Jump to content

Which actors/actresses read the books, and what did they think of them?


WhatAnArtist!

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

D&D had a bad habit of whitewashing characters that they liked and didn't want to show in a more negative light. Tyrion is the most extreme example, but there's plenty of others as well. Their personal opinion of the actor/actress playing the character always contributed. They whitewashed Cersei so much because D&D personally liked Lena Heady. 

D&D were not willing to make fan-favourite characters do bad things, not until the second last episode of the entire series. They did not have the willpower and commitment that showrunners like David Chase and Vince Gilligan did.

 

Yeah, this was definitely a weakness of theirs; they clearly had favourites, and a lot of the time it had to do with the actor rather than the character. Theon is another example; they liked Alfie Allen so they gave a lot of unnecessary screen time to Theon that could've been used developing other, more important storylines.

They also had characters they were clearly bored with and not that interested in developing, despite how important they were to the overall story arc ie. Bran

I'm sure their whitewashing of Tyrion was one of the major reasons that the finale didn't play out the way GRRM probably intended, there's no way his plan for Tyrion is that he stands around gaping like a surprised Pikachu while Dany burns everything down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

Book Tyrion would have been a much more interesting character for him to play, especially after season 4. In season 4, he had the great trial sequence, which was setting up Tyrion's rage and dark turn... which never happened on the show.

I would say that playing the darker Tyrion is well within Peter Dinklage's wheelhouse; he's played cartoonish supervillains like Simon Barsinister (where I first heard of him), the cold and ruthless mad scientist Bolivar Trask, and even a turn as Richard III in 2004, the primary source material for Tyrion himself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

D&D had a bad habit of whitewashing characters that they liked and didn't want to show in a more negative light. Tyrion is the most extreme example, but there's plenty of others as well. Their personal opinion of the actor/actress playing the character always contributed. They whitewashed Cersei so much because D&D personally liked Lena Heady. 

D&D were not willing to make fan-favourite characters do bad things, not until the second last episode of the entire series. They did not have the willpower and commitment that showrunners like David Chase and Vince Gilligan did.

I could certainly have accepted Dany as a Kim Wexler type figure, someone whose entirely sincere loathing of injustice gradually morphs into a desire to allot reward and punishment as she deems fit, but that would take good writing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

D&D had a bad habit of whitewashing characters that they liked and didn't want to show in a more negative light. Tyrion is the most extreme example, but there's plenty of others as well. Their personal opinion of the actor/actress playing the character always contributed. They whitewashed Cersei so much because D&D personally liked Lena Heady. 

D&D were not willing to make fan-favourite characters do bad things, not until the second last episode of the entire series. They did not have the willpower and commitment that showrunners like David Chase and Vince Gilligan did.

They didn't like her enough to give her a satisfying ending; even Lena was disappointed about how her character barely did anything in the last season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, SeanF said:

I could certainly have accepted Dany as a Kim Wexler type figure, someone whose entirely sincere loathing of injustice gradually morphs into a desire to allot reward and punishment as she deems fit, but that would take good writing.

I'm sure that if Dany does go down a darker path in the books, that's how Martin will handle it. But the whole "sudden snap into madness" thing seems like it'll work more naturally for Jon Connington than Dany. But since super-geniuses D&D decided to leave out that extremely important storyline, they were forced to give certain character developments to other characters (e.g. Jon filling Aegon's shoes to a degree). I'm still convinced that Dany wouldn't have gone full Mad Queen if Aegon and Connington existed in the show.

But regardless, D&D weren't even capable of writing characters with even a fraction of the nuance of Better Call Saul characters, to name a show that was on at the same time. Game of Thrones was always the sillier and pulpier type of show compared to other heavyweight dramas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

I'm sure that if Dany does go down a darker path in the books, that's how Martin will handle it. But the whole "sudden snap into madness" thing seems like it'll work more naturally for Jon Connington than Dany. But since super-geniuses D&D decided to leave out that extremely important storyline, they were forced to give certain character developments to other characters (e.g. Jon filling Aegon's shoes to a degree). I'm still convinced that Dany wouldn't have gone full Mad Queen if Aegon and Connington existed in the show.

But regardless, D&D weren't even capable of writing characters with even a fraction of the nuance of Better Call Saul characters, to name a show that was on at the same time. Game of Thrones was always the sillier and pulpier type of show compared to other heavyweight dramas.

Connington is the obvious candidate for someone being triggered by the sound of ringing bells.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, WhatAnArtist! said:

I'm sure that if Dany does go down a darker path in the books, that's how Martin will handle it. But the whole "sudden snap into madness" thing seems like it'll work more naturally for Jon Connington than Dany. But since super-geniuses D&D decided to leave out that extremely important storyline, they were forced to give certain character developments to other characters (e.g. Jon filling Aegon's shoes to a degree). I'm still convinced that Dany wouldn't have gone full Mad Queen if Aegon and Connington existed in the show.

But regardless, D&D weren't even capable of writing characters with even a fraction of the nuance of Better Call Saul characters, to name a show that was on at the same time. Game of Thrones was always the sillier and pulpier type of show compared to other heavyweight dramas.

