Maisie Williams has been a busy little bee doing other work and making the rounds to promote it as well as to talk about her work in the Always #LikeAGirl campaign. One thing she is certain of is that she’s really tired of being told she’s cute.
I’ve always been bossy. I’ve always wanted to take control. Every girl should feel like that – that they can take control of their future. I want to inspire people to make those decisions based on what they want to do – not what they think they should do.
As we well know, there’s no way around getting pelted with Game of Thrones related questions, which you can see at E! Online and People Now and she’s been asked to weigh in on the “saddest death” in Game of Thrones and Jon’s death.
I think Robb [Richard Madden], because although we’d seen, like, those horrific [deaths], our favorite characters being ripped away from us, I feel like the audience—and myself—were led into such a false sense of security, we couldn’t see it coming…
Videos and more after the jump!
Regarding Jon’s death Maisie said,
We saw him [Jon] get stabbed a lot in the chest, I think that’s pretty clear…People are really hurt by it, but that’s what this show does. If you haven’t learned that by now, well, I can’t help you.
Here’s Maisie talking to E!:
And here she is talking to People:
Hodor
Aegon better be casted soon D&D…..
We saw him [Jon] get stabbed a lot in the chest, I think that’s pretty clear…
She has become very good in lying… God job Jaqen!
Kyrion,
What? Why? How…? Does that even…?
Maisie. The article is about Maisie.
And I could see why Robb’s death hit her hardest. She was RIGHT THERE!!! And unlike Ned’s death, her character had every reason to believe everything was gonna be fine.
Even though her character has killed around 6-8 people thus far, in cold blood, self defense, for revenge or for mercy, I’ll still call Maisie cute. 🙂
Hodor’s Bastard,
It is more of a cheek-bone thing than a homicidal tendency thing, isn’t it.
Seriously, the problem it will create for her is that she will be getting offers to play teenagers until she is in her 30’s or offers to play BFFs instead of leads.
harma dogememe,
GET HYPE!
I’m a little surprised she hasn’t scored bigger parts in movies yet. I know she was almost in that Sam Raimi movie (Last of Us?) but in an interview she gave a month ago, it sounded unlikely it would happen since even Maisie thinks she’s probably outgrown the part. Maybe it’s her “look”, because it certainly isn’t her acting: she’s amazing.
I saw a more lengthy version of this somewhere, where she had an answer for every theory of Jon’s death. I was depressed all over again for two days. Why the heck would they build Jon up sooo high, with the mystery of his family, with the comments on his honor and character and good heart, just to kill him permanently? This goes beyond shock value, into the realm of stupid. Now I’m all depressed again.
Anyway, such a change from cute little devilish Maisie in the early seasons, to the seasoned killer she’s become. Those lines she said to Meryn Trant before she finished him were blood curdling, but delivered in a way you totally believed this little girl to be capable of. My goodness, the acting on the show is amazing. Aside from fearing that Jon is dead dead, I can’t wait to see what becomes of her being blind. How the heck is she going to survive?
Is there any news regarding Maisie possibly starring as Ellie in The Last of Us movie? I feel like she deserves the chance to star in a big movie, she’ll do a better job than Emilia that’s for sure.
If this really is it for Jon Snow (or Kit), then its beyond stupid writing on GRRM’s part. There’s playing with genre expectations, and then there’s just giving your audience the middle finger. That said, I have a feeling Jon Snow/Targaryan/Ahai is going to figure somewhere (otherwise, who cares who his mother is? And who needs the ToJ at this point,if that is indeed in S6). Seeing Kit again? I’m not as sure.
Al Swearengen,
Read my post above.
Ravyn,
Damn. I can see her point but I’d be fine if they aged up Ellie a little for the movie. Maybe Maisie can become the new Kitty Pryde and join Sophie in the X-Men Universe 😉
Maybe I’m just being overly optimistic, but I’m pretty sure you can still be strong and proud while also being tactful.
I understand where Maisie’s coming from (I am a young woman myself, after all), but I think she’s taking herself a bit too seriously. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be known for your various talents, but when people say you’re “cute” or “sweet,” they’re usually doing it to be nice, not to be demeaning. If you read too much into anything, you can find enough hidden messages to drive yourself crazy.
On a side note, I’ve always found that the more athletic girls were considered more “attractive” than non-athletic girls, but Maisie and Emma both seem to disagree. It could just be a cultural difference, but I was a bit surprised to read that they both feared being labeled as too masculine.
It’s just because she’s very short AND has a baby face. One or the other wouldn’t elicit ‘cute’ labels. Although I believe in the US ‘cute’ can also mean ‘sexually attractive’. In the UK it refers solely to puppies, kittens and kids etc.
