The richness of the Game of Thrones character landscape doesn’t only come from the show’s stars. In today’s edition of the Watchers on the Wall Awards, we’ll be taking a look at the actors who were in season 5 for a short while but left their mark on the Thrones world.
Best Guest Actor is a category full of variety; some characters appear in more than one season but for briefer periods, while others live and die in the span of an episode or two. Kings and warriors, slavers and septons, moneyhandlers and giants. (And the occasional flasher.) Who was your favorite this year?
The Rules: This is the preliminary round! We want to narrow this selection down to the top 5 contenders. In order to find your top 5 picks for Best Guest Actor, we’re asking that each of you select up to FIVE nominees from the poll. You can choose fewer if you like, but you cannot choose more than 5.
At the end of 72 hours (Sunday 8/23/15 at 11:00AM EDT), whichever five actors have the most votes will continue on to the final round. (Note: in the finals, you will only have one vote to cast in each category!)
The results will be revealed when it’s time to vote for the final winner of Best Guest Actor, in a few weeks. Debate the possibilities and vote for your faves!
*Reminder: you may choose up to five nominees in this poll!*
Have you voted yet for Season 5’s Best Supporting Actor? Polls in the Supporting category are open for two more days! GO VOTE
Wun – Wun!
Richard Brake
Enzo Cilenti
Cedric Henderson
Rupert Vansittart
Ian Whyte
My page a day calendar quote for 20-August:
Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.
-Cersei Lannister – A Clash of Kings
Wun wun
Thenn leader
Mossador
Yezzan
Nights King
1. Reece Noi
2. Ciaran Hinds
3. Cedric Henderson
4. Enzo Clienti
5. Richard Brake
This one was a lot easier:
Zachary Baharov as Loboda
Nicholas Boulton as Daznak’s Pit Announcer
Enzo Cilenti as Yezzan
Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder
Reece Noi as Mossador
Ciaran all the way!
There is no way that someone else than ciaran hinds will win this category later.
Oh, should i have said spoiler alert? 🙂
I freaking LOVED the Pit Announcer. He gave a couple throwaway lines some memorable flair and gravitas. Kudos!
My five picks are still the same from the nominating phase:
Nicholas Boulton, as Pit Announcer.
Enzo Cilenti, as Yezzan.
Lino Facioli, as Robin Arryn.
Ciarán Hinds, as Mance Rayder.
Ian Whyte, as Wunwun, (and in previous seasons: Whitewalker, Giant and the Mountain).
The win should go to either Ciaran Hinds or Ian Whyte. What the latter has done with all those SFX should award him a win.
Honorable mention:
– Mark Gatiss as Tycho Nestoris, memorable, but not dramatic enough this season.
– Cedric Henderson as Faceless Man, memorable, but no.. no.. NO! *shuts door.
– Reece Noi as Mossador, memorable and dramatic enough to be a valid choice.
– Nigel O’Neill as Baratheon General, memorable, but dramatic?
– Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce, memorable, but dramatic?
Granted, Lino should’ve gotten something for last season, and Nicholas Boulton had a very, very minor role, with little drama, so Reece Noi could’ve been my pick over either of them. But I’m sticking to my prelim-choices.
Richard, Ciaran, Reece, Enzo, and JJ.
Nice to see Nigel in the running!
I voted for Hinds and Noi (the latter should win, in my opinion).
– Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (He’s funny 😉 )
– Zachary Baharov (He’s badass)
– Nigel O’Neill (He gives me Davos vibes)
– Cedric Henderson (“You have everywhere else to go”)
– Ciaran Hinds (Do I really have to explain?)
Mance. I was never totally sold on Hinds just because he’s so different from how I imagined the character, but I thought his final performance was his best since joining the show. I loved his debate with Jon, and his death scene was perfect.
Wun Wun, The Night’s King, Denys Mallister and the Flasher all have far too minor roles without much acting required to be real contestants (although they are all quite good in their parts).
Brake, Hínds, Akinnuoye-Agbaje, O’Neill, Whyte.
Richard Brake as the Night’s King
Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Malko
Nigel O’Neill as Baratheon General
Ian Whyte as Wun Wun
Lol at including the flasher in this list. What an unexpected honor. Worthy of a ghost vote. 🙂
Mark Gatiss for life! Also Ciaran was amazing and had the most impactful acting performance!
Hodor’s Bastard,
One of the things that this poll makes obvious is that between its huge roster of leads and its huge roster of supporting characters, the number of really substantive guest parts is very slim.
Sean C.,
I’m surprised the flasher beat out Rattleshirt for the honor to make this list. 🙂
Zachary Baharov
Richard Brake
Ciarán Hinds
Reece Noi
Ian Whyte
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Mark Gatiss, who I voted for in the nomination round, just missed the cut here in favor of Baharov and Whyte. As a result, my ballot is somewhat skewed towards actors from “Hardhome”, but I’m OK with that. Having just re-watched that episode recently, I was reminded once again of just how many minor players received strong moments of characterization and emotional impact amidst the relentless action and chaos. (This is particularly true in the Guest Actress field, which I suspect Birgette Hjort Sørensen is going to win in a walk).
