Cast of Game of Thrones: Sean Bean confirmed

[dragon wolf]

You realize they already cast her younger brother with a 40 year old man right?

Clarification please. Whose brother has been cast? Cersei's?

[Stubby]

Clarification please. Whose brother has been cast? Cersei's?

Exactly. I am not aware of anyone being cast to play Cersei's brother.

[Andriy Czarchenko]

Soo Tyrion isn´t Cercei´s brother? :P

[dragon wolf]

Soo Tyrion isn´t Cercei´s brother? :P

Ouch. :leaving: Walked right into that one. :P

But the 40 yr old argument is a bit moot with this character, no? Maybe they can use the Benjamin Button age removing tech for the early scenes, but after Tyrion becomes a warrior, the scars and deformities will obscure his age. A little off topic, but when I first read about the Imp, I immediately imagined that young ewok who played Willow, not Dinklage. But Dinklage was definitely the right choice.

[Brude]

In my mind I always had someone similar to Meatloaf for Robert but I definitely think Addy can pull it off.

Meatloaf is too old for Robert anyways but not too old for Jeor Mormont.

It's funny, when they announced that Mark Addy was cast in the role, I first thought they meant Michael 'Meat Loaf' Aday (that's his name), whom I too could very easily imagine in the role.

[Stubby]

Ouch. :leaving: Walked right into that one. :P

Heh. Likewise.

[TheHalfman]

I think Natalie could possibly make a great Cersei (if she has the ability). The only "image" type of topic that concerns me with the series is that they do need to get actors for Jaime/Cersei who look very similar (even if it isn't factual, but I can bend on anything). Other than that, I do not care. With a book to TV adaption you can't expect all the sizes, facial hair, and clothing to be right.

adaptation: It is the process whereby an organism becomes better suited to its habitat.

Things will change. Fact.

But yes I respect your right to opinion and I hope they remain as faithful as they can.

[Venardhi]

In Hollywood, adaptation generally has another definition: The process by which a writer attempts to use a better writer's work to assure himself a paycheck while altering the work enough to convince himself he isn't just a hack.

Okay, that one is a bit trollish. But seriously. . . "Dip your wick?" ;)

I'm normally okay with Change if the argument behind it is sound, Aging up the cast a few years works out fine as long as you do it all around to keep the timeline in check. Giving Ned a bit of an edge can be argued as necessary to get the audience behind him, but don't make him a braggart. Likewise most of the line changes seem pointless and eye-rolling at best. I have good season to be skeptical, "I don't want men to know what I can do." gave me that, if nothing else.

This thread is about the cast though, so lets stay on the cast. Sean Bean suits Ned well enough that I won't complain about his casting, even though I wasn't one of the ones encouraging it over the last year or so. I can at least understand why, and expect good things out of him. This fellow playing Jon looks the part well enough that I just hope the age doesn't bother me too much, and having a no-name out of a theater background is very encouraging. Dinklage is too old and too swarthy, but obviously your choices here are limited and I know he is quite talented, and they seem to be establishing a pattern here with the ages.

These changes I can take in stride and fit into the virtual show playing out in my head, but Addy doesn't quit fit in yet, so I'm going to voice that to the audience here that might actually appreciate it. Something like having a Jaime and Cersei that are younger than their younger brother (5ish years younger as I recall, and while Dinklage doesn't look 40, he is obviously not in his 20s and no one is going to cough up the millions to CGI him younger for a season and a half.) while the rest of the main adult cast are all in their 40s and 50s seems like a bad idea to me, especially since much of that adult cast is short-lived.

I wouldn't be here if I wasn't interested in and looking forward to this show, I just disagree with most of you(and the writers it seems) for what is best for it. If that means Im going to be fighting a losing war with my more conservative (and apparently unpopular) opinion. . . so be it.