Moonlight,
I think because she’s a young woman she’d perhaps prefer to be beautiful, hot, sexy, etc instead of cute or sweet. I think that’ll be a struggle for her as although she’s a good -looking girl everyone remembers her as little Arya running around Winterfall so the transition is a little uncomfortable. Some child actors try and smash that image by doing something risque or adult and it oft comes off as being a little too obvious. I think Maisie is great the way she is. As long as she keeps up the great acting then she doesn’t need to worry about anything else.
Just on the question of whether Kit comes back, it makes no sense for the part to be re-cast with two seasons to go. The show has one of the ‘hottest’ leading men under 30 and the actor is one of the reasons why Jon is a tv icon. And for the actor, it’s a key role in the biggest tv show on the planet. he’s able to do films as well.
Maisie’s words on Jon’s dead are very similar to the showrunner’s ‘dead is dead, you all saw what happened’ line.
Ashara Dayne,
Yeah, I think you might be right about that. Over here, “cute” just kind of means “good-looking.” It’s used to describe adults as well as children (actually, I think more adult women use it to describe men than vice versa lol).
TheTouchOfFrost,
I heard she smokes. Seriously bummed me out, I don’t hate people that smoke but I hate the idea of teenagers, especially her age, smoking at all. I hope she isn’t going down the path where she tries to transform herself, possibly slowly, into a new image.
Maisie is one of the actors from GoT who can actually…maybe not ‘lie’, but avoid giveaways effectively. I’ve always liked that.
I also like her unique look – she isn’t the dime-a-dozen Hollywood type, thank gods!
She’s young… with all due respect, she knows nothing about anything yet.
Well, she IS cute, so whatever. Regardless though – I see people refer to her as talented and awesome/amazing more often than cute.
She honestly won’t know one way or another. She said right in the interview she hasn’t gotten the scripts yet, and even if she has I doubt they’ll give her the part of the scripts that pertains to whatever happens with Jon. Also, I doubt she’s anything more than friendly at public occasions or whenever she runs into Kit Harington. I doubt she and Kit are talking once or twice a week the way he says he does with Emilia and Alfie Allen for example.
Read the prologue for ADWD again if you’ve read the books, or read the prologue for ADWD for the first time if you haven’t read the books, and then come back and tell me Jon Snow is gone forever.
If we get more of this ‘well did that look like dead to you’ stuff from the Comic-Con panel then it will be more evidence of them being coached in how to answer.
It is in the show’s interest to have millions tuning in next April to find out what has happened.
Like Miley Cyrus?
Most teens try smoking, she seems too smart to make it life-long.
My random, personal, non-spoilery Jon Snow TV show theory is that they will burn his body after the murder, and he won’t burn. Mellie won’t show up until the pyre is in full flame and freak out, to add some drama. She’ll pull a Dondarrion on him after he doesn’t burn and inform him and the rest of the Watch, that Jon’s Watch has ended, and he is now free to go unite the Wildlings and re-take the North. That’s how I’d play it out on screen for the TV audience.
In that first clip she reminds me of Elisabeth Moss who plays Peggy Olson on Mad Men. Which is high praise in my book.
Oh, and with each of these interviews with cast and crew about Jon Snow, I actually become more convinced that he’s not (permanently) dead. They just handle the questions in ways that don’t ring true.
james,
The prologue is set up for Bran, not Jon. Indeed, it pretty much disqualifies the idea for which you are hoping: Jon is not an experienced warg, and even they fade into their animals quickly.
Jesus Christ people Jon isn’t dying, stop it already.
And i’m back,that banning sure did a lot of work for you/Big fucking sarcasm
I assume variations on this answer will be what comes out of everyone’s mouth tomorrow at Comic Con. Whether its scripted or they’re being sincere, only the next 10 months can tell.
The funny thing is that MTV did another interview with Emilia Clarke, and she again basically said that she thinks Jon could be resurrected. I think it all just basically shows that none of the actors have gotten their scripts yet, they are speculating just like the fans are speculating.
Which also just further points out how strange it was that Kit Harington confirmed so strongly that he wouldn’t be back. It seems like the actors are still quite in the dark when it comes to season 6. .
Ashara Dayne,
Didn’t know she smoked, but judging from her Instagram, she clubs A LOT ( as most people did at her age, if I recall….Sophie seems to like the club life, too) so maybe she just puffs at clubs?
I don’t think it has anything to do with Bran. He is all about training to become a weirwood mystic/wizard in his chapters in “Dance”. His warging is kinda “old news”. He’s been doing it since book 1. But this chapter does specifically get into what is considered Wildling taboos regarding warging. That’s new. But where is the relevance of this new theme in connection to what happens to Bran in this particular novel?