Reece Noi’s Mossador had one of the more tragic arcs of any minor character in the series – an impressive feat, considering that he only appeared in three episodes. His plaintive appeals to Daenerys – delivered entirely in a fictional language – are pretty damn affecting.
Still, Ciarán Hinds has this pretty comfortably in my book. Mance’s death scene, and the conversation with Jon that precedes it, gets somewhat overlooked in discussions about the season’s best moments because it happened in the very first episode. But it’s such a powerful sequence, both in isolation and as the culmination to Mance’s arc. It all hinges on Hinds’s performance, and he’s pretty close to perfect, especially during those moments when Mance’s pride and resignation are involuntarily overcome by his growing sense of fear.
Mance or the nights king for me
Sean C.,
I really wouldn’t take us letting the flasher get a nom as indicative of that. It’s a joke. Just enjoy it.
Adewale
Richard
Munro
Ciaran
Oengus
I liked the thin man for some reason
Hodor’s Bastard,
I checked the nomination thread. It seems that no one voted for Ross O’Hennessy in the Guest Actor category. He was good, but – like Jacob Anderson in the Supporting category – he probably fell into the trap of not being among the first names to spring to mind when people were running through their list of potential choices. That being said, Tormund beating Rattleshirt to death did pick up a few votes for Best Comedic Scene. So the Lord of Bones left an impression on viewers – not just an impression in the ice where his skull mask and his actual skull got mixed together.
One person voted for the flasher. They almost certainly did so as a joke, but hey, it counts. If nothing else, the guy did what he did knowing it would be seen by more than 20 million people all over the world. The Internet will remember his contribution to one of the more memorable scenes in the series.
Noi and Hinds seem to me to be the only ones who had good dialog to work with. Vansittart had a good line and so did Agbaje. And of course one cannot forget the fandom’s new superhero, PissedOff-Man! So there is five for you, but given how different they were in terms of how much they actually influenced the storylines they were in, I’d say Noi and Hinds would have sufficed for me.
Jared,
Hah! That’s great to read. I just rewatched the High Septon’s walk of shame (S5/ep3) to see if the flasher made a cameo there as well. But alas, no.
Love the humor about it though.
Hmm.
1) Enzo Cilenti as Yezzan
2) Ciarán Hinds as Mance
3) Reece Noi as Mossador
4) Ian Whyte as Wun Wun
I also gave in and added Richard Brake (Night’s King) to the vote due to the sheer badassery of Hardhome’s closing scene.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Definition of criminally underused, but did great work, and would have enjoyed more of his character.)
Zachary Baharov (Karsi got more attention [and was great], but I’d say Baharov was important in his own way to Hardhome.)
Richard Brake (It’s a Make Up/Effects heavy role, but wouldn’t work as well without a quality actor doing the movement.)
Cedric Henderson (Really conveyed the creepiness and mystery of the House of Black and White before even stepped inside.)
Ciaran Hinds (Way back in season 3 I was dissapointed in his preformance, but he really came on in his following appearance. Probably my top choice, as he was the best actor working with the most meaningful material).
Off-topic: haven’t had a chance to read all the recent comments so apologies if old news but there’s a feature/interview with Maisie Williams (Arya) in today’s London Evening Standard. Not really anything about GoT, just her as a person, home life etc and photos from a fashion shoot where she looks as un-GoT like as it’s probably possible to, pus a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot. (In the final picture she seems to have borrowed Tormund’s eyebrows 😉 )
Mance in a runaway….
That being said, I found it very difficult to limit myself to 5 candidates. Very good list.
Is there really anyone but Ciaran Hinds who has a chance in this category?!
Ciaran Hinds
Lino Facioli
Mark Gatiss
Reece Noi
Ian Whyte
Mance > Night’s King > Malko > Pit Announcer > Faceless Man.
Honourable mention to the Flasher, who played a magnificent part and nailed all his dialogue.
– Ciaran Hinds: my favourite to win this poll. He was excellent as the principled and doomed leader.
– Reece Noi: gave a great performance as Mossador, a short lived but nuanced character.
– Enzo Cilenti: loved his portrayal of this wonderfully creepy and sleazy character
– Zahary Baharov: a likeable Then, who knew? Must be someting in his diet…
– Mark Gatiss: When I see Mark Gatiss, I always get flash-backs of “The league of Gentlemen” (the series not the craptastic film with Sean Connery)
Rygar??? 🙂
I’m abstaining from this vote until Birgitte Hjort Sørensen is put on the list. Are you kidding me? In the span of only one episode, she was able to convey an entire arc. I think the majority of us would say that we wanted her to survive and continue on the show! If that’s not enough to get a guest nod, then I don’t know what is.
umuckurlife,
You do realize she’s not a man?
I knew I was missing something. LOL
I even said to myself when I scanned the list three times “there’s not a woman on here”. Welp, there’s my fail for the day. Have at it!
ok then. Putting aside the embarrassing failure. I like the following:
Paul Bentley
Ciaran Hinds – the victor.