In Connington's case I think that the snap to madness actually might be more gradual because of an actual time crunch; his impending greyscale will likely result in him doing things he wouldn't consider. Daenerys had no time crunch; she could have done a march down the Kingsroad, tried to show her benevolence, help the needy, stuff like that. But in the show she didn't try anything to win over the people and it would have been more realistic to have an episode of attempting benevolence and being shunned despite that.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To use the character names, as far as I recall, Meera, Catelyn, Ygritte, and Brienne read all the books. Stannis said that he should have read the books because he had no idea what was going on lol. 
 

I know the books are long, but I can’t think of any other series where the majority of the actors didn’t read the source material.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/19/2021 at 3:54 PM, Angel Eyes said:

They didn't like her enough to give her a satisfying ending; even Lena was disappointed about how her character barely did anything in the last season.

The problem there was that D&D saw Jaime and Cersei as some tragic lovers like Romeo and Juliet, completely ignoring how manipulative and abusive cersei was. And that aspect of their relationship was completely downplayed in the show and cersei was pretty much whitewashed, which could be attributed to D&D liking Lena. But in the end they wanted the Romeo and Juliet element panning out, ignoring everything that happened in the middle. Just like they wanted the CGI bear and made it happen just because :mellow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Apoplexy said:

The problem there was that D&D saw Jaime and Cersei as some tragic lovers like Romeo and Juliet, completely ignoring how manipulative and abusive cersei was. And that aspect of their relationship was completely downplayed in the show and cersei was pretty much whitewashed, which could be attributed to D&D liking Lena. But in the end they wanted the Romeo and Juliet element panning out, ignoring everything that happened in the middle. Just like they wanted the CGI bear and made it happen just because :mellow:

And the fact that it was incest. :blink:

No seriously, it really felt like they were kind of unintentionally downplaying that near the end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Darryk said:

And the fact that it was incest. :blink:

No seriously, it really felt like they were kind of unintentionally downplaying that near the end.

At the beginning of the show: Ewwww, incest.

Seasons 7 and 8: YAY, incest!

Not that I mind the incest, by now reading about incest is business as usual. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/13/2021 at 6:21 AM, Darryk said:

And the fact that it was incest. :blink:

No seriously, it really felt like they were kind of unintentionally downplaying that near the end.

 I really dont understand why the incest aspect suddenly ok towards the end. They didn't even mention it about Jon and Dany. Downplaying it with Jaime and Cersei was just egregious. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/7/2021 at 11:58 PM, Jaenara Belarys said:

Agreed. And I think most people would agree that while GoT S7 was bad on close analysis (check YouTube and Supercuts Delight), the show's legacy (channeling our dear Tywin) could've survived with a strong final season.

The "good" thing about Season 8 trashing Dany is that it made me go from (in the show only, mind)  "Dany's my favorite, but I'm not die hard"  to "Fuck the Starks, Dany is mah kween."

Same lol

(Although she wasn't my top fave, s8 made me like her exponentially more)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 11/5/2021 at 4:27 AM, Ran said:

but then D&D told him they preferred the actors didn't read the books

Figures.

On 11/8/2021 at 6:01 AM, Darryk said:

Kit Harrington read the books and if I were him I'd be pretty disappointed with how Jon Snow was written throughout the show, he's not an idiot in the books like he often is in the show.

As far as I know, he was very disappointed...to the point of substance abuse and depression.

On 11/25/2021 at 2:54 PM, The Bard of Banefort said:

Stannis said that he should have read the books because he had no idea what was going on lol. 

That was telling.

One of the first warning signs.

A veteran actor like Stephen Dillane should not at all confused about what all is going on. The script should be clear in that.

Yet, after taking a look at the scripts ourselves....

On 11/19/2021 at 10:00 PM, WhatAnArtist! said:

I'm sure that if Dany does go down a darker path in the books, that's how Martin will handle it. But the whole "sudden snap into madness" thing seems like it'll work more naturally for Jon Connington than Dany.

Right

Not only will the trauma of ringing bells cause him to snap but it's also important to remember that one of the lasting effects of greyscale is that it turns men insane.

On 12/17/2021 at 8:14 PM, Apoplexy said:

 I really dont understand why the incest aspect suddenly ok towards the end. They didn't even mention it about Jon and Dany. Downplaying it with Jaime and Cersei was just egregious. 

Exactly.

Like an aunt/nephew who never knew each other existed should not be ignored in favor of twin sibling incest that led to the pain, misery and death of millions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/5/2021 at 11:27 AM, Ran said:

Iain Glen read the first book but then D&D told him they preferred the actors didn't and he stopped. 

How much of a dick do you have to be to tell the actors not to read the books you're adapting?

What, they didn't want to have to deal with actors giving input? Pair of control freaks, and ungrateful to GRRM too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/16/2022 at 3:58 PM, Darryk said:

How much of a dick do you have to be to tell the actors not to read the books you're adapting?

What, they didn't want to have to deal with actors giving input? Pair of control freaks, and ungrateful to GRRM too.

Not all the time; they might have been more lenient earlier in the series since the fight scene between Khal Drogo and Mago was Jason Momoa's idea since Drogo was never shown fighting and would have made his abilities as a warrior an informed ability. Shame they didn't learn that lesson since informed abilities became the norm in later seasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...