Now while I think the chapter was also very much used to overtly give a POV to the Wildlings side during the aftermath of Stannis smashing them in “Storm Of Swords” (as that becomes incredibly relevant to Jon’s command/chapters in “Dance Of Dragons”), the more clear “theme” of the chapter is the taboos of “warging” after death”. That has been given no through line as to be relevant to where Bran’s adventures head in “Dance” . But it could very well be relevant to another recently possible deceased character who has been shown to also have warg capabilities. And by jove, this character is also tied to this chapter regardless of the warging subject matter!
And what was Jon’s last words again?
It’s actually not subtle at all. It’s quite telegraphed. This is clearly a prologue chapter relevant to Jon’s arc. From the Wildlings predicament to warging after death, it’s all tied to him. And don’t forget Jon’s connection with Ghost and clear “dreams” of warging have been happening since book 2.
DISCLAIMER: I do not believe the show will use warging as a (temporary) process of Jon’s “return”. What I wrote above is regarding “the books”. Benioff and Weiss have streamlined Stark warging as only something that Bran can do. There have been no hints or foreshadowing in the show, with any of the other Stark children.
Wimsey,
Not just Maisie, ALL the actresses end like that. And dissapear when they have 40. If they are really, really lucky, they return at 60s to minor roles.
Movies and shows suck for women.
Well, I do not think that young actors should just hop out of a show and throw themselves on the biggest movie they could possibly get. I was skeptical that Emilia would deliver in Terminator, and after all the criticism of the movie and partial blame on some actors for not carrying the movie enough, it seemed to be justified. The curse and the blessing of acting in a really big-Budget-movie is, that you will be judged for it even more than for minor movies since you need to deliver both on critical and box-office front, which means that once you fail to do that and continue to do so in the next movie after that, you’re out of the big business very soon.
Kit made the same mistake as Emilia with choosing Pompeii, which failed at both fronts, however, with nobody really expecting a Anderson-movie to be critically successful and Kit’s great Performance in the follow-up worldwar-movie “Testament of youth”, he turned this situation around. Emilia now needs to do the same or it will not end well for her career outside of Thrones, I’m afraid.
The one who made all the right decisions imo is Richard Madden, who also quite objectively was the best of the young actors on Thrones. Instead of jumping on the next blockbuster, he made the step to once again star in a series, “Klondike”, but this time as a lead to prove that he can successfully carry a show on his own. And he delivered, he was great and Klondike was well received by critics. And just then he started starring in bigger movies with renowned directors (good old Shakespeare-Kenneth with “Cinderella”) with the potential for being a real hit-movie, even though the budget of cinderella wasn’t nearly as high as for Pompeii and Terminator. Story goes: Cinderella delivered on both fronts and is already condidered one of the best and most faithful fairy-tale-movies of all time. That’s solid career-building, and as we see, in his next movie he will be one of the leads besides Idris Elba, who is considered one of the most profitable actors in all of Britain. Richard Madden really seems to have made all the right choices so far…
So my point is: one should be very considerate wether to really jump on the first big offer rather than of building a career more slowly, but constant in mediocre-budget-productions. It’s a very human thing to do, I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a crucial part of a popular franchise? But the risk of being branded as a one-time series-star is just too big once that big blockbuster fails to deliver…
Knight of Storm’s End,
Or at least the budget was about the same as for Pompeii, different websites seem to tell very different things concerning the real budget and the estimated budget. Quite interesting actually, seems like a man never is as well-informed as a man might want to be when faced with divergent information…
Al Swearengen,
Did you really have to mention Emilia? Okay, point taken you don’t like her acting but there was no need to mention her at all.
The rest of my post is not addressed particularly to AS. I used to hear my late mother using the word “cute” to mean “sharp” – as in intelligent, bright (from “acute” as in acute angle I suppose) but the meaning of the word has changed. I always understood modern-day “cute” to mean pretty – and such a description sure as heck beats being called “ugly”. In her childhood I would say that Dakota Fanning had an unusual look rather than a pretty-pretty look though she was by no means ugly (she seems to have become more “conventionally” good-looking as she’s grown into young adulthood) but it didn’t hold her back.
The ultimate fate of child actors varies so much. Hayley Mills who is just a few years older than myself (and GRRM) was in a lot of films (American ones too – she played Pollyanna with an English accent) as a teenager and she still pops up occasionally on British TV (she played a grandma in “Wild at Heart” – though I doubt that series will mean anything to American people). After GoT some of the young actors, if they make acting their lifelong career, might become jobbing actors, go into the theatre with the occasional smaller part in films or on TV
Yes, Bran’s warging was old news. The prologue provided us with a lot of information about the full potential of warging that we had not gotten before. Basically, what this chapter set up was another step towards Bran is going: basically, the “tree gods” (green-seers) are hyper-wargs, who completely join with the weirwoods and gain the ability to link with lots of animals. Moreover, they lose themselves more slowly than do regular wargs: a warg who leaves him/herself in an animal loses him/herself in that animal after a few weeks. However, the greenseers embedded in trees retain parts of themselves even decades later.
