The Best Casting and Worst Casting (in your opinion).

[WhatIsDeadMayNeverLive]

Best: Michelle Fairley, Mark Addy, Harry Lloyd, Jack Gleeson, Conleth Hill, NCW, Peter Dinklage, Charles Dance, Sean Bean, ...

Worst: Aidan Gillen, Kit Harrington, Stephen Dillane, the Renly actor, the Shae actress

[GaMartell]

My chose for best casting are:

Charles Dance as Tywin

Peter Dinklage as Tyrion

Natalie Dormer as Margaery

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey

Conleth Hill as Varys

Diana Rigg as Olenna.

The worsts:

Richard Madden as Robb

Isaac H-W as Bran

Sophie Turner as Sansa.

I based my decision on how interesting I feel they are on screen, nothing to do with the personification they make of the character I pictured in my head while reading the books. Generally all the cast is good, but the ones in the "best" list are those who every time they appear and open there mouth or move are just great.

I would put Alfie Allen as Theon and Michelle Fairley as Cat in the "best" list as well, but I feel they made a better impression in season 2 and 3 respectively

[Lady of Long Lake]

Favorite castings:

Charles Dance ( and the best actor on the show but the role suits his style)

Peter Dinklage

Robert Baratheon - ( on second thought, he IS the best actor actually. His emotional spectrum was amazing to behold. Dance is excellent at his "one-emotion" Tywin but Robert was excellent at them all- fury, sorrow, frustration, desperation, drunkenness, regret, fear, mirth)

Sam Tarly

Jaime

Kit Harrington- excellent portrayel of sad and mad Jon. The storylines though are TERRIBLE at the Wall.

Maisie but I have found some of her storylines very badly written in the show.

Bronn- so believable in this role:)

Gendry- he and Maisie have the best acting chemistry in the entire show:)

Jacqen- perfection

Sandor- bad mouth piece but great in every other way

Varys

Rose Leslie

Osha- She has such weird mannerisms and enunciations, but it honest to God makes her spectacular in this role !

Jeor- perfection in every way

Disappointing castings:

Dany- over acts and doesn't look exotic

Cersei- she slouches, leans and tilts her head constantly. I see "crazy evil lady" when I look at her but never see "queen material". She also sucks on her teeth weirdly while waiting to say her lines. She DOES say her lines exquisitely though!

Theon- over acts to the point of flamboyancy

Stannis- so wrong physically. The actor has desperate eyes and a defeated countenance. Stannis is rigid, confident and determined.

Mance- wrong look, wrong personality, wrong story lines, wrong everything

Renley- what the heck! How hard is it to find someone that looks like Clark Kent from Smallville? That's how amazing young Robert looked. He looked like a God. With muscles.

[RenlyIsNotRight]

Stannis- so wrong physically. The actor has desperate eyes and a defeated countenance. Stannis is rigid, confident and determined.

While I agree that in some ways Dillane is physically quite different from book Stannis - personally I would have cast an actor with a more athletic build and a more square face/strong jaw - "confident" is not a word I'd use to describe Stannis. He has a lot of self doubt even in the books, and I actually like the "defeated countenance" Dillane brings to the role. The problem is not Dillanes acting, it's D&Ds obvious either bias against or apathy towards him making him out be some desperate sad sack who also sleazily expresses his "love" for Melisandre, while in the books, even in spite of that "defeated countenance", he kept on fighting.

Also, I see a lot of people mentioning Mance as a miscast character. Show Mance sucks, that is pretty undeniable, but I don't think its because he's miscast. Cirian Hinds is an awesome actor, its just that the writing took away everything that made Mance interesting for some reason. Had they actually given the proper amount of attention to his character I really feel that Cirian could have done well with it - while his portrayal as Caesar in Rome wasn't exactly Mance esque he was definitely a lot more charismatic than he is on GoT.

[Azor Ahoy]

I'm going to touch on a few characters I haven't seen mentioned very much here.

