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Oberyn Martell Cast


fireandbl00d

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He looks close enough to the Oberyn I imagined except he's pretty darn white. Not the "salty" Dornishman with olive skin that was described in the books. Like I said in another thread though, he must have been very convincing. Benioff & Weiss's description of what they were looking for exactly and what they're sure they got puts some of my worries to rest.

This was a tough one. The Red Viper is sexy and charming, yet believably dangerous; intensely likable, yet driven by hate. The boys love him, the girls love him, and he loves them all back. Unless your last name is Lannister. We found a fellow who can handle the job description and make it seem effortless. He wasn’t easy to find and he won’t be easy to stop.

It sounds like they really understand his character and were looking around for a long time until they came across this guy.

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I'm sure he'll be very good, but to be honest I'm a little disappointed. I thought the Red Viper would be a perfect opportunity for D&D to cast a black actor in a major role in the show. I know Dorne is Spain-like in the book, but they could've changed to Africa-like and have all the Dornish characters be black. The show sure could use the diversity.

Why? isn't the introduction of an ethnicity not yet seen on the show adding diversity (as opposed to adding an ethnicity already seen a couple of times)

I think they have so many Martells to cast, they need a pool of actors large enough that will all look kinda similar hence the Latino/Hispanic road they seem to be going down.

Given that most of the casting is from UK, surely we've more black actors than Hispanic; going US or Europe wide... and i suspect that'd still be the case.

As for the casting itself, a little young for my expectations; and beyond that/// never heard of him; so in Gold we trust

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Why? isn't the introduction of an ethnicity not yet seen on the show adding diversity (as opposed to adding an ethnicity already seen a couple of times)

Given that most of the casting is from UK, surely we've more black actors than Hispanic; going US or Europe wide... and i suspect that'd still be the case.

But black characters are typically from the Summer Isles and George did mention Spain as an influence for Dorne so maybe D&D are just trying to stay true to that.

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Wouldn't want to take on this role. No pressure at all to this guy haha! I'm sure he'll do a fine job if they have cast him. Thus far, other than perhaps Stannis, the casting team have done a magnificent job.

Stannis is my favorite character in the books and Stephen Dillane is my favorite actor on the show. :dunce:

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They'd have some difficulty with Young Griff, I think, if they went darker than a typical Mediterranean sort of look. So maybe they're thinking that far ahead when they decided on what they needed to cast.

Makes sense.

Not sure why diversity = black? I don't think there has ever been an East Asian on the show and they make up most of the world population. Black doesn't usually fit with the setting, barring Summer Islanders anyway.

Because there's been basically two black actors on the show so far, neither major. And East Asian would be good too, although there the talent pool of actors proficient enough in English might be too small for anything more than one or two characters (as opposed to having to cast an entire kingdom). As much as I love the show, my biggest complaint since season one is its lack of diversity. It makes sense for entire families (and probably kingdoms, although no real country is 100% ethnically anything) to be one ethnicity, presumably white, but there's no need for nearly every character to be one ethnicity.

Why? isn't the introduction of an ethnicity not yet seen on the show adding diversity (as opposed to adding an ethnicity already seen a couple of times)

Hispanic isn't as much of an ethnicity unto itself, that's why the US Census offers choices for Hispanics who identify as white and Hispanics who don't. It's more diverse than another northern European, but doesn't lend itself as well to forcing the show down the road to cast a whole bunch of non-white actors.

ETA: Like I said, I'm sure he'll be great. I just wish the show didn't conform to stereotypes and realize that, as a fantasy, it can have a bit more variety to its population.

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His appearance isn't EXACTLY what I imagined but he's got a few key physical aspects I appreciate. His acting doesn't seem bad from the little clips people have been posting this past hour. I doubt it would be anyway going by what Benioff & Weiss have said about him. I'm sick of the trend of giving every character and their brother short hair. They need wigs and hopefully Pascal gets stuck with long, black hair and a widow's peak.

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His appearance isn't EXACTLY what I imagined but he's got a few key physical aspects I appreciate. His acting doesn't seem bad from the little clips people have been posting this past hour. I doubt it would be anyway going by what Benioff & Weiss have said about him. I'm sick of the trend of giving every character and their brother short hair. They need wigs and hopefully Pascal gets stuck with long, black hair and a widow's peak.

Totally agree about the long hair here, but I told my brother about the need for a wig, and he said that he'd never imagined Oberyn with hair that was all that long, even though he's aware of the description in the books. I guess whatever happens, there's always someone whose imagination works differently.

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Totally agree about the long hair here, but I told my brother about the need for a wig, and he said that he'd never imagined Oberyn with hair that was all that long, even though he's aware of the description in the books. I guess whatever happens, there's always someone whose imagination works differently.

I imagined Oberyn with this haircut for some odd reason until I reread some but I can admit that I was wrong. :blink:

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Let's perhaps look at it this way:

He must have had a PRETTY IMPRESSIVE audition with D+D to ensure this role, where others may have had a more distinguished look to fit the Dornish role (whatever it be)

He has a good resume of acting chops.

Reading IMDB you can never tell how much stage work an actor has done (usually).

Someone said he looked too young, not to me.

Can't find his age tho.

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Well my husband is Welsh... Dark hair dark eyes and pale skin and when we go to Spain, and we go often he's frequently mistaken for Spanish by the Spanish... Not inconceivable that the Celts had something to do with that... And yes, apparently there were Celts in parts of North Africa too...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

Well, the flip side is that Welsh, or more specifically original Britons (as opposed to Anglo-Saxons) are thought to have descended from Iberians originally. So the features make sense.

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For some reason, I always pictured Rutger Hauer from Blade Runner as Oberyn. I know that's not what he looks like but I always pictured an intense guy and Roy Batty came to mind. I'm sure Pascal will look the part and the casting department has made few missteps. Whatever problems the show has had hasn't been with acting, it's been with characterization (Catelyn, Stannis, etc.)

Looking at his IMDB profile, I see he was on a couple of episode of the short-lived Lights Out on FX. He played an Armenian boxer that the main character's father played. From what I can remember, he was good in the role.

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