At any rate, as Jon has no experience warging (he basically just has wolf-dreams), there is little chance that he could jump into Ghost: unlike Bran, Jon simply never practiced this, and it takes a lot of practice according to the prologue. Moreover, if Jon somehow did make the jump, then because he’s not a greenseer and/or because he’s not plugged into a weirwood, he’d soon just dissipate into Ghost. Another warg would recognize that Ghost had been a warged animal: but that would be it.
Just in case anybody else is hungry for bread crumbs about season 6…
http://www.ara.cat/media/Joc-tambe-rodara-Canet-Mar_0_1390661058.html
It looks like they’ll be filming at Santa Florentina castle, at Canet de Mar (which is halfway between Girona and Barcelona):
http://castelldesantaflorentina.es/
Tarly castle?
I think Maisie is going to be one of the more successful members of the cast in the future. I think she is doing the smart thing right now and picking the best roles (‘small movies’ or supporting roles in big projects) instead of immediately trying to do big budget, blockbuster movies
I don’t think the fact that she still looks young will be a problem. Maisie has a unique look and so far has already played a number of different characters in a number of different genres (comedies, dramas etc) and she is getting her name out there and giving strong (different) performances (she was brilliant in the irish comedy film ‘GOLD’).
The likes of Sophie Turner will struggle in my opinion. I don’t see her being very memorable in X Men and can see her being cast as the typical ‘good looking girl’ or high school bully/cheerleader/girl next door etc and there are thousands of other actresses out there just like, whereas Maisie will be getting a range of different roles (she has already said that she isn’t going to keep playing roles like Arya and so far she hasn’t been type cast)
Thronetender,
Oh no, what did she say?!?! 🙁
—
I love Maisie, and I love Arya. She is my second favorite character after Jon !!
She doesn’t seem too phased by the Jon death though… I mean… “stick em with the pointy end…” I would think she would have mentioned that. But, apart from that… she didn’t have any other dealings with JS.
Anyway, I can see why Robb’s death would have been the hardest. It was pretty effing hard to take for us!
Off-Topic Otto,
Jon is dead,but he’ll be back. 😉
Walter Harrow,
No, you don’t sound like a biased, hardcore Arya fan, not at all!
And yeah, X-men is a terrible idea, I’m totally sure Maisie would have turned it down.
Seriously, both actresses are great and have the opportunity for big careers, there’s no need for them to be in competition.
All I read when I saw the headline was Maisie Williams and Death 🙁 don’t do that to me!!
Also I don’t think people should look down on her because of her age, other than Kit Harrington she seems to be the most successful cast member here in the UK.
Pauete,
Yes! Apparently, they are also filming at Zafra Castle in Guadalajara (central Spain). It would make an epic ToJ, to be honest.
I’m getting to know my own country better thanks to GoT. LOL.
I think that in the books, Jon will warg in Ghost until Stannis is defeated and Mel tries to resurrect her king or throw herself in the fire (one of these two options will resurrect Jon).
In the series, Jon won’t warg (because it’s useless to show that on screen, since we can’t know what’s in his mind like in the books – it would be boring just to see a wolf doing stuff on screen during 5 or 10 episodes), he will be resurrected immediately. That could explain many differences in the show compared to the book, such as why Jon never said “Ghost” when he’s stabbed, or why Stannis was defeated so early…
That’s my theory!
ComicCon Today!!!!
#GetHype
Isaac Hempstead-Wright is not certain at all about Jon’s destinity.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/game-thrones-maisie-williams-no-115022052.html#Ja4zuXf
Geez Bran has shot up like a weed. He looks about 6′ tall there.
I watched Conan last night hoping that the panel of GoT’s would be on, but now I see they are not on until Friday evenings show. Elijah Wood was fun to see again. I am not a huge fan of Conan, but I will watch for this!!
JCDavis,
OMg hes huge.. what a cutie
Maisie Williams’ acting options in terms of leading roles in blockbusters, etc. will be very limited once she ages out of the child actress roles. She doesn’t have Hollywood leading lady looks, and it seems that even supporting roles for young women in the big blockbusters require classical beauty as well (the supermodel “wives” in Mad Max, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill in the Avengers movies, all the superhot female characters in the Fast and Furious series, etc.). This is the same Hollywood where the stunning Holliday Grainger is cast as an “ugly” stepsister in Cinderella, and where the gorgeous Mae Whitman is not considered pretty enough to play the older version of her character from Independence Day in the Independence Day remake. Hollywood is brutal.
Emilia Clarke, Sophie Turner, Richard Madden, etc. aren’t fair comparison points for Maisie Williams because they are beautiful and Maisie is cute.
