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Westeros Blog: Charles Dance Cast as Tywin Lannister


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Wow, this series has such perfect casting. I've only seen this guy as Lord Vetinari in Postal, but I remember my husband and I thought he was the best thing about that series (and I liked the series in general). Vetinari is the same sort of role as Tywin, anyway, if a bit more comedic, so he's guaranteed to be good.

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I am reliably informed that Dance is also a fan of the books, meaning that he's already read them and thus knows all that he needs to about Tywin's motivations and backstory :) That should add a lot to his performance.

Hey Wert, was this some of the info you learned when you were trying to check the Sourcenator's authenticity over at WiC? I'd almost forgotten that incident, but your claim at the time that you'd learned the producers' top choice for Tywin was an interesting mystery. At the time I expected the actor to be announced quickly after the greenlight, but that obviously didn't happen.

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LOL, same for me, I thought I was the only one who remembered that movie!

Tatler magazine actually has an article this month about remembering the White Mischief incident...the real people, not the movie or actors. So it was on my mind. But the casting in that movie was stellar and Dance and Greta Scacchi made a memorable impression on me when I saw it.

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I'm speechless! A Lannister born! And I hope they keep his natural hair, he has aged very well and his receding hairline has the Tywin look without the need to shave him further.

He shaves it out of pride, making his baldness a choice rather than deal with what he sees as the emasculation of losing his hair outside of his control. It says a lot about him without having to explain it in conversation.

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I'd not be annoyed if they let Tywin/Dance keep his hair, as he actually looks like Lord Tywin with hair already. He might even be able to grow himself natural golden whiskers ;-).

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Tatler magazine actually has an article this month about remembering the White Mischief incident...the real people, not the movie or actors. So it was on my mind. But the casting in that movie was stellar and Dance and Greta Scacchi made a memorable impression on me when I saw it.

I loved "White Mischief," and my God, but was Greta Scacchi hot back then. I hadn't realized until yesterday, going over his credits, again that Dance had played the guy that cuckolds everybody's husbands in that (not a spoiler). A really terrific film.

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He shaves it out of pride, making his baldness a choice rather than deal with what he sees as the emasculation of losing his hair outside of his control. It says a lot about him without having to explain it in conversation.

Right, I had forgotten that. Still, as Lord Varys said...

I'd not be annoyed if they let Tywin/Dance keep his hair, as he actually looks like Lord Tywin with hair already. He might even be able to grow himself natural golden whiskers ;-).

We're in for wonderful times as the first pictures begin to trickle out. If the first Dance/Tywin pic in costume will have half the effect that the Bean/Ned pic had, it will blow us away.

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Spanky,

Lol. I pretty much only know him as the bad guy in Last Action Hero. He had the glass eye and was a perfect shot.

I first loved him in Gosford Park. I'd seen him before in Last Action Hero, but what I like best about him is that he can take the stuffy Englishman and find seven hundred different kinds of men within that range to play, and give each of them their own wide range of emotional affect entirely unique to each character. I imagine he has many other kinds of role, too, but even just in this one character niche, where anyone else would be cardboard after the first ten minutes, or between the first ten movies, he always finds the cause and motive and energy to reinvent.

Despite how we sometimes elide things here for the ease and grace of sliding this actor or that one into the role we want them to play, the truth is that Tulkington is not Vetinari, who is not Raymond Stockbridge, who is not Benedict, the glass-eyed assasin, who is definitely not Tywin Lannister.

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Charles Dance, for me, is the uber-menacing, dangerous lawyer, Tulkinghorn, in 'Bleak House.' He's so authentic in that part that just watching him on-screen chills my blood, as I'm sure it will again with Dance as Tywin Lannister. One particular nuance he's got down pat in this part is--Tulkinghorn never freakin' blinks!

:stunned:

Blinking is such a normal physiological activity that we never notice it. Think of a recent conversation you had with a friend or loved one. Did you ever notice or even give a thought to that person blinking? Nope. Or ever thought of your own blinking? Nope. We just do it, all of us. It's like breathing or like the beat of your heart, it just happens normally, naturally, and thus, disappears from our consciousness. Unless. Unless we come across someone who blinks way too much or someone who doesn't blink at all. Then your instincts will immediately kick in--uhhh, whoa, hold everything, something way wrong here. I've worked for many years in a profession in which we interact with people who're...disturbed, in one way or another. I'm no way a shrink of any kind, but in my experience the hyper-blinkers are so lost in their own tangled up thoughts it's difficult to even get through to them. You wonder when you're done talking if they've even heard a word you said. But, the never-blinkers? They're dangerous. They're the sharks, the snakes, the eagles, the predators, staring right at (and into) you, probing for a weakness, poised to strike.

Dance is such an excellent actor that being a predatory no-blinker was totally perfect for lawyer Tulkinghorn. It would also be totally perfect for Tywin Lannister. Can't wait to see if he uses this chilling device as Tywin.

:leaving:

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  • 1 month later...

I am reliably informed that Dance is also a fan of the books, meaning that he's already read them and thus knows all that he needs to about Tywin's motivations and backstory :) That should add a lot to his performance.

Bizarre coincidence, though. The just-announced Julian Glover was the main villain in the Bond movie For Your Eyes Only and Dance played one of his evil henchmen. Now they'll be facing one another across the small council table (albeit not until Season 3).

Charles Dance is the best piece of casting so far.

As disapointed as I am that we're loosing the marvelous Dotrice his replacement Julian Glover is a superb actor. I saw his Cassius in Peter Halls production of Julius Ceasar at Stratford and still maintain its the single greatest performance I've seen on stage. Possibly film and tv as well.

God I sound like such a luvie!

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