Game of Thrones : the dreamy casting

Casting directors are those lucky people who get to make the first choice of talents for a certain movie or tv project.Following the director's ideas and wishes,they have to look among hundreds of interesting talented artists and present their selection to directors and producers.

Every acting star is the result of the hard work that casting directors put into their selections .They must have many skills,perfect knowledge of talent's real capabilities,instinct,good eye,curiosity,passion about actors and a true sense of diplomacy to successfully navigate through minefields of directors,producers and agents.

They are coveted by agents,revered by actors, generally appreciated by directors and always underestimated by general public.

Casting creations can be masterpieces or sometimes horrible messes but in the end,they have to put their names on the credits and bear the consequences regardless of the tedious compromises they might had to endure.

There are some great casting directors around the world,let me mention a few of my favorites: Sheila Jaffe,Juliet Taylor,Joyce Nettles,Bernard Telsey,Frank and Nualla Moiselle,Gail Stevens,Beatrice Kruger,Nina Gold,Markus Schleinzer.

And when they get it right,You can see see a cast as magnificent as in "The Game of Thrones",casting directors Nina Gold and Robert Sterne.

Every role was perfect in itself and every entity homogeneous.There is no doubt that the Starks or the Lannisters are family,there is no asking why some couples are passionate about each other.Their attraction is palpable,their physical appearance flawless for their roles.When you like them,you are crazy about them and when you don't, you simply want to kill them.They are magical,irresistible,scary and odious and it is definitely the best acting ensemble seen in years.

There was no gaffe in that vast group of completely different people,they have reached every goal that a series of such importance asks for:

- a brilliant mix of newcomers and respectable names
- fantastic character actors
- consistency of every group,no disparities in couples or families
- no discrepancy in talent,not one inadequate actor in a significant role

And among so many perfectly chosen roles,here are my personal preferences:

Peter Dinklage,of course,brilliant actor,Emmy award winner

Charles Dance,a fantastic Tywin Lannister

Gwendoline Christie, the surprising Brienne of Tarth

Jerome Flynn, the insolent Bronn

Kate Dickie,a really weird Lysa Arryn

Emilia Clarke,the adorable Khaleesi

Nikolaj Coster Waldau,the irresisstible Jamie Lannister









Iwan Rheon,the brilliantly monstruous Ramsay Snow




John Bradley,the endearing Samwell Tarley

Functional cast : Revenge

"Revenge" is my guilty pleasure, the  glamorous oasis from  the mundane stuff I deal with on daily basis.Oh, the pure nonsense of it all,the clothes,the parties,Emily Thorne and her love triangle,the wonderful voice and accent of Aiden Mathis,the pretension to be more than  a juicy soap, I just love it.

I know Emily VanCamp since she was a serious girl in "Everwood". It was a great series and the two main characters,Emily and Gregory Smith were adorable.

She is pretty,she is commited and a decent actress for exactly the kind of roles she plays.Maybe she is capable of something else but for now she is doing a great job  where she is.I like her self assurance,her poise and elegance and her correct display of emotions.She takes her work seriously and that is admirable.

Her older colleague,the once promising actress Madeleine Stowe,doesn't show the same dedication as Emily.It is probably hard to pass from starring opposite Daniel Day Lewis or Aidan Quinn to the completely ludicrous plots of the Grayson family but even in a character like Victoria Grayson one would expect more than one facial expression.Her beauty might make up for the lack of  effort but her character is written with so many tasks that she should at least try to find her visage no.2.

The rest of the cast of Revenge is functional,with some nice surprises and two terrible, terrible lapses.

Josh Bowman is a good looking guy,his suits always to tight,his body ready to tilt.He looks  like a qb trying to dirige a  financial empire but all in all he is very likeable and he and Emily look very good together.

Henry Czerny is also acceptable as pater families of a completely delusional family.Unlike Stowe, he is dedicated and his looks are great.Nick Wechsler is also doing a good job with all the nonsense he has got to endure.

The nice surprise and by far the best of them is Barry Sloane,the British import.He has energy, emotion and even passion,his voice and accent are irresistible and his physique a very good match to tormented Emily Thorne.

Margarita Levieva and Christa B.Allen are beautiful girls who cope well and Ashley Madekwe could do better.

The two terrible lapses in this otherwise balanced casts are Gabriel Mann and Connor Paolo.I really wanted to like Mann since I love his looks and all the  Nolan Ross allure but unfortunately his grimaces are unbearable.He tries to compensate his lack of conviction with to much physical expressions and fails miserably. It's a pity since the flamboyant character of Nolan Ross is not merely a caricature. And I am sure he could be better with proper guidance since his previous roles prove it.