She could still have a great career in English TV and film as a character actress. England seems to be a lot less punishing when it comes to demanding physical perfection in actresses in major roles, particularly in comedy. It’s not fair to compare her prospects to Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner’s, though, since she’s not even in the same ballpark.
You missed the greatest of them all – Mickey Rooney! He kept finding roles even later into life. ‘Night At The Museum’ being just one amongst many.
For someone younger? Drew Barrymore doesn’t do too badly. She’s the added burden of that family name too.
I think Maisie’s doing well, finding roles well away from GOT. She was really good in a TV thing about cyber-bullying. Something Sophie’s become ideal for, modelling, could be for Maisie too, because she has that every-girl look and she’s so petite.
Knight of Storm’s End,
My take is that it the size of the project doesn’t matter, it’s the talent involved. The key to Johnny Depp making the leap from TV is that he was fortunate to hook up with Tim Burton when Burton still cared about making good movies. George Clooney’s film career started in fits and stutters because he was working with hack directors until he hooked up with Soderbergh. It’s probably understandable that Clarke would agree to Terminator (and turn down Fifty Shades of Grey) since actors want to be in big franchises that can anchor their careers while they pursue smaller passion project, and she probably felt some comfort level with Alan Taylor, but that movie won’t do her any favors. Her next project, Me Before You, is a smaller scale, and may work better, though I’m not familiar with the story. Sophie did the right thing taking a supporting role in an established franchise still being helmed by the director who seems to know how to make it work. If the movie works, she’ll have the afterglow of its success, if it doesn’t, no one will blame her.
Sophie did a film where Hailey Steinfield was lead about young female assassins that became a high school fish out of water story. Fun but forgettable
Shock Me,
Barely Lethal
Xanth,
Meh. Most people try smoking at some point in their lives. Doesn’t effect my opinion of them in the slightest. I think what she does in her perosnal life isn’t to be confused with her professional one. If she started going of the rails then it would be a worry but I’ve seen her in a couple of interviews and she seems a very grounded and sensible young lady. Sure she’ll be fine 🙂
Ashara Dayne,
Miley Cyrus is a perfect example of what I was talking about. The thing with her is that it’s blatantly a contrived move by her or her management. Sadly, ‘outrageous’
behaviour gets column inches and apparently any attention is good attention. Not sure if these acts are in on it or are just being manouvered by others to basically sell themselves mind and soul as a product. It’s quite sad that real talent can get overlooked for this vacuous shite. Kardashian culture needs to die…and soon.
Anyway, Maisie is a sweetheart. If smoking and being a bit of a know-it-all are the extent of her teenage rebellion then she’s like any other teenager!
Ravyn,
Yeah, I would want to subscribe that the size of a project doesn´t matter as much as the talent involved, but in the movie-industry the size of a project is mostly measured by what talent is involved to such an extent that one could potentially use “big project/lot of talent” synonymous.
Movies, unless they are part of a franchise, are an ever-changing thing, which inevitably means that films with a big budget are usually studded with familiar and famous names, just to make the studios feel safe. However, who´s cast is mostly chosen by a director himself (if there are no restrictions made by the studio) since he´s the one who actually has to work with the talents in the end and knows the requirements for the role best/ can plan what to expect from them.
So the thing about the examples Clooney & Depp is that this may indirectly prove the point that “big project equals talent” to quite some extent; yes, they were cast as mostly unknown actors, but they were cast by two big money generators in form of Steven Soderbergh and Tim Burton who could freely cast even unknown actors since they were already recognized as directorial talents who thus had been given plenty of rope for their own “big projects”.
This makes it all the more sad, actually, since you can be cast into a movie alongside plenty of other stars and it turns out great (let´s say Scorsese´s “The Departed” which acclerated Wahlberg´s career) but on the other hand just the opposite could occur (p.e. Armie Hammer for “The lone Ranger”).
In the end, it seems to be about estimating if a movie will deliver on the commercial front and on the critical front, so the talent involved and the size of the project are the two best indicators for making a decision and are thus inseparable/syononymous most of the time. Some actors seem to be better at predicting that and some are worse, leading them to be type-casted for the same roles over and over and over again (which is also why I think that Sophie will be fine since her repertoire of roles she played is already huge for her age, which kind of confirms that she knows how to avoid being type-casted) …
Who do you think will be among the more successful of the Thrones-Stars? I would be interested in knowing that since we already agree that Sophie could well have a bright future. ^^
(Furthermore) Btw, thank you for saying that Burton doesn´t really care anymore for making good movies, I´m totally with you concerning this aspect!
