Westeros Blog: Catelyn Recast: Ehle Out, Fairley In

[Arionis]

Off topic:

Why on earth do they need a Mrs Granger for the last Potter movies?

At a certain point Hermione casts a spell on her parents to protect them, but I don't remember anything else.

[red snow]

I thought Ehle was going to be wobbly in terms of schedule with her other stage commitments in terms of filming the series but if she is pregnant then I guess there's not much can be done (except for hiding her behind of tables and wearing long gowns). Fairley seems like quite a different choice to the point where I have to wonder whether someone from HBO decided they wanted a completely different look for the character. I will have to see what Silverstar's take is - as the big Catleyn afficionado.

The good thing about this recasting is that i think it does allow a bit more wiggle for the age/appearance of Littlefinger. Although Eddie Izzard is still a bit of a grasp.

Hopefully no other recasting occurs. I still worry a lot about Jason Momoa now he is Conan and really hope that doesn't clash as I can understand Jason choosing a potential movie franchise as the lead character over a short-lived but important character in an ensemble show. Recasting of the young children I can live with though (not that I have anything at all against the current selection.

[The white rabbit]

I would not be so worry about Momoa, because of the recent big interview with him, where his involement in GoT, was pointed out once again, along with the scheduke of shooting.

[Ran]

Momoa should be done by early June, from all I've read. March start, three month shoot, from all I've read.

One note from The Live Feed is that the source for this news states that it's "behind-the-scenes" stuff and not performance-related. James Hibberd (aka the Live Feed guy) seems to buy that, and seems to know more about just what "behind-the-scenes" means in this case, but it's something he can't share.

[Jonias Snow]

I am sad too, I was so looking forward to Ehle as Catlyn, she had the look, the acting chops and she has played a lot of noble woman on screen, she was perfect. This new Actress Michelle Fairley, I cannot find much about, her roles apparently were working class female roles, with personal problems, so can she handle playing a noble woman. I understand the transformation Cat goes through in books 2 and 3, but she is still noblity, looks and act it, even though underneath she is sad, with the feeling of loss after loss piling up.

I cannot find a glamour pic of Fairley anywhere on how she would look as a noble lady, can someone please find one or can HBO please release a pic of her where she is all decked out in her finest for an event. I mean she just looks sooooo gloomy and old in all her roles and she's 9 years older than Ehle. Her plus side is she has a considerable amount of stagework and that bodes well as stage actors are great character players and can really transform into a role.

This next part is at HBO, bad bad PR boys and gals, if you are going to replace such a high profile role on what is going to be your biggest series, you need to have press kits available online with all sorts of info and tons of pics. There is hardly shit on the internet about Ms. Fairley. I mean look at the few pictures of her as a drunken, low life not very hot looking 50 year old female on the net, thats about all we have except for a couple of pics that don't really let us know how she looks as a very beautiful noble women. There are all sorts of bad things being said about her atm, because the pics that are online are not very complimentory toward her, and a few think you are trying to lower the bar for the show. So you need to clarify things (online press kit) and put more on the web concerning her with some damn decent pics. Make what appears to be a questionable choice (even though it may not be) and you get bad PR. So let me make it easy for you, will she look like this http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JjTZojojDPI/ScPw7sIaOkI/AAAAAAAAAN8/PPaqAy8tX_w/s320/CatlynStark.jpg when shooting starts.

[Werthead]

From the speed of this, it is likely, even probably, that Fairley was one of the other actresses who auditioned for Cat, and was probably the producers' second choice after Ehle. Given the number of excellent 35-50-year-old-odd actresses who must have gone for the role (seriously, roles like this for women of that age are not as commonplace as they should be), Fairley must have been very good indeed in her audition to get the role.

[Whiteshadow]

Imo Fairley fits better than Ehle. Ehle is a gourgeous woman and a great actress, but maybe a bit too normal for the rugged and distressed Catelyn.

[Jonias Snow]

Imo Fairley fits better than Ehle. Ehle is a gourgeous woman and a great actress, but maybe a bit too normal for the rugged and distressed Catelyn.

