[TV SPOILERS] Best five actors in the show

[Rhaegar's Love]

1) Maisie Williams-not only does she totally embody Arya but she completely held her own with Charles Dance, which considering I'm pretty sure he's been in the business longer than she's been alive, is no small feat.

2) Charles Dance-I am a huge fan of show!Tywin because of Charles. I cannot praise him enough (still holding the whole acting out an entire scene while skinning a deer (even if it was pre-cut) in very high regard). He brings Tywin to such life I actually kind of root for the guy. Messed up I know but I can't help it.

And yes, the Tywin/Arya scenes are by far some of my favorite scenes in the whole series. I could watch them repeatedly.

3) Aidan Gillen-He has nailed so many little nuances that the audience is still left guessing just what the heck LF is up to.

4) Tie between Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (gotta give a shout out to a fellow Dane) and Lena Headey-they just so completely get their characters and portray it so you actually understand their point of view. I'd argue their characters are some of the most complex in the whole series but they make it seem effortless.

5) Another tie between Natalie Dormer and Diana Rigg-they can go from altruistic to scheming bitch to a giant question mark with such ease of flow. I could be happy with an entire season of nothing but scenes between Olenna and Tywin, and Margaery playing Joffrey like a fiddle (okay if Arya could pop up in them it would be a dream).

Huge honorable mentions to: Jack Gleeson, Conleth Hill, Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Harry Lloyd, Rory McCann, Natalia Tena and a lot of others.

Really, perfect casting is hard to argue with.

[grand old duke of stark]

In no particular order:

0 Charles Dance--Great actor, brings so much to the role, which in the book was plain vanilla compared to the show version. CD gives dignity, subtlety, mordant humour, auterity, severity, and Presence with a capital P. IIRC, we meet him while he's gutting a deer. The writers gave him the perfect introduction.

0 Diana Rigg--I loved Olenna of the books, but I absolute adore Olenna of the show. Olenna is every bit the equal of any man, anc you get the feeling that were she a man and 15 years younger, she's be twirling them all by the legs and laughing. Diana Rigg makes her easily the most formidable woman on the show. Compared to her, Cersei never had a chance. Nor Joffrey.

0 Conleth Hill--He doesn't have as much Presence, but Varys shouldn't. He's a shadow, insinuating, mercurial, seemingly subservient and in charge at the same time. He's as enigmatic as the book version, which is really hard to depict. And you can't believe a word he's saying....but you only realise that 10 minutes after he's said it.

0 Maisie Williams--The surprise of the cast. Her first role. This young girl captures the spirit, courage, candor, savviness, despair, determination, and sheer bloodymindedness of an unusual character. Whether she's bantering with Charles Dance (now, that's an acting lesson for her), or defying Sandor, or hugging her father...she is 100% believable. I hope she sticks with acting; if she does she'll be the next Diana Rigg (as she was 40 years ago).

0 Sean Bean--Another surprise, but for the opposite reasons. I'm surprised he hasn't made more people's lists. This is an actor we think we know--warrior, villain, gangster, lover, spy. But he's never combined all of those with family man who chooses to be in peril in a job (and place) he doesn't want but will perform honourably and ably. The warmth he brings to Ned as a father and husband I've never seen in him before. I don't think Ned is confused so much as overwhelmed by all the Kings Landing deception and the depths to which people sink. It is his warmth that makes Ned (who is quite cool in the books) the touchstone for his family and other Northerners afterwards and makes his death such a tragedy.

Honourable Mention--Peter Dinklage. Dinklage probably gets the best character and the best lines in the show. His accent wobbles, but that's minor. He deserved the Emmy, but frankly he's doing exactly what I thought he would. For some reason, I don't see Tyrion as much as Dinklage. Still, he's a fine actor.

[Jado]

1. Jack Gleeson

2. Peter Dinkage

3. Charles Dance

4. Nikolaj coster Waldua

5. Stephen Dillane

[Ice_Specter]

In no particular order

1. Alfie Allen
   
2. Lena Headey
   
3. Charles Dance
   
4. Peter Dinklage
   
5. Maisee Williams
   

[Atropis the Elf]

NCW as Jamie: sometimes I think one could read his inner thoughts by the expressions on his face.

Emilia Clarke as Dany: the contradiction between times she seems lost and vulnerable and times she talks like a conqueror is just profound. She nails every scene.

Maisie Williams as Arya: just phenomenal. The best bet of HBO.

Lena Headey as Cersei: I loved her before GoT, so I might be biased. I love the way she handles her voice.

Conleth Hill as Varys: he just adds another dimension to his role. The way he moves, talks, and gestures are simply second to none.

[Syvar Drepis]

5. Conleth Hill - Varys: I wasn't keen on Varys when reading the books, however when I watch the series, Conleth's acting really makes me appreciate the character.