It seems like all the GOT leads except for Sophie Turner need to fire their agents. All their movies are looking to be critical stinkers. Lena Headey is consigned to pulpy trash hell (the Mortal Instruments bomb, The Purge, 300: Rise of an Empire). Peter Dinklage in particular has a string of critical failures, and PIXELS is looking to be no different. His best-reviewed movie–The Station Agent (watch it, it’s amazing)–is the one he made before he hit the big time. How sad is that?
I think the actors who get the most long-term traction from GOT will be the second-stringers like Michelle Fairley, Conleth Hill, and Iain Glen.
M,
You shouldn´t forget that most of them were already well-known before GoT, so most of them do already have a certain reputation and do not need to further fortify it.
Out of your three examples alone one can see that most of these actors have already gained quite some renown (this was why they were casted in the first place): Iain Glen already is quite an adress in Britain (mostly for Television and Theatre), Conleth Hill is more than just renowned concerning theatre (he was already nominated for two(!) Tonys) and will most likely focus on that again after Thrones. Concerning Fairley I do not know all too much…
Other than that, you may be right, but it´s to early to make final conclusions as of now.
Michelle Fairley seems to be getting a lot of work in American projects she wouldn’t have had a shot at otherwise. Conleth Hill also has a lot of work lined up.
Jason Momoa got a lot of traction out of his one season as Drogo, now that I think about it. Likewise for Harry Lloyd and Pedro Pascal. Maybe that’s the way to do it: get in, make your mark, die in a gloriously memorable way, and get out.
M,
They’ll be fine,enough with this doom and gloom nonsense you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about so cut it out .
His “dreaming” was experience. Bran’s early warging experiences were presented as “dreaming too. Jon clearly wargs into Ghost whenever he “dreams”. And this has been happening since book 2. (And don’t forget Arya, who has obviously also been dreaming/warging into Nymeria, as well as a certain cat in Braavos). I have no problem believing that in his death throes (back-against-the-wall!), he finally consciously wargs.
What were his last words again?
Hey, you’re free to believe that as the purpose of the prologue. And I’m sure Martin wants several readers to think that is it’s clear purpose, and not see it as obviously pointing to Jon “warging after death”. But when you combine the chapter’s emphasis of “warging after death” with it’s evocation of the dispersed Wildlings perspective in the wake of Stannis smashing them in “Storm Of Swords” (a direct and completely relevant piece of information to Jon’s story arc in “Dance Of Dragons”), it seems pretty obvious to me (and quite a few other readers!) that this prologue is pointing to Jon story arc in this novel. Which ends the same way as Varamyr (Death…….but life when warging into a wolf)
What was Jon’s last words again?
M,
No.
Because television, film, and theatre exist in countries outside of the U.S., and I happen to watch a lot of it, I can say with certainty that aside from the very young ones, the vast majority of the GoT actors are well established and had been long before the show.
As for ‘beautiful’, that is a whole world of variety. Maisie will do just fine, possibly more than fine with her kind of beauty. 🙂
mitch,
Oly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is only book JS that says Ghost.
I know. That’s why I wrote this in a previous post,
They have a show-only event (Mel meeting up with Thoros) that might play a distinct part of what the show does differently with Jon.
When I said “career traction,” I didn’t mean to imply that those actors didn’t have careers already, just that they could leverage them to get higher-profile work…especially those whose reputations were built mostly in the theatre. Weirdly, the GOT leads except for Sophie Turner seem to have a gift for leveraging their career success right into the worst-written, most poorly received projects imaginable. Maisie Williams seemed to have been spared, to date, but only because she never had a look-in at roles like Genisys or X-Men to begin with. The suggestion upthread that Maisie Williams would have a shot at Kitty Pryde, played of course by the stunningly beautiful Ellen Page in the previous films, shows just how out of touch some are with certain of these realities.
Maisie can do “just fine,” which I never denied (assuming you bothered to read my post, which I’m not sure you did), provided she stays in England, doesn’t aim for leading lady status in Hollywood, and accepts that she’ll never headline blockbusters. She might have a look-in for comedy in the States, but skinny female comedians have a hard time if they’re not gorgeous (Rachel Dratch getting shoved aside in the 30 Rock casting process in favour of the blonder, prettier Jane Krakowski). “Her kind of beauty” at least in Hollywood terms is the non-existent kind. Maisie Williams doesn’t even meet “Hollywood Homely” (tm TV Tropes) standards. It doesn’t mean she can’t have a career, but it does mean she can’t have the kind of career certain on this thread are claiming she could have.
M,
That really just sums up exactly what I mean by variety, and thank goodness for it. Your view of beauty is obviously much different than mine. I find Maisie beautiful, and tend to see the cookie cutter ‘Hollywood pretty’ as somewhat dull and interchangeable. The lovely thing about being perhaps ‘atypical’ is that the chance of being typecast is actually lessened.