OMG, did you say rugged, Catleyn is downright stunning, and you should read her discription better from the books. She might be somewhat stern and emotionless at time, but not even close to rugged in appearance, she is one of the most attractive women in Westeros, Sansa looks like a young version of her. This pic is closest to what she looks like http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JjTZojojDPI/ScPw7sIaOkI/AAAAAAAAAN8/PPaqAy8tX_w/s320/CatlynStark.jpg from the description in the books.

[fitheach]

Wow, really didn't expect this... Well, she does look alot like Sophie Turner if that's any consolation. :leaving:

[Lady Blackfish]

Actually Jonias Snow's post does get me to thinking, Catelyn is a bigger presence than Cersei in the books, but everyone certainly had been billing Lena Headey ahead of (or more often than) Ehle despite that. How exactly is HBO going about this role?

I never thought of Catelyn as rugged exactly, but patrician, not just in physical looks but just her overall bearing. Ehle came across a bit soft to me (though still intelligent and persistent), but while Fairley looks more serious, she seems more resigned and worn down. Unfortunately with lesser known actresses we are at the mercy of a small pool of photos and clips.

[Whiteshadow]

OMG, did you say rugged, Catleyn is downright stunning, and you should read her discription better from the books. She might be somewhat stern and emotionless at time, but not even close to rugged in appearance, she is one of the most attractive women in Westeros, Sansa looks like a young version of her. This pic is closest to what she looks like http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JjTZojojDPI/ScPw7sIaOkI/AAAAAAAAAN8/PPaqAy8tX_w/s320/CatlynStark.jpg from the description in the books.

Catelyn is a beauty in the first books, but after ACOK I always imagined her as older looking and distressed. She goes through hell and only gets little sleep.

I cant imagine Ehle looking like that.

Fairley convinced me in that trailer at

http://www.westeros.org/GoT/News/Entry/More_on_Michelle_Fairley/

[moirne]

Catelyn is a beauty in the first books, but after ACOK I always imagined her as older looking and distressed. She goes through hell and only gets little sleep.

I cant imagine Ehle looking like that.

Fairley convinced me in that trailer at

http://www.westeros.org/GoT/News/Entry/More_on_Michelle_Fairley/

Good point. It is disappointing about Ehle, but those trailers were good. I'm sure Fairley will be an excellent Catelyn.

[Lady Blackfish]

Hrmm I dunno, it would make more sense to me to cast her at her best and then make-up her down, rather than cast her at her worst and then make-up her up. Yeah I know, I totally worded that badly.

[Ran]

Mrm. Catelyn was doubtless pretty in her youth, and some might say she's beautiful, but she is never called beautiful, much less a great beauty, as far as I can remember. All she says regarding her beauty is that Sansa was going to be much more beautiful than she ever was.

Here is Catelyn Stark as sculpted by the fantastic Tom Meiers, with GRRM's direct input. It's a tiny miniature, which means certain distortions take place, but I think you'll find that Catelyn's general appearance is more "handsome" than "stunningly beautiful". In fact, I think it's implict in the descriptions of young Lysa that she (who Jaime called "pretty") was more beautiful than Catelyn had been.

My long time choice for Catelyn, BTW, was Kristin Scott Thomas.

In any case, as a general note:

These are real, living people that we're talking about, people who might be reading this forum right now and who are seeing their appearance criticized and denigrated by fans who know nothing about them. Please don't go to lengths to denigrate their personal appearance and imply they are "old", "ugly", what have you. If you don't think they look right as you imagine it, feel free to say so, but be sensitive to how you put it.

[Han Shot First]

Yeah, not happy at all. Ehle would have been terrific. She had that quiet rage that Catelyn possessed.

[Alexia]

See, I always thought Catelyn was one of the few great beauties of the kingdom and she was on Cersei's level. Perhaps not anymore, now that she's older (but how is is she - 32? That's not old!) but Sansa is supposed to look like her! LF thinks that she looks just the same as Catelyn at that age; Catelyn is the one who says Sansa will be more beautiful and I wonder if some of that is mother's eye.

