn't matter if YOU have heard of these shows or know someone who has. The point is they are out there and production companies don't make shows with the intention of them failing. My point of adding Scandal in was here is a big budget show where they cast an african american in the lead. My original post was to let someone know (who doesn't live in the US and has no idea what is on all of our basic cable programming is) that there is no hesitation in this country to put ethnic diversity into the cast when they said that they couldn't see them putting people with darker skin on an American show. The idea that they wouldn't is ridiculous.

[Jon Icefyre]

Wow, you are still missing my point. The point is that production companies (who are investing millions of dollars) don't hesitate to put on tv shows with african american cast members. It doesn't matter if YOU have heard of these shows or know someone who has. The point is they are out there and production companies don't make shows with the intention of them failing. My point of adding Scandal in was here is a big budget show where they cast an african american in the lead. My original post was to let someone know (who doesn't live in the US and has no idea what is on all of our basic cable programming is) that there is no hesitation in this country to put ethnic diversity into the cast when they said that they couldn't see them putting people with darker skin on an American show. The idea that they wouldn't is ridiculous.

I accidentally posted that earlier than I wanted to I wasn't done with my post, I went back and changed the entirety of it, before you posted this. :D

[sausagekingchi]

I accidentally posted that earlier than I wanted to I wasn't done with my post, I went back and changed the entirety of it, before you posted this. :D

Well we certainly agree on your last point, which was really the whole point I was originally trying to make. It just ended up getting a bit side tracked is all. :)

[sausagekingchi]

In this case size matters, this isn't your run of the mill cable drama, this is a genre defining flagship cable show that has a wide target audience, this isn't the Cosby show, this is a Game of Thrones. Now when your investing 60 million dollars into a show each season you make sure you appeal to the majority of viewers. Now going back to my original statement, the majority of viewers of Game of Thrones have most probably never seen a Bollywood movie in their life, let alone gone out of their way to watch one, so the hiring of big name successful Bollywood actors who will occupy minor roles seems illogical and waste of budget money. Not to mention they don't resemble any of the Dornish characters in the books.

Just because they have brown skin, doesn't make them a good choice, in fact from what I've seen of Bollywood actors (2-3 Bollywood movies) it would be a terrible decision as the majority lack basic acting skills scene in Western cinema.

But hey, that's just from what I've seen and it's just an opinion.

The audience for GOT is not that large (the size of the audience that watched the Cosby Show blows GOT out of the water). Yes, the budget is big, but the actual viewing audience is no were near as large as you seem to think. GOT gets a large budget not for the audience size as much as it is for Blu Ray sales and merchandising. Again, I didn't say you had to hire a bollywood actor, my point was that there are plenty of people in the US who do like Bollywood (heck, we have a On Demand movie station specifically for Bollywood movies - that wouldn't be on there if people didn't pay for it and watch it). Besides, you don't need to have a recognizable actor cast in the Dornish roles. The vast majority of the GOT actors were relative unknowns coming into the series. My basic point is that they won’t avoid casting a minority despite their target audience being white American’s.

[youdontsnowme]

Lucy Griffiths for Arianne Martell

[ebevan91]

Lucy Griffiths for Arianne Martell

She's not "not white" enough.

[Jon Icefyre]

She's not "not white" enough.

Really? Because ot me she's actually far too "white" I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but Arianne's skin is definitely much darker than Lucy Griffiths skin. I remember her from True blood she's the literal definition of "lily white" lol. I can't believe that's honestly how someone would think that's how GRRM describes Arianne.

[youdontsnowme]

Really? Because ot me she's actually far too "white" I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but Arianne's skin is definitely much darker than Lucy Griffiths skin. I remember her from True blood she's the literal definition of "lily white" lol. I can't believe that's honestly how someone would think that's how GRRM describes Arianne.

That's how I see her, sorry you don't like that.

[The Anti-Targ]

Any actress of persian descent :drunk: preferably Nazani Boniadi :drool:

Isn't one of the Khardashian sisters looking into acting? :leaving:

[thenedstark]

Having Mila Kunis as Arianne would be absolutely awesome. She's about the perfect height for the character too.

[Jon Icefyre]

That's how I see her, sorry you don't like that.

Well then maybe you should re-read the books beacuse GRRM's description of her would categorize her clearly as a salty dornishmen who have brown skin.....

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Arianne_Martell

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dornishmen

[~DarkHorse~]

I like the idea of Angel Coulby from Merlin, she's pretty close to how I picture Arianna.

I think Angel Coulby would suit Elia better. However, she'll never be casted unless in a flashback.