[The Anti-Targ]

I agree with Venardhi - they could make him look right, but there's no guarantee they'll have the time/budget for it. Apple boxes can't add half a foot to his height without putting his body out of proportion. In LOTR they went to almost ridiculous lengths. I think I remember a moving floor with a swiveling camera on it and the whole room chopped in half, to get one little shot in Bilbo's house. I would guess that Robert's size is not important enough to the story to be worth the effort; the only people disappointed will be us fans who'll definitely watch it anyway.

They had to go to those lengths because they were taking 2 actors of similar height and needing to keep one looking normal human height and another looking like they were only 3'6" (1.05m). So we are talking a difference of at least 2' (60cm) and probably more. Whereas here we're talking about 7" (18 cm). The lengths they need to go to are no where near those necessary for LOTR.

Hell if they can make Tom Cruise look taller than all his leading ladies without making him look all out of proportion they can put a few inches on Mark Addy.

[Dornish]

Has HBO ever not cast a character perfectly? I trust their track record.

[Venardhi]

"HBO" isn't a person, they aren't a collective hive mind of perfect television-producing supermen. These producers are new to HBO, many of the writers will have never worked on an HBO production either. Don't assume that just because HBO is fronting the cash and has their logo stamped on it that nothing can go wrong. I haven't been overly impressed with the entirety of either David or Dan's work, not to mention the script for this, so I'm going to assume guilty until proven innocent. Doesn't mean I won't be overjoyed to be proven wrong.

[Padraig]

I haven't been overly impressed with the entirety of either David or Dan's work, not to mention the script for this, so I'm going to assume guilty until proven innocent. Doesn't mean I won't be overjoyed to be proven wrong.

I love the way you deliberately go out of the way to throw in your dig and then say you "of course want the show to work". Its almost every post now. :lol:

I'm sure even David or Dan aren't pleased with all their work. :stunned:

Something like having a Jaime and Cersei that are younger than their younger brother while the rest of the main adult cast are all in their 40s and 50s seems like a bad idea to me, especially since much of that adult cast is short-lived.

As long as you recognise that realistically, most of the more attractive adult cast will be in their 20s and 30s. Bean was Bean. Nobody was going to worry about ages. Similarly Dinklage. Robert doesn't look good so age wasn't particularly important there either. But these are the exceptions. Not the rule.

the only people disappointed will be us fans who'll definitely watch it anyway.

I wouldn't care. I can imagine that they will make Addy an inch or two taller than Ned. Shouldn't be difficult. I don't see the point of making him 6 inches taller though. As somebody noted, GRRM took a bit of artistic license when he created the heights of characters.

But I had always hoped that the actor who played Robert would play ALL the Baratheon brothers.

Way too quirky for a serious series. :stunned:

[Dornish]

"HBO" isn't a person, they aren't a collective hive mind of perfect television-producing supermen.

Are you sure? ;)

[Venardhi]

I love the way you deliberately go out of the way to throw in your dig and then say you "of course want the show to work". Its almost every post now. :lol:

Well I've already been accused of trolling once, I don't want people to get the wrong idea about my motivations here.

I'm a pessimist by nature, but that doesn't mean I want things to turn out badly, just that I generally expect them to.

That said, I'm a very HOPEFUL pessimist and would give my left testicle (make that right, the left one is bigger and prettier) to feel the same rush from this TV series as I do even on a re-read of the books.

[The Pita]

I was hoping that the actor who plays Renly would play Robert in flashbacks, just as the actor who plays Joffrey will play Jaime in flashbacks.

In any case, I trust Dan & Dave with this. So far, they've showed us that they can do it perfectly, and moaning about Mark Addy not looking exactly perfect is just nitpicking.