Jerome Flynn as Bronn. Exactly what I pictured, and plays the ruthless, cut-throat to a tee.

Richard Madden as Robb Stark. Mostly, the way he speaks and his mannerisms and facial expressions perfectly portray the pain, uneasiness of being King in the North, and finally the confidence of being so young and winning every battle he has been in.

Alfie Allen as Theon is sort of both best and worst to me. Looks-wise, he is nothing like what I pictured or how he was described in the books, but he really does a fantastic job embracing the character and all his flaws, and making you feel strongly about him one way or another.

Those are the three that stand out the most to me, aside from Drogo, who could not have been any better.

[Mother of Mini Dragons]

I just don't understand the continued complaints about the way an actor looks. I get that you need a big actor for the mountain or Jason Momoa for Khal Drogo, but some of the looks complaints about actors who are killin' it in their roles boggle my mind. Yeah, King Robert is taller in the books, but Mark Addy nailed that role and put the spirit and character of Robert into it. So what if all the Stark kids don't have red hair or Maisie's face is too round? Seriously, how can anyone actually complain about Maisie?

I think this cast is beyond amazing and it's too hard to pick the best cast actor/actress. Probably a personal favorite for me is Charles Dance because he has made Tywin Lannister even more intriguing and his presence in every scene is so compelling. But I'd have to list just about everyone if I picked my faves.

So I'll just go with who I think wasn't good choice.

Loras - I don't know the actor's name. I don't know if it's his fault or the fact that the writers have changed his character so much. I guess I don't like the changes. He should come across more as a warrior. So with that being said, maybe it's both. The writers have downplayed his warrior aspect, but if they didn't - I have hard time seeing that particular actor pull it off.

Mance Raider - Again, I don't know if the writers are messing that up and maybe Ciaran can play that role correctly if given the material, but he just has zero personality.

I also didn't like Xaro, not because they changed his ethnicity, but because he was abysmally boring.

[navix]

Did someone actually complain that Maisie's face is too round? If so that is beyond stupid.

[Jslay427]

Don't get where the LF hate is coming from, Gillian is amazing IMO. Doesn't have enough screen time. Although he started speaking like batman this season. Irked me some.

[One of Three]

There are actors in the show who inhabit their role perfectly are the ones that have a presence such as Charles Dance, Peter Dinklage, Conleth Hill, Jerome Flynn, all these actors have this amazing presence that make me just want to sit and watch them. Patrick Malahide as Balon Greyjoy is another one. I loved that he got into the 3rd season even if it was just a cameo, he was just so perfect for that character and had this amazing charisma about him. Same with David Bradley as Walder Frey, I'd happily sit a watch him be a **** for a hour.

The vast majority of actors do a great job. Gwendoline Christie as Brienne, Lena Headey as Cersei, Nickolaj Coster-Waldau as Jamie, Michelle Fairley as Catelyn. All the stark children actors are pretty good. I actually really liked Paul Kaye as Thoros, again he was quite charismatic. Alfie Allen does a great job as Theon. I thought Iwan Rhoen as Ramsey was great, but he is tending to get psychopath roles a lot.

I think Emilia Clarke as Dany is perfectly fine, but I'm not really interested in Dany as a character. Ciaran Hands was ok, but even when I read the books Mance just popped up at the beginning of ASoS

and doesn't appear for another 2 books

, so to me his character was redundant anyway. Gemma Whelan does an ok job with Yara, but she's not Asha who I've fallen madly in love with (I actually have haha).

I don't think there is any actors that I dislike, maybe Kit Harrington goes a bit too over dramatic at times and maybe Gregor Clagne is season 2 was off, but generally there is no one that I feel shouldn't be near the character.

[gabrielle.]

"Gemma Whelan does an ok job with Yara, but she's not Asha who I've fallen madly in love with (I actually have haha)."

Not sure if this is a result of the direction this actress was given or the actress' skill, but I would say Yara (Asha) Greyjoy left me scratching my head, too.