Fairley doesn't look anything like what I imagined Catelyn, but then again Ehle didn't fit my vision of Catelyn either and I thought the girl playing Arya is much prettier than my mental image of Arya. The important thing is that they can act, makeup, hair dye/wigs, and costume can work wonders. Considering that these are characters in a novel anyway, every fan is going to have a different mental image of what they look like. If she can act, I'll never be able to shake the image of her as Catelyn after watching her in the show. :)

[Ran]

Yeah, you know, Catelyn is never called a beauty. Except I guess by Littlefinger saying that she was his "Queen of Love and Beauty", which doesn't really mean anything. When she was younger, it sure seems like "pretty" Lysa was considered the better looking of the two, although on the other hand, Catelyn was generally considered the more "interesting" (Lysa was a giggly little fool).

Obviously, everyone has their mental image. Mine was Kristin Scott Thomas, but I'm very flexible.

Here is another clip of Fairley from the film Hideous Kinky, starting at the 3:30 mark:

[Lady Blackfish]

I always felt like part of the reason Cersei was noted as more beautiful had to do with the fact that she was also queen and really flaunted her looks more. But however you quantitatively measure them all up (beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway), I always felt like Catelyn should be striking, whether or not that means stunningly beautiful. It's not really her looks in particular so much as her overall impression, she should be impressive. Just the way things were worded -- yes, Sansa might be growing up to be more beautiful, but if Littlefinger says "I think you're more beautiful than even your mother was at your age," that shouldn't indicate that it's easy. Likewise, Lysa recalled that on her wedding day, she outshone even her sister; that shouldn't indicate that she always did. Lysa seems proud of the fact that on that one day, she managed to out-do Catelyn. Jaime's memories also seem to indicate that Lysa wasn't as noticeable. So even if it's never clearly stated, I think that has more to do with the fact that GRRM wants us to access her from another aspect.

As for the casting, I don't so much care about the quantitative attractiveness more than the overall vibe, which is a horribly vague word, but what I'm looking for is strength. Catelyn goes through a lot of adversity, but she fights until the end. You know that part in ASOS where she goes, "Let the kings of winter keep their cold crypts under the earth?" She has inner defiance, and that's what I am looking for most of all. I personally don't know anything about Michelle Fairley and the clips don't seem representative of what she'd be like to watch now, so I think it's premature to say that she won't be a fit, but I admit I'm sympathetic to the qualms for that same reason.

[Ran]

Jaime said that Catelyn was more interesting, shortly after denigrating Lysa's simpering and thinking of the fire of Cersei's personality. Which I think casts it fairly clearly in terms of his judging them on personality more than looks. As to Littlefinger, Littlefinger is rather biased, having developed a passion for Catelyn. I suspect he found her indescribably beautiful because of this, at the time.

As I said, Catelyn was certainly pretty, perhaps even beautiful, but not what anyone has ever implied was a great beauty.

Striking is a good one. I tend to imagine Catelyn as striking ala Thomas (particularly circa The End of the Affair), rather than a classic beauty.

[Alexia]

Yeah, you know, Catelyn is never called a beauty. Except I guess by Littlefinger saying that she was his "Queen of Love and Beauty", which doesn't really mean anything. When she was younger, it sure seems like "pretty" Lysa was considered the better looking of the two, although on the other hand, Catelyn was generally considered the more "interesting" (Lysa was a giggly little fool).

I thought of Kate Winslet, but with darker hair. ;) And its funny that I always pictured Lysa as less beautiful by a notch or so and she quickly lost what looks she had. And her unattractive personality made her deteriorate more quickly than Catelyn and made her "project" less beauty, for lack of a better term.

Actually, I'm looking forward to seeing Lysa cast since I always had an overwhelming sense of pity for her character.

As for the casting, I don't so much care about the quantitative attractiveness more than the overall vibe, which is a horribly vague word, but what I'm looking for is strength.

I like this way of putting it. Catelyn has iron in her spine; she is a very compelling personality.