Benioff was involved in X Men Wolverine, yes. But it doesn't mean that this is going to be X Men Wolverine. If it's as horrible as you suspect it will be, it won't be picked up. There is one HBO show I don't like, Entourage, but a lot of people really like it. This is out of the many, many, HBO productions I've seen (There was also that one where Tori Spelling played a call girl which was pretty bad) that were top notch. Seriously, Mark Addy is the wrong HEIGHT? So you mean that they might not be completely accurate with Gregor's height? OH NO THE WORLD IS FALLING DOWN FUCK I'M GONNA DIE WE'RE ALL DOOMED. What Robert needs is a big guy who can act. Mark Addy is big. According to Parris, Mark Addy can act. Do we really need to debate this any more?

HBO is a collective of people who care enough about what they're showing to say "This is crap, we're not gonna show it." If the show sucks, it won't be shown. Hell, if the show isn't amazing, it probably won't be shown (did you see the competition? It's Dave&Dan versus Scorcese!)

[Silverstar]

I think, basically, we need to accept that the series is not going to be 'perfect'.

I keep comparing this back to the Legend of the Seeker series, and thinking just how lucky we are. Many people on the forums here would say that the Goodkind books were not great source material, but obviously the fans thought it was, and were really excited by the prospect of the tv show. And what they got was a Disneyfied syndicated series with a bunch of no-name actors, their author cut out of the development process, and a storyline and characters that had been completely changed from the book series.

We, on the other hand, have HBO, for a start. If picked up, it'll be shown primetime, almost certainly. We've got decent writers, a great director, a script which as far as we can tell is pretty darn faithful to the books, our author has a strong connection to the series, and we've got Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy and Sean Bean, just for starters! How lucky are we, honestly?

When it comes down to the actors, the real most important thing about them is that they can act the parts and do them justice. Looks can be altered with CGI, and makeup, and wigs, and camera trickery. Acting can't be faked. And Mark Addy, according to Parris, can pull off GRRM's Robert, which is what is important.

We've all got visions in our heads about what the characters look like. I know what Robert Baratheon looks like (Brian Blessed, about thirty years ago). I know what Eddard Stark looks like (Sean Bean, actually). I know what Catelyn looks like, and Tyrion, and Cersei and Jaime. And I also know that when I see them on screen, they won't look like the visions in my head, for the most part. But hopefully after I've seen them on screen for a few minutes, I'll slowly start to see them as the characters, andthat will be my new vision of what the characters look like.

Robert is a great character, but he's not the most important one to be perfect. There are more important characters, and I think we all have our favourites who we just want to get perfect. For me, it's Catelyn. I want the actress to play her to be seriously talented and to look the way she looks in my head, but I know that the actress I want for the part probably won't get cast. So I'm steeling myself for the Catelyn Stark in the pilot not to be 'my' Catelyn. But I fully expect that if they cast her well, and I've got no reason to suspect they won't, that sooner or later, she will become 'my' Catelyn, and that I'll get used to it and probably be perfectly happy with it (if she can't act, that's another matter).

So ... having rambled on for a while, what I'm basically saying is that if you want the tv show to be perfect, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. But if you're able to just accept how lucky we are to be getting what we're getting, and put your trust in the people making the series to do the very best they can with it, then I think, in the end, we'll end up happy as anything with the final result.

[The Pita]

Damn you Silverstar.

I hate it when people say what I'm thinking. It drives me up the wall.

[Venardhi]

In any case, I trust Dan & Dave with this. So far, they've showed us that they can do it perfectly. . .

Perfection is a pretty tough thing to pull off, mind you share this evidence with the rest of the class?

Seriously, Mark Addy is the wrong HEIGHT? So you mean that they might not be completely accurate with Gregor's height? OH NO THE WORLD IS FALLING DOWN FUCK I'M GONNA DIE WE'RE ALL DOOMED.

Your hyperbole is unimpressive.

[Lord O' Bones]

I dub thee, Lord Venardhi of the Wet Blanket.

[Venardhi]

Sweet, I get a title and everyone.

I'd like to thank the academy. And of course I couldn't have done it without the constant disappointment from Hollywood and the many hardly-working hacks that made me so jaded to begin with.