4. Maisie Williams - Arya Stark: She perfectly encapsulates the character Arya. I haven't been able to fault her performance in any of her scenes.

3. Lena Healey - Cersie Lannister: She just oozes pure selfishness, bitchiness and cunning. I often think that I would not like to get on the bad side of Cersie, all because of how Lena portrays her.

2. Michelle Fairley - Catelyn Stark: I could not imagine a more perfect actor for the role of Catelyn. She is exactly how I imagined her. Her performance at the Red Wedding was the cherry on top of the cake - I could feel the pain in her voice, when she screamed after witnessing Robb die.

1. Aiden Gillen - Petyr "Littlefinger" Bealish. He portrays Littlefinger perfectly. He appears so untrustworthy, not just in his words, but in his eyes.

[ladytiger]

Charles Dance (Really brings a new dimension to Tywin that I didn't notice in the books; he IS Tywin and is absolutely amazing in his portrayal)

Sean Bean (Ned to a 't'; love him)

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (blew me away during season 3; he IS Jaime to me now; the Harrenhal bath scene was the best scene of acting on the whole show thus far)

Conleth Hill (he IS Varys; eerily creepy; probably embodies his character the best out of any actor on the show and is so like the book Varys description and personality it freaks me out)

threeway tie between Diana Rigg, Maisie Williams, & Michelle Fairley (they're all great in their own ways; as much as I hate on Catelyn the book character I think Michelle did well with portraying her, especially during the RW; Diana embodies Olenna perfectly and I love Maisie as Arya).

This list was really hard for me to make; I'd add Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey as runner-ups. There are so many great actors on this show that it's hard to pick just 5. They're all talented, even the 'hated' ones like Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, and Richard Madden. I also think that Sophie Turner is excellent as Sansa and I like Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran. Kristian Nairn is a great Hodor and I love Natalia Tena as Osha. Alfie Allen really nailed his Theon/Reek scenes in S3 as well and I think he'll be brilliant this season too. Also love Rory McCann as Sandor.

I really liked Aidan Gillen as Littlefinger in S1, but felt like his motives became too obvious on S2 and S3 and he started using that annoying Batman voice in S2. We'll see how he does in S4 before I make my final judgment call on him.

It's so hard to just pick 5!!!! Ahh!!! :laugh:

[User inactive]

Charles Dance perfectly embodies Tywin. I didn't like Tywin as a character while reading the books but Dance brought new life to the character and I was able to change my mind about him.

NCW is perfect as Jaime. I love the way he can portray all of the different dimensions of the character.

Peter Dinklage is a guaranteed scene stealer.

Maisie Williams has incredible acting talent for one so young. I don't think there could've been a better choice for an actress to play Arya.

Number five is a toss up between Jack Gleeson and Lena Heady because they are both fantastic at being evil and twisted.

Honourable mention to Harry Lloyd because of his growth as an actor. I watched him as Will Scarlett in Robin Hood several years ago and his depth as an actor has grown tremendously since then.

[Winterfell Resident]

1) Arya - Maisie Williams

2) Jon Snow - Kit Harington

3) Catelyn Stark - Michelle Fairley (Red Wedding Episode)

4) Tywin Lannister - Charles Dance

5) Jaimie Lannister - Nicolaj (Hand is cut off Episode)

[Broken Fox]

Maisie Williams

Charles Dance

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Conleth Hill

Those four are the first that come to mind. These actors absolutely become the character they're playing. You don't see them acting, they just are.

Emilia Clarke gets an honorable mention for her Valyrian scene. That was pretty great.

[Jairion Lannister]

1. NCW as Jaime-He's one of the actors who seems perfect for the role. He really got across the cockiness and the arrogance in the first couple of seasons, but then handled the transformation subtly and brilliantly.

2. Peter Dinklage as Tyrion-He's got great material to work with, but he still does a great job. Incredibly charismatic and entertaining whenever he's onscreen.

3. Charles Dance as Tywin-The way he's able to convincingly put down some of the shows other characters in a moment is brilliant. He's commanding and you can see why people fear him. I think the extra stuff they've given him has worked really well too. He's still a villain on the grand scale of things and a bad person, but they make it clear why he is and make him fairly human too.

4. Conleth Hill as Varys-The extra mystery and uncertainty the character really helps him. Really slimy and creepy, while being entertaining too.

5. Jack Gleeson as Joffrey-In a way, he's not got as difficult a job as some of the other cast members in that he's simply got to be evil most of the time, while some characters are constantly developing and changing, with a range of emotions. What he does do, he does brilliantly though. It's a part which could've been hammed up too much by a young actor and made too look over the top and corny, but he's managed to do it perfectly. The fact that the character is hated by so much of the audience shows how good he is at the part. It's even better when you consider he's very young compared to a lot of the other cast members.

