Game of Thrones: My Casting Part I
It’s stormy as sin in Buenos Aires today, and I’m feeling inspired by the plethora of fake Game of Thrones YouTube trailers created by fans. Some of them get over 200,000 views. And they’re not even real trailers. So in the hopes that I can bring my readership up over 15 today, I’m going to do my own casting for the HBO series.
Robert Baratheon
HBO cast Mark Addy in this role, which I find to be disappointing. Not only does this guy not have black hair, he doesn’t even look capable of slaughtering anything, least of all Rhaegar Targaryen. He looks like a really nice guy, but come on, no one is going to believe that he fathered 16 bastard children.
My casting: Dominic West. I’ll be the first to admit that this casting has a lot of outward flaws. First of all, I know that Dominic West is too famous to play Robert Baratheon, but this is a “fantasy” casting, not a reality one. And I know he’s not hefty. But hear me out. Dominic West plays a great drunk (hello Detective McNulty on The Wire). He’s definitely a warrior. He’s a lover. I can definitely see him roughly taking his connubial rights with Cersei Lannister. Also, he can shoot the youthful Robert Baratheon scenes first, and then gain a ton of weight for the years when he is king. I mean, everyone knows that the mark of a fine actor is being able to rapidly gain and lose weight for a role. And finally, who wouldn’t prefer to gaze on his visage over that of Mark Addy (no offense)?
Daenerys Targaryen
HBO originally cast Tamzin Merchant as Dany, who I think was a mediocre choice. But I think that she was a much better pick than the girl that they recently re-cast, who is:
Emilia Clarke. Emilia Clarke has only been in one other role, as a young girl in the series “Doctors.” I just watched her clips, and I don’t think that she has what it takes to be Dany. I mean, whoever plays Dany needs to be a girl who can walk into fire and emerge with three baby dragons crouched on her being. She needs to hire a slave army. She needs to marry Khal Drogo and eat the heart of a horse. She needs to be the most beautiful woman in the world. I mean, this girl is pretty, but she’s not UNIQUE enough. So in my fantasy cast, I would choose:
Lily Cole. I mean, look at how otherworldly beautiful she is.