I don’t think Sophie Turner (a fellow tall, fair girl) has gotten any roles so far that stand out more than the others, and I hope she gets a chance to be more than a ‘pretty’ face. Emilia taking on a Terminator movie was pretty brave, and thank god she turned down 50 Shades! Art Parkinson was great in San Andreas (bad movie but big draw). I hope the lot of the younger actors are able to be a little choosy, which is difficult when you’re starting out but fingers crossed not impossible.
She is a trashy lady and I hope she likes almonds
Trash bick,
I wouldn’t go so far as to call her trashy, but she def doesn’t appear to like almonds
Jo(h)n,
Wtf do you think she likes? Brazil nuts? C’mon john get a damn grip on westeros and go eat her can as if you were a dothrake
I totally forgot Maisie will be in the new season of Doctor Who. That’s exciting to this nerd!
Jo(h)n,
Dude… Jon snow not coming back? It’s all but confirmed he’s going to be brought back as a white walker.. The evidence is clear bro. And Brazil nuts john? I bet she’s eating good smooth hazelnuts in a ravishing hotel room at the moment. Next time do your research buddy.
Peter Dinklage was in the last X-Men movie ( a hit and he got good notices), and he has another TV series in development with him. I don’t know why he’s teaming up with Sandler, so I give you that. But considering no one will ever consider him for the Channing Tatum roles, he’s doing just fine. Heady’s movies are pretty bad, but The Purge and 300 were both hits, and Judge Dredd has a cult following. However, she doesn’t strike me as someone particularly focused on being a great actress, just a working one, which is understandable as a single mother.
Just a disclaimer: I work in the film industry, so I know that GoT is pretty much a must-watch for industry folks, even if you don’t like the genre. So I think the young actors are all on everyone’s radar right now. I think Sophie has obvious advantageous (photogenic, youth, and acting ability). Believe it or not, I think one of her struggles will be her height, as most actors don’t want to be seen next to an actress taller than them (Bogart did all his scenes with Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca while standing on an apple crate). But if Sophie makes the right choices (and has more than a bit of luck), she could be a star. I think her role in X-Men might be a small one (it didn’t seem like she shot for very long, anyway), and she has the lead in Frankenstein as Mary Shelley, that’s shooting later this year (last I checked). I would think Maisie has a chance, but it’s all about “the look” and she is a quirky beauty. I actually think she would fit into the Tim Burton-verse well. As for Kit, I do wonder what’s going on with him. He’s never been hotter than right now, but he’s in that weird spot where people “think” he’s still on the show. Yet, if not, his agent must be telling producers that so they would consider him for jobs. I hear he’s quite good in Testament of Youth. I find Alfie Allen kind of interesting. I saw him in John Wick recently, and he plays that lizard role so well, so I think he’s one to keep an eye on. He reminds me of Vincent Cassel, in a way. One actor I thought would’ve done well is Jack Gleeson,but it seems like he’s sticking to quitting acting for now. I personally like Hannah Murray a lot, but I’ve only seen her in Thrones so it’s hard to judge. Same with Emilia. I think she has the showiest role,and the most upside, but there’s always a question of her acting skills. I think she can act, and quite well, but she’s definitely one of those actors who needs to be directed.
One thing I always like to keep in mind is how these actors measure success: is it a thriving TV career, or is it the gold ring of feature films. You can come off quite well on TV, but blown up on a big screen, do you just fade into the background? I think that’s what happened to Michelle Dockery from “Downton Abbey”. At the height of that show’s popularity (S2-3), she was all over town out here, being feted by agents and taking auditions. There was even talk of her joining the other actors who had left the show. But it doesn’t seem like any real film work materialized and she’s still on the show. I bring this up because I’ve seen Dockery in films (Anna Karenina), and as attractive as she is on Downton, she utterly fades into the background when on screen next to a real star like Keira Knightley. So, it will be interesting who of the GoT actors can carry that big screen. I remember watching Dark Knight Rises and wondering who that actor was playing the CIA agent who interrogates Bane. It turned out to be Littlefinger himself! So maybe Aiden Gillen is the one actor to rule them all?
I bow before nobody in my love for Maisie Williams, but I see her future being much like her present – in British television and independent films rather than the Hollywood A-list, for which she doesn’t quite fit the mould. And there’s nothing at all wrong with that.
