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Westeros

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I don't think it really matter if they have read the book. Michelle Fairley and Charles Dance have not read the books from what I know, though they may know bits and pieces, and Maise Williams is too young to read it but her Mom tells her the details. They are supposed to read the scripts and whatever material is given to them and then perform.


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I don't think it really matter if they have read the book. Michelle Fairley and Charles Dance have not read the books from what I know, though they may know bits and pieces, and Maise Williams is too young to read it but her Mom tells her the details. They are supposed to read the scripts and whatever material is given to them and then perform.

I'm like three months older than Maise and I've read them all twice 😋

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I don't think it really matter if they have read the book. Michelle Fairley and Charles Dance have not read the books from what I know, though they may know bits and pieces, and Maise Williams is too young to read it but her Mom tells her the details. They are supposed to read the scripts and whatever material is given to them and then perform.

I think she was too young initially but she's now 16 going on 17. I imagine she could (is?) read them if she wants to.

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To be fair, these books are really long and take time to read, and the actors may be too busy with work, and - as far as teenagers go - school. But if I were them, I'd at least try to read my characters' chapters to get more insight - which is what some of them are doing.





I don't think it really matter if they have read the book. Michelle Fairley and Charles Dance have not read the books from what I know, though they may know bits and pieces, and Maise Williams is too young to read it but her Mom tells her the details. They are supposed to read the scripts and whatever material is given to them and then perform.





Michelle Fairley says she's read Catelyn's chapters, book by season, the same as Sophie Turner, who's read Sansa's chapters.



Emilia Clarke says she's read the books, and Richard Madden that he was reading them book by season (see the previous page). Kit Harington says he read the first four after he was cast, and Rory McCann has said in an interview that he has read the first three. Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey haven't read the books at all (at least by the time they were at the Comic Con, this summer). NCW says contradictory things, but it seems like it's more likely he hasn't read them. I don't know about the others.


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It doesn't really affect the performance anyway, it's just a line. You play Hamlet, you know he's going to die.

Lena Headey is underused though, she was hilarious in that panel. Forget about making Cersei likable, they should have made her funny.

Pretty sure that Lena Headey's great sense of humour is the main reason D&D picked her, as this quote from Benioff suggests:

We never thought of Cersei as a particularly funny character until Lena read for the part. We had seen a number of excellent actresses, but everyone had interpreted the character as an emotionless ice queen. Lena took her in a different, stranger and more interesting direction.

I do expect the humour to be cranked to 11 for the AFFC stuff.

...In defence of those actors who don't read the books, I think in many cases it's not laziness bur rather a deliberate choice to treat the TV script as the "bible" without reference to any other sources, I suppose to keep things more "pure." And given the wide departures in TV canon from book canon with respect to characterization in certain instances, that makes more and more sense.

Also, Kit Harington has read the first four books in their entirety, and I wouldn't have known it from his performance. I can tell that Headey hasn't read the books from her performance. That's not a slam on her acting or lack of understanding of the character or anything, but her interpretation of the character--not just the writing for Cersei, which is quite different from the books--is far from the books' version of Cersei, She has her own mental version of Cersei based on the TV scripts--one she's discussed in interviews and such--and while I find it very nuanced and interesting, her take and Book Cersei are miles apart.

Even though the writing for TV Tyrion is very different from Book Tyrion (whitewashing, etc. etc.), I think it's also apparent in Dinklage's performance that he hasn't read the books, either. For example, TV Tyrion actually says more or less verbatim some--not all, but some--of the really nasty, mocking things that Book Tyrion says, but his delivery lacks that deep-seated strain of pure malice and running through Book Tyrion's POVs, so that even when TV Tyrion says or does horrible things, there's no real bite to them the way there is in the books.

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Also, Kit Harington has read the first four books in their entirety, and I wouldn't have known it from his performance. I can tell that Headey hasn't read the books from her performance. That's not a slam on her acting or lack of understanding of the character or anything, but her interpretation of the character--not just the writing for Cersei, which is quite different from the books--is far from the books' version of Cersei, She has her own mental version of Cersei based on the TV scripts--one she's discussed in interviews and such--and while I find it very nuanced and interesting, her take and Book Cersei are miles apart.

My observation is that most of the veteran actors have incorporated into their craft a prohibition against reading the source material , unless it happens to be the portrayal of a historical or real life character.

Tho I have never seen them interviewed about the show I am sure this is true of Stephen Dillane , Conleth Hill , Iain Glen others.... the younger actors seem more inclined to read.

