GOT: Casting

[shipperx]

From EW.com:

Actress Gwendoline Christie has been cast in the pivotal part of Brienne, announced Thrones author George R.R. Martin on his blog.

Brienne isn’t physically a very flattering character in the books, described as a large and piggish-looking woman with an awkward personality who’s mocked as “Brienne the Beauty.” But her character, who serves the late king’s brother Renly, is a fan favorite. Brienne is as tough and skilled with a sword as most men and longs for knighthood despite her gender. Christie is a relatively unknown actress who was in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and joins former Tudors star Natalie Dormer
 

Comments

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I think Brienne's entire history speaks to Jamie's description being pretty accurate. And he's the one person, after all, who doesn't seem to care (or really even to notice) that Tyrion's a dwarf. Admittedly Tyrion's his brother, but Jamie doesn't seem predisposed to judge people by their looks and really has no abiding interest in anyone but Cersei at that point anyway. And it's not as if Brienne was presented to him as a potential bride or something. I also think there may be supporting evidence from Catelyn's point of view, but I can't swear to that without going back and looking. Anyway, as I told angearia, I want this to work and I'm encouraged that GRRM thinks it will, so...we just have to wait and see.

And hey, there are still lots of people besides Dany and Sansa for GRRM to maim, so maybe he'll focus on the others and leave those two alone.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Tyrion is his brother. I just don't think Jaime is a reliable narrator when everyone in Westoros is an unreliable narrator. And Jaime's descriptions of Cersei are very physical.

I guess I'm just coming at this from the side of women of great height and non-model small-bonedness towering over men is always seen as a negative. It just is. I've lived a lifetime of towering over men and... they don't like it. To think that her height and physicality in the form of not being a petite , small-boned thing that men feel protective over because they can overpower is no 'small' thing to me and outweighs all the other descriptions.

To me, that was the primary characteristic -- that she's a big-boned woman who towers over the guys and who doesn't fit their gender mold, and I am willing to think that this goes a long way towards making a lot of characters views of her... mainly because that's been something I've seen my entire life. Because she would've been towering over men at the age of ten or eleven and that really is a huge deal to a girl when growing up. And it would've been seen as a negative.

Now, I know that the photos of the actress are glammed up, but I'm going on the assumption that they'll de-glam. But, really, I think this Brienne being 6'-3" really impacts the way that she would've been viewed in that world and viewed by Jaime who, let's face it, has no idea what in the hell to think about a woman who makes him feel like he's not the strapping golden buck of any confrontation.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I'm not downplaying the effect of her height at all, but it's clearly not the only thing that people respond to when judging her. As I said above, Martin's weighted her down with so much physical baggage that for TV!Brienne to work, she's got to be more than tall and plain. Maege Mormont and her daughter (daughters?) go to war and no one judges them as Brienne is judged, so there's got to be more going on with her.

I mean, I'm, shall we say, round, but my personal experiences aside, if the book said Brienne was fat and horse-faced and buck-toothed, etc., then I wouldn't be satisfied if all they did was cast a fat actress. How much farther they need to go is obviously up for debate, and I'm willing to withhold judgement until I see how it plays out. But I'm in the camp that wants to hew closer to the book's depiction, not further from it.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's all rather relative, though. I mean, I remember many calling Lucy Lawless "big" when on Xena... and she was only 5ft 9in. and a size 6. However, for TV, that's positively zaftig.

As a comparison, by the end the entire cast of BtVS was less than 5ft 7in. with poor Amber Bensen looked like the more 'rounded' one at a 'whomping' size 4! She could shop in the petites section and wear sample sizes. (I met her in person once and the woman is tiny... which really made me wonder about the rest of the cast...)

This woman is 6ft 3in (and that's what she's willing to claim so she's probably even taller than that. Men round up... women of a certain height round down) That's going to be quite a difference from 5ft 5in Lena Heady. That's almost but not quite a foot difference in stature.

And, while I realize she isn't Martin ugly, she isn't exactly going to become a Victoria's secret model either - http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Gwendoline-Christie-300x199.png

The only real question for me is whether or not she can act. But there's no way to really know that.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I actually think she's quite pretty, though someone who responded to my comment on GRRM's lj linked to a picture (a candid) where she's less so. So...we'll see.