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

[angearia.livejournal.com]

I think casting of characters like Brienne and Tyrion really do put on display society's changing notions of beauty.

Tyrion is described as monstrous in the face, but honestly -- I can't watch Tyrion smile on the show or give one of those looks and not find him charismatic and attractive.

And frankly I have to wonder if Brienne's form isn't judged harshly because she's living in such a male-centered, misogynistic society where a girl dressing in pants apparently makes people think she's a boy (Arya).

I somehow doubt GRRM intended it, but I can't help feeling that there's some gendered POV warping of how Brienne actually looks. I doubt she's a great beauty in the classical sense, but c'mon, there was a point in time when having tan skin or curly hair meant you were horribly ugly in English society. And gah, there's still a horrible beauty stereotype against gingers and look at Christina Hendricks and Karen Gillan.

So I'm not quite sure how to translate the unobjective

[shapinglight]

She's very tall, isn't she?

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

This casting (and the accompanying pictorial of the actress on the HBO site) annoys the hell out of me. They HAD to find a pretty, "hot" actress to "uglify," which to me suggests that at some point they'll want to clean her up to make her more suitable for the gorgeous Jaime and their upcoming romance/sex. Yeah.

HBO can't resist tampering with source material to "HBO-it-up" (lots of naked girls, prostitute exposition sex, one sexual (doggy-style) position, etc.) and apparently Martin approves of this. Guess Martin is the new Charlaine Harris, and boy, I never thought I'd make that comparison. But True Blood had a decent first season, too, before the writers decided to "improve" upon Harris's story, so I guess GoT isn't immune to similar "improvement."

I was annoyed when Emilia Clarke replaced Tamzin Merchant as Danaerys because I knew it was because Merchant wasn't hot enough for HBO. Fortunately, for all the gratuitous nudity and sexual miming required for the role, Clarke managed to make the character touching, sympathetic and brave because it turns out that besides being hot, she's a fine actress. I have no such illusions about Christie. Try as I might, and I may be looking in the wrong places, but I haven't come across photos of Clarke in pasties and g-string. However, HBO seems to think this is exactly what makes the "beautiful" Christie suitable for Brienne (she doesn't have much of an acting CV) apart from being British and very tall.

I suppose HBO considers Headey and Fairley sufficient for the "real actress" quotient in this series, and every other woman is eye-candy (or potential eye-candy after she's de-uglified) for the fanboys. And to that I say FEH.