Book Asha is clearly a very extroverted, cocky, swashbuckling, piratey-type with lots of sass/bravado.

[TheDarkEye]

Tywin, Jaime, Ned, Thoros, Tyrion, Robb are brilliantly casted.

The worst is defiantly Stannis Baratheon, though i'm not quite sure if i should blame the actor or the writers, anyway, someone messed up there.

[Victoire Stone]

It bothers me that they cast actual teenagers as Sansa but took a 30-year old Natalie Dormer and made her Maergary, yuck.

Also, I believe Lena Headey has admitted to never having read the books so if she isn't the Cersei we all imagined, that is most likely why.

Those who have qualms with Emilia Clarke, just remember that Tamzin Merchant played Dany in the pilot.

[One of Three]

Well since the pilot has never been broadcast, we'll never know how Tamzin Merchant was as Dany. I personally though don't have a problem with Emilia Clarke, I have a problem with the character. I'm probably the only person who couldn't care less when Dany sacked Astapor in the TV series.

[King in the North Carolina]

Worst: Margaery and Littlefinger. LF more than Margaery really, he became a Bond villian caricature, partly the script to blame, but the actor's mannerisms have a great deal of fault as well.

I don't particularly like show LF, but my problem isn't with Aiden. The writers' tendency to have LF -one of the least direct and open characters in the books- monologue his intentions and basically cut promos to the audience has been a misstep, IMO. It's especially strange because they've avoided this tendency with most other characters.

Anyway, Shae's the only one I really don't like. I know she doesn't have the best material with which to work, but I find the actress's performance to be grating as well.

I think Emelia's good, though you sure wouldn't know it by season two. With stronger matrial invseason three, I think she's acquitted herself well.

I am a big book Stannis fan, and seem to be one of the few from that group who really likes Stephen Dillane's performance.

David Bradley is awesome.

[WhiteOwl18]

No one mentioned this, but I really don't like the actress they chose to play Melisandre. By the way she's described in the books she seems more exotic and mysterious, whyle in the show she just looks too plain and simple.

I have to agree with those who mentioned Asha/Yara. I don't mind the name change (even though I think it was unnecessary) but the actress is just so different from the character in the books that I just couldn't get over it.

Some people mentioned Jon, and while I agree that he is not great in the show, I also think it's not Kit's fault: he does the best he can with what he's given. It has more to do with how the character is written.

As for best casting I will mention two characters: Varys and Brienne. They look almost exactly as I imagined them while reading the books and even though I've only seen the first two seasons of the show, I thought both actors were great.

[Mirri Maz Duur]

1. Ramsay. The actor really annoys me and I just hate all of his scenes. He's supposed to be intimidating and frightening but he just looks stupid

2. Kitt harington. Maybe I read a different book from him but I don't remember Jon being a moody little shit.

3. Finally, shae. Not that she was a particularly good character in the books but I find some of her scenes unwatchable due to the actor's incompetency.

Someone said Diana Rigg earlier on. What is wrong with you? Are you retarded or something? I think you might be.

[Fat Mac]

I think Stephen Dillane gets a bad rap, especially in S3. I think he does the best with what he's given. I say this because his S2 performance, especially in the parley, was great. In fact one of my favorite scenes is when he chokes Melisandre.

[mynameiscrom]

best of the best: Balon, Yara, Walder Frey, Tywin.

Meh: Meera Reed, Ygritte

[Cas Stark]

I think Stephen Dillane gets a bad rap, especially in S3. I think he does the best with what he's given. I say this because his S2 performance, especially in the parley, was great. In fact one of my favorite scenes is when he chokes Melisandre.

I agree, there is nothing wrong w/the actor. All the scenes w/Stannis feel like they're missing a third of the dialogue to me. And the show choice to turn him into Mel's puppet has nothing to do with the actor.

[piratesswoop]

Not a fan of Iwan Rheon as Ramsay.