I have noted a few interesting things:

Roy Dotrice was paid to read all the novels! If you have listened to audio versions.

I don't know if Carice van Houten has been asked about reading the books, but I did notice on Throne Cast in an interview she mentioned THE GREAT OTHER. Seems she had to have read that. I found that interesting since D&D seem determined never to use the name OTHER... for some reason.

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I don't know if Carice van Houten has been asked about reading the books, but I did notice on Throne Cast in an interview she mentioned THE GREAT OTHER. Seems she had to have read that. I found that interesting since D&D seem determined never to use the name OTHER... for some reason.

I suspect that they have decided to eliminate all references to "The Others" by that name because it would remind the non-book viewers of Lost. Even though the books had been released years before Lost aired, you can be sure that a lot of casual viewers would go: "Oh, this show is ripping off Lost".

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I don't know if Carice van Houten has been asked about reading the books, but I did notice on Throne Cast in an interview she mentioned THE GREAT OTHER. Seems she had to have read that. I found that interesting since D&D seem determined never to use the name OTHER... for some reason.

David Benioff mentions the Great Other in this interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clsS_kJePZM

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I suspect that they have decided to eliminate all references to "The Others" by that name because it would remind the non-book viewers of Lost. Even though the books had been released years before Lost aired, you can be sure that a lot of casual viewers would go: "Oh, this show is ripping off Lost".

That's what I always figured. It seems strange, because LOST ended in 2008, three years before the first season of GOT aired--and TV viewers have pretty short memories (not to mention LOST is one of those shows that's extremely popular when airing and then promptly forgotten about after it ends)--but pre-production on the show started way back in 2008, with early discussions and planning going back much further, so I imagine LOST would have been pretty fresh in the minds of the writers when the decision to scratch the "Others" name was made.

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I suspect that they have decided to eliminate all references to "The Others" by that name because it would remind the non-book viewers of Lost. Even though the books had been released years before Lost aired, you can be sure that a lot of casual viewers would go: "Oh, this show is ripping off Lost".

If Westeros was the "Three Kingdoms" would people accuse they ripped off "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" ? I find it pathetic that people who would say GoT copied lost if they used the term "The Others"

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That's what I always figured. It seems strange, because LOST ended in 2008, three years before the first season of GOT aired--and TV viewers have pretty short memories (not to mention LOST is one of those shows that's extremely popular when airing and then promptly forgotten about after it ends)--but pre-production on the show started way back in 2008, with early discussions and planning going back much further, so I imagine LOST would have been pretty fresh in the minds of the writers when the decision to scratch the "Others" name was made.

Interestingly enough, by adopting the term "White Walkers", the show confused the audiences on another point - White Walkers vs Wights. The words are pronounced the same. Having read the books a long time ago, I never noticed it until I came across some Unsullied posters who thought they were the same thing. Perhaps the show should've used another term like Winter Walkers or Ice Walkers or whatever.

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Isn't 'white walkers' just what the wildlings call the others in the books? So there was already some confusion, I guess it has just been increased by extending the term's usage to the whole of Westeros.



Also dunno if anyone else gets this but it's confusing as hell when you're reading ASoIaF for the first time and GRRM uses the word 'the others' just to mean 'the other people' and you're like OH SHIT THE OTHERS ARE HERE


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That's what I always figured. It seems strange, because LOST ended in 2008, three years before the first season of GOT aired--and TV viewers have pretty short memories (not to mention LOST is one of those shows that's extremely popular when airing and then promptly forgotten about after it ends)--but pre-production on the show started way back in 2008, with early discussions and planning going back much further, so I imagine LOST would have been pretty fresh in the minds of the writers when the decision to scratch the "Others" name was made.

Lost ended in 2010, not 2008.

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I don't know if this were posted already, but here are BTS photos of the Purple Wedding.

http://imgur.com/a/2K75U#r1CY1oV

I was wondering where they would film it, since the throne room is a little small, but I never thought of an outdoor wedding. Interesting.

Looks pretty lavish. The budget for this season must have skyrocketed if they have enough money for both this and the battle of the wall.

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I think she was too young initially but she's now 16 going on 17. I imagine she could (is?) read them if she wants to.

I heard Maisie say in an interview somewhere on you tube that she intends to read the books after finishing the show. She knows the show departs from the books somewhat and only wants to be guided by the scripts not something she knows from the books.

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