His complete opposite but equally bad is Connor Paolo.He is stiff,shallow and lifeless.He didn't even put the same effort as in "Gossip girl" so the public can welcome his surprising demise in season two finale.

So a loud whisper to casting department and directors:
- every role is important,every cast has to be compact,don't hesitate to replace the actors who break the harmony of the group
- please take care of the physical appearance of the couples,big girls and frail guys look simply ridiculous together
- Gabriel Mann needs serious improvement  for the next season since Nolan Ross is actually a very interesting character

Update:I am happy to report that Gabriel Mann took some good advice and found a welcoming balance in the season 3 of Revenge.Good for Nolan!

There are some new faces,Karine Vanasse,a very likebale Canadian actress,Justin Hartley,a new hunk on the block,really good looking but somehow flat.Another hot addition is Stephanie Jacobsen,who could probably do much more if they only let her.

Gail O´Grady was a wonderful surprise as well as the edgy but still sexy Olivier Martinez.

The least interesting guest was Annabelle Stephenson.

But in this season Christa B.Allen kinda lost her appeal.She simply didn´t move on like the rest of the main cast,she got stuck in a spoiled little girl cliche.

The rest of the main cast is still wildly amusing,especially Henry Czerny.

And then the 4th season came....first and worst killing Barry Sloane was a terrible mistake since he was the only man with whom Emily Vancamp had some real chemistry.

James Tupper was the big surprise,the suddenly alive David Clarke but unfortunately the guy is nice but really lacks charisma.Brian Hallisay was a nice try as the good looking interest for Emily but,as in the "Client'sList",Brian is simply only into himself.


The best addition was the sultry Elena Satine.





Good bye Revenge and thank You for many hours of pure wicked fun.

The best casts of previous tv season : Enlightened,Rectify,Girls

It is hard to choose among many great casts of the previous tv season,there were endearing comebacks like Kevin Bacon,fantastic ensembles as in "Game of thrones",some daring choices like James Purefoy and some fantastic new faces.But among those my absolute favourites are two completely different shows.

"Enlightened" was probably the most surprising tv comedy  ever seen on tv.The audacity of the idea,the finesse,the masterful building of atmosphere,all of that and much more make it one of the best tv projects in tv history,in my humble opinion.But what really made that show so brilliant was the perfect cast

Laura Dern was definitely her best ever.You just couldn't take your eyes of her,her face,her wardrobe,the infinite lightness of her becoming that outrageously irritating character.And yet in all of the mess she created around her there was always affection for her weaknesses and hope,hope that in the end at least something will come out right for her.She is a great actress but never before did I believe her character so completely.

And that is the fine line that divides good and great acting.Great actors are simply the character they play and You believe them unconditionally.Every time.Some average actors can also have an episode or two of complete authenticity but it happens mainly when get to play a role close to their own nature.Unlike them,the true masters can take You anywhere they want and You never waste a second about questioning their realities.

But the real heroes of Enlightened were Mike White, who created the series with Dern, and Tim Sharp.Their faces were vaguely familiar but I never saw them before in something so compelling.I still can't decide whom I prefer since they were both fantastic.White so precise and weird,Sharp full of irritating energy,his crazy eyes and hair flying around and yet nothing was superfluous about his Dougie.

The rest of the cast was also perfect with a wonderful guest starring of Dern's mother,Diane Ladd.

It was pure joy watching them, even if it was only two short seasons.




"Rectify" is something completely different.A dark and haunting tv drama about a man whose murder conviction is questioned after 19 years of serving on a death row.He comes back to his parents house and just tries to survive.Everything about Rectify is mesmerizing.The stiffening atmosphere of troubled South,the painfully slow development of all that could go wrong for this strange creature that is Daniel Holden.

And in the middle of that storm there is Holden,depicted by brilliantly efficient Aden Young .His physique is perfect, his eyes burning with all the frustration and despair and yet his gestures are sparse and methodical.Everything he does seems vitally important,from the way he sits in his room to the violence he keeps in himself.He is a mystery,a painful mystery that never loosens its grip on the spectators.No one knows for sure what he did and what he will do next and in all that tension there is palpable fear,we are all afraid of him and for him.

He never ever loses the depth of his emotion,he is tragic without being pathetic,in one word he is perfect.
The rest of the cast plays beautifully at his side,and as in Enlightened and every other great tv series, You just enter a different world and become one of them,a participant instead of just a spectator.

And then there were "Girls", and there is a different quality that I appreciate in their cast or more precisely in their creator Lena Dunham and it is the imagination in putting together characters so diverse and original.She is a force behind it all and one must admire her ability to find  guys  like Adam Driver or Alex Karpovsky.On their own they are just eccentric creatures nobody likes very much but all of them put together in the narcissistic symphony that Girls is,they become irresistibly unbearable.