Ravyn,
I’m not involved in show business in any way; actually in British TV there has been a tendency to like the leading lady to be at least attractive even if not stunningly beautiful. I recently watched some re-runs of a British show from about twenty years ago “Pie in the Sky” – the late Richard Griffiths was the lead actor; he had the acting chops but I don’t think anyone would have said he was in the Clark Gable mould but his wife was played by Maggie Steed, an attractive though more mature actress (at least she wasn’t somebody young enough to be his daughter). Of course (as you allude to in mentioning Jack Gleeson) not everybody wants the pressure of the life of a Hollywood ‘A’ lister. You mention Keira Knightley who has been somewhat quiet of late – mind you I believe she became a mother not too long ago so she may be focusing on being a mum. Sometimes I’ve been surprised by which British entertainers have had success in the USA (maybe TV success rather than Hollywood ‘A’ list success), eg Rob Kazinsky in “True Blood” – not that I watched it and Ricky Gervais. Mind you the British popular press sometimes tends to over-egg the pudding when a British (known at home) actor gets a small part in an American film. The way they went on about Katie McGrath (who is of course Irish not British) featuring in “Jurassic World” I was expecting her part to be a substantial one whereas it was sort of like – five minutes and she gets eaten by a predator [she played Bryce Dallas-Howard’s assistant]. Apparently she (Katie) did her own stunts for the film so fair play to her for that.
Do you not think it is possible that having an unusual look might work for Maisie (whichever country she works in), even if she does not play the “leading lady”? No disrespect to Emma Thompson who is certainly not an ugly lady, but I would not describe her as conventionally beautiful, but she has starred in some Hollywood films (okay having been married to Kenneth Branagh at one period in time maybe did not harm her career). I’d like to think that the unconventionally beautiful or even the not strictly speaking beautiful were in with a chance provided they had the acting chops.
Ravyn,
Sorry – I see you did mention Maisie possibly fitting the “Tim Burton-verse” which I didn’t address in my previous post.
I agree. I think the only actors on this show that have a chance are the ones in heavy costume or the older ones with an already proven track record.
Wimsey,
I think the beauty question gets a bit overrated. It has more to do with having a certain something – an IT factor – where you communicate sensuality and mystery. Living in Hollywood, there are gorgeous men and women everywhere. But something has to leap off the screen. I mean, if it were purely about looks, does Benedict Cumberbatch scream “hot” to anyone? So, if Maisie hooks up with the right talent and role, like a Tim Burton, I can see her carving out a niche for herself in the way Winona Ryder did early in her career.
Ravyn,
Wow, to cut a long story short: very interesting insight, thank you.
I do agree with you, we book folk know what Jon Snow said in that scene. And I think (not certain) that those who think he could warg into Ghost are book readers. The show only followers all think that Mel will bring him back some how….and they think that for what you said, but also how the BwoB arc went in that season, we actually saw that Thoros brought back Dondarrion after The Hound beat him, is that right? But it was talked about between them all as they sat around camp fires and such. I think that is remembered more and foreshadowed.
To MY mind or way of thinking, having read the books as well, the show runners made a conscience decision to have Jon Snow say Oly. It wouldn’t have been THAT hard to have Ghost on hand or close by during the Ides of March scene, the viewers seeing him. But he wasn’t. Again, I believe this was a conscience decision on the part of D & D.
So I am sticking to Mel doing something that will allow him to be “reborn” as he is dead now into something new. Her choice is AA of course, MY choice would be the R + L = J being revealed next season and he is in fact a Targ.
I am laughing up my sleeve here KNOWING that none of us know what is going to happen. At the end of the day (sorry Dees) Jon Snow just might very well be ………..*gets into sprinting position* in the words of Maise……DEE EEE AYE DEE, they dead – my mother, my brother, dead.
*runs*
But, again, this does not seem to be an option in the books. Unless the prologue was lying to us, then Jon would have to be an experienced warg to be able to do this. However, Jon doesn’t know how to jump into Ghost: Jon only has wolf-dreams. Moreover, even an experienced warg would be lost inside of the wolf (or other animal) after a short amount of time. So, there wouldn’t be anything left to jump back into Jon’s resurrected body.
One, that’s not yet necessarily true: it’s very possible that Arya will start warging next year. What B&W “streamline” is (among other things) Chekhovian Guns that don’t get fired in that season. We have several examples of these things appearing a season later on TV than they would have given less adaptation. Two, the Stark warging really is limited to Bran and Arya that we know. Rickon might be, but he’s not a PoV character, so we do not know. Sansa definitely cannot, and I do not recall that we had hard evidence that Robb even had wolf-dreams. Bran obviously is something of a “hyperwarg.” Arya
. However, Jon never gets further than wolf dreams.
This is a bigger key: B&W streamline out details that do not have payoff in a particular story. If warging was to be the big “out” for Jon in the books, the B&W would have set up warging for Jon this year in order to use it early next year. They are very meticulous in this regard. Given that: 1) Jon does not fit the criteria given in the book for someone who would be able to leap into an animal at death; 2) the conditions given in the book do not seem to set up someone surviving for long at all in an animal host; and, 3) the show passed up it’s opportunity to set up this easy escape clause, it is both improbable and unlikely that this will happen in either show or book.
I do still worry that they were contractually obligated to drop the Jon Snow story if GRRM had not published it first.