[Livus]

Peter Dinklage and Charles Dance, just because it's always a pleasure to watch either of them in pretty much anything.

The others I'd never heard of/noticed before watching this programme:
Aiden Gillen

Maisie Williams

Conleth Hill

[aussiegirl]

In no particular order of the ones still in the show:

1. Maisie Williams

2. Charles Dance

3. Stephen Dillane

4. NCW

5. Conleith Hill

[yushkevitch]

My list may be a little more about who was cast best for their role, but all of these actors have done well regardless:

1) Emilia is a gifted actress, she's absolutely incredible as Dany

2) Conleth Hill (Varys)

3) Peter Dinklage

4) Carice van Houten (Melissandre)

5) Kristofer Hivju (Tormund)

[binhorde]

1. Charles Dance

2. Maisie Williams

3. Peter Dinklage

4. Nikolaj coster Waldua

5. Rory McCann

[jaimereborn]

very interesting how pretty much noone has mentioned kit harington. i would agree too - jon snow was the most disappointing casting decision of the entire series, especially given he is such a pivotal character. very little nuance or drama has been conveyed by kit's acting - the apparent internal turmoil of being a bastard has only come across as petulant or exasperated. it's a shame they cast such a one dimensional actor, when the other leads are pretty much all fantastic.

[Koi No Yokan]

very interesting how pretty much noone has mentioned kit harington. i would agree too - jon snow was the most disappointing casting decision of the entire series, especially given he is such a pivotal character. very little nuance or drama has been conveyed by kit's acting - the apparent internal turmoil of being a bastard has only come across as petulant or exasperated. it's a shame they cast such a one dimensional actor, when the other leads are pretty much all fantastic.

I think Kit is a fine actor. He was great in Season 1. Season 2 his character suffered from some butchered story (just like Emilia's) and bad writing. Season 3 he had little screen-time again, and most of it seemed to focus on Ygritte. Though from the lines he did have, I thought he was fine.

This will be Kit's season to shine. Yeah, he hasn't been a standout, but that's mostly due to the writing IMO. With him being an important character for events to come (especially a certain episode), we'll get to see how Kit handles himself physically and emotionally. Don't count him out just yet!

[Livus]

Part of the porblem is that so much about Jon Snow is inner turmoil. Although sometimes action packed, his POV is always very much about his inner thoughts and him not really showing them very much to others, which is probably hard to do on TV without voiceovers etc.

[Lars Penry]

For me:

5: Nikolaj Coster Waldau - From the beginning, when I had only seen the first series and knew nothing of the books or the character, He managed to bring a genuine weight to a character that could easily have been a cliche, 'yaar I'm evil' archetype until recently. There was always more just beneath the surface in his performance. But he's only had series 3 to fully expose the hart of Jaime Lannister, by the end of 4 I expect him to be higher on my list.

4. Giancarlo Esposito - He was amazing as Brown Ben Plumm... Wait...

3. Sean Bean - Had he been around longer, he probably would have been at the top. But he was pretty much perfect as the honourable, family man in a city of manipulators.

2. Emilia Clarke - Absolutely knocked it out of the park from day 1. Fresh out of acting school, she's clearly a phenomenal actress. Taking Daenerys from frightened tortured little sister in series 1, to the mother of Dragons, warrior queen and saviour. In short, she rocked the house.

1. Peter Dinklage - Despite the writers slightly white washing Tyrion as the show went on, Dinklage's portrayal is pretty much flawless.

[The Killer Snark]

Emilia Clarke is definitely coming into her own on this. Dinklage is brilliant. But my favourite actor or actress in this is probably Lena Headey, with her smirky dominatrix MILF take on Cersei; she's an excellent actress I've enjoyed in anything she's been in, she's supersexy, but before GoT she wound up unfortunately saddled with a host of unsatisfactory roles. She was underused in Waterland, her breakthrough, was one of the only good things about the mostly preposterous Gossip, and appeared once in a horror film called Laid to Rest where she appeared for about ten minutes before getting killed. The roles she's had since GoT (Dredd and The Purge) have seen her finally getting full use made of her skill, in an age where Liam Neeson keeps getting film roles, a one-accent, one facial expression woooden mannequin who blatantly can't act.

Also, Headey's Twitter page, which half consists of her posting graffitied and deliberately bad selfies, is a riot. I remember her putting up a production photo of the GoT cast where she's dressed as Cersei and licking Peter Dinklage's face. Despite her posh totty looks, she's a down to earth northern lass who swears like a pirate, and I want to marry her someday if she wishes to bear my kids. :drunk: