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[Spoilers] Possible Casting Choices for Season Two


Xray the Enforcer

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The constant suggestions of Katee Sackhoff for Brienne are educating me on two things.

1) Where "Hollywood Ugly" comes from. People can't stand to see any unattractive women, even if the role calls for it. In fact, this is Brienne's actual problem in the books - when people see an unattractive woman they can't see any other qualities she possesses.

2) Typecasting. When an actor has played one part, they tend to get thought of for similar roles throughout their career, for no good reason. A good actor can play many characters. I'm sure Katee could play a wilting flower of a woman, or a haughty queen, or a depressed housewife, or whatever. But she plays one tough woman, and people can't imagine her as anything else.

I can't see HBO casting an actress as ugly as Brienne is described in the books - she is really supernaturally ugly, and that would be hard to find. But I'm sure there are tall actresses with broad shoulders and strong features who can be made to look plausibly like a big, butch warrior woman.

HBO may have a rep for eye-candy, but they don't seem to use it where it wouldn't make sense - the actress who plays Catelyn is getting a lot of stick for looking the same age as her husband and plausibly old enough to be the mother of an 18 year-old son. Most productions would have her played by a hottie 8 years older than her "son." So I suspect they will go for a reasonably tall and plain Brienne. After all, Asha exists to fill the "hot warrior woman" role.

I think they should rather go for the slightly smaller but masculine type than for big and oafish, otherwise the non readers immediately think: Look it's Hodor's sister...

That's exactly what they are meant to think.

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The constant suggestions of Katee Sackhoff for Brienne are educating me on two things.

1) Where "Hollywood Ugly" comes from. People can't stand to see any unattractive women, even if the role calls for it. In fact, this is Brienne's actual problem in the books - when people see an unattractive woman they can't see any other qualities she possesses.

2) Typecasting. When an actor has played one part, they tend to get thought of for similar roles throughout their career, for no good reason. A good actor can play many characters. I'm sure Katee could play a wilting flower of a woman, or a haughty queen, or a depressed housewife, or whatever. But she plays one tough woman, and people can't imagine her as anything else.

HBO may have a rep for eye-candy, but they don't seem to use it where it wouldn't make sense - the actress who plays Catelyn is getting a lot of stick for looking the same age as her husband and plausibly old enough to be the mother of an 18 year-old son. Most productions would have her played by a hottie 8 years older than her "son." So I suspect they will go for a reasonably tall and plain Brienne. After all, Asha exists to fill the "hot warrior woman" role.

I think I love you a bit. Brilliant post Brienne the Beauty! I concur on all points, save that I see Brienne as tall, awkward, socially inept, physically athletic and unusually muscular ie a bit butch but not lady-wrestler-muscular. Facially: freckly, round-faced etc. CATEGORICALLY NOT HOLLYWOOD UGLY. Basically Gwendoline Christie with her hair hacked at (like in this http://img401.imageshack.us/f/brienne.jpg/), after gym time + no make-up/sweaty sheen.

And in response to your other comments, I found the dismissal of Michelle Fairley offensive but not unexpected. I don't think many brits would question her casting; she's in a very cool programme called Misfits (check it out everyone, it's very good) in which she's banging a guy 10 years younger than Bean and it's all cool...

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They are not scandinavian or meant to look like it.
The ironborn aren't meant to look scandinavian? The GREYJOYS aren't?

Regardless, we know exactly what Theon looks like, and they've tried to do a good job of keeping familial lines looking similar to each other. Casting a hispanic actress to look like Alfie Allen is probably not going to work out so well.

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Mellisandre? Whats wrong with you people?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0376716/

Devastating natural redhead, can act your head off, plus has her own heat waves.... no need for CGI. :D

She's American (which is generally discouraged on this show) and IMO would be too expensive for a role that doesn't need a whole lot of nuanced acting. Melisandre is probably the closest thing the series has to the stereotypical, two-dimensional 'muhuahahaha' cartoon villain. The biggest acting challenge for her role will be to speak in a sultry voice and look beautifully sinister. No sense wasting a big chunk of the budget on a role any number of young actresses should be able to pull off.

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Melisandre is probably the closest thing the series has to the stereotypical, two-dimensional 'muhuahahaha' cartoon villain. The biggest acting challenge for her role will be to speak in a sultry voice and look beautifully sinister. No sense wasting a big chunk of the budget on a role any number of young actresses should be able to pull off

I totally disagree, Mel is meant to be a character who has unknown intentions. She is meant to be enigmatic, mysterious and devout. Despite not fitting the physical description of the character, I would love to see someone like Michelle Forbes (Battlestar, True Blood, The Killing) in the role. The part needs someone with real gravitas, so that she doesn't come across like a stereotypical cartoon villain. I think one of the ways to do that is to cast an older actress.

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Thats right, Ironborn are not meant to look like the usual scandinavian cliche and Michelle would fit right in being darkhaired as the rest of the Greyjoys. (cept Victarion who is blondish, right?)
You know that how someone looks isn't quite about their hair, right?

And no, the Greyjoys and all the ironmen are about as scandinavian as you can get short of them shopping at Ikea. Their appearance, their armor, their demeanor. The only bit that might be slightly different is that many have darker hair, but that's not that odd among Danes and the like. Again, look at Alfie Allen - do you think, reasonably, that he could be related to Michelle Rodriguez?

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First time i hear anything about this being a strictly British show and discouraging actors from other countries.

That sounds rather insulting and really pathetic. Im happy such nonsense isnt a part of HBO production for real.

It is part of HBO production 'for real'. It keeps costs down significantly because it allows for joint work with the UK counterparts, I believe. Some folks (Peter Dinklage is the big one, though Jason Momoa is another) are an exception, but there are very few exceptions and largely it'll be a UK cast entirely.

The biggest logistical problem with Hendricks is that she does do most of her acting on TV, and doing two TV shows is pretty hard from a scheduling perspective - especially when she's acting on another continent and the two shows don't line up. I'd be shocked if she didn't have a nocompete clause in her MM contract that didn't allow her for a starring role on a TV show other than theirs.

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I totally disagree, Mel is meant to be a character who has unknown intentions. She is meant to be enigmatic, mysterious and devout. Despite not fitting the physical description of the character, I would love to see someone like Michelle Forbes (Battlestar, True Blood, The Killing) in the role. The part needs someone with real gravitas, so that she doesn't come across like a stereotypical cartoon villain. I think one of the ways to do that is to cast an older actress.

Hmm...I see the point you're making, but I don't believe Mel's particular brand of mystery and enigma would be particularly hard to pull off. Guess we just interpret the character different ways.

Not that I'm suggesting someone with no acting experience get the role - but a relative unknown would probably be fine.

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WiC has some pretty cool casting threads, they had one for Brieanne.

I really like the look of Eva Damen for the role; however, although WiC says she's tall, her IMDB profile claims she is 5'9". Still, probably my favorite and I like that she's taking the Conan Stevens route.

WiC has others under casting including Davos, Stannis, and Melisandre.

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Oh fug it, let's just have Angelina Jolie playing Asha and Coach Bieste from Glee playing Brienne. Who cares what age the characters are supposed to be, right? rolleyes.gif They are the best match for the character! AJ is already badass and sexy, and Coach Bieste in full armor will be so natural. Problem solved. thumbsup.gif

On a serious note, they could send out a casting call for female athletes or wrestlers who want to go into acting. The male wrestlers are able to break into acting slowly, so why not give this opportunity to the female wrestlers? They could find a budding actress among the athletes/wrestlers with the physique that fits Brienne. Heck, the actress doesn't even have to be good as Brienne is supposed to be awkward anyway.

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I sincerely doubt that Brienne will be as ugly as she was in the books. Just look st Tyrion. I just want a good actress that's tall and muscular. Hopefully they can find one that's plain looking, or they make an attempt to make Brienne plain or less attractive, but I doubt we'll be getting a woman that's hard on the eyes.

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