Oengus McNamara
Rupert Vansittart
Ian Whyte
Sue the Fury,
I get that it’s a joke. But I didn’t say that that role was the only indicator, I said the poll showed that. There are 18 people listed, and only 2 of them have what could reasonably be called substantive parts (the aforementioned Hinds and Noi). A number are little more than extras. People like Vansittart and Akinnuoye-Agbaje are definitely good actors, but they have only a handful of lines and no focus. And I don’t say any of this as if it’s a bad thing, it’s merely a fact resulting from how big the series’ main cast is.
Ciaran (Mance).
Zachary (Loboda).
Nicholas (Pit Announcer).
Cedric (Faceless Man).
Rupert (Royce).
Nigel O’Neill made it onto the list? That’s amazing! I genuinely didn’t expect to see him on here (as well as the flasher)
Mine go to Richard Brake, Munro Graham, Ciaran Hinds, Nigel O’Neill and Ian Whyte.
This was an interesting group, per usual. And there are a lot of fun bit parts in here, and a few notables that I didn’t vote for like Paul Bentley, who has been consistently good in his small role, or Rupert Vansittart, who to me is still more notable for being the “buggered me senseless” guy from Four Weddings and a Funeral. So I went with:
Ciaran Hinds — And who will likely win, deservedly. I always liked his Mance Rayder, who I thought he played as knowing, weary and cunning. And his final scenes with Jon Snow are masterful, particularly the range of emotions that hit his face as he is told he’s going to be burned alive – not hanged or beheaded, both quick deaths that he seems prepared for – but roasted, which seems to be among the worse ways to go.
Reece Noi – Terrific in a small role as Mossador, and his plaintive “Khaleesi?” really sells it for me.
Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje as Malko – Yeah, he doesn’t get much time, but he’s delicious and hysterial.
Oengus McNamara as the Thin Man – who really surprised me with how interesting he is. Great part, and he did a lot with it.
Enzo Cilenti as Yezzan – A nice bit of acting in a small part.
I thought about Richard Brake, but I’m convinced the makeup sells most of that performance, and Ian Whyte too, as he’s a real champ. Mark Gatiss really had more to do last year rather than this year, and JJ Murphy is a nice story, in his chance to get to be on this show, but he has exactly zero lines of dialogue (and maybe he had more planned) so I can’t go with him.
Easy: “There’s not going to be a siege, Your Grace”.
The Daznak Pit presenter was possibly the best part of Episode 9 for me. His speach was riveting!
Wun Wun was one of the reasons ‘Hardhome’ was so great. Another was Loboda of Thenns. And Karsi (another poll). And the Night’s King.
And obviously, Mance Rayder.
So those are my five picks. An honorable mention goes to Malko, the slaver pirate, the walking High Septon, Yohn Royce and the Thin Man liking oysters.
Paul Bentley as the High Septon. Hilarious.
Nicholas Boulton as Daznak’s Pit Announcer. Amazing voice and delivery.
Richard Brake as the Night’s King. Mostly prosthetics, but still —chilling.
Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder. He finally shined! Pun not intended.
Reece Noi as Mossador. Gut-wrenching character.
Here were my picks. I didn’t vote for Ciaran Hinds because I knew he’d get a ton of votes and I wanted to love on all my favorite small-role dudes. I have a big affection for the actors toiling in guest shots who don’t always get love.
I chose:
Cedric Henderson – He was such an interesting presence, it was disappointing to know we wouldn’t see him again (unless Jaqen or Arya uses that face? Hmm)
Enzo Cilenti Just a very good actor, brought a lot of charm and smarts to a small role. I wish Yezzan had been around longer, and a bigger player in Meereen.
Reece Noi An affecting death scene, and good scenes with Daenerys too.
Zachary Baharov He was a great part of the classic Hardhome sequence, held his own in the action sequences and made his part memorable with only a little screentime.
Ian Whyte People might say the prosthetics create the character but that isn’t really fair. It’s a collaboration between the person embodying the character and the makeup work. Wun Wun was a character and kicked ass, he wasn’t just a collection of latex pieces sitting there.
edit to say: I did consider voting for Mark Gatiss whom I adore, but he honestly didn’t do much this year but show up. If I had another vote to give out, it would have gone to Adewale.
Hinds, of course, for his beautiful performance (the ending of the premiere was a real S5 highlight, thanks substantially to his performance). Noi was another obvious pick for me. I really hope Baharov makes it into the nomination stage. It is so easy to play a simplified, dumbed down version of that chatacter, he he had presence and gravitas and made a strong impression very briefly. I went with AAA and Cilenti for my last two. I think they both added a lot of character to the few lines they had and really enhanced the brief moments they had. Would not mind seeing Brake and Whyte get those last two slots though.
Hinds, Drake, Gatis, Whyte, Cilenti. Ciaran Hinds is going to win!
I know far fewer (can you believe it I almost typed “far less”} British programmes make it on to American TV than vice versa, but if you ever get the chance to see a show called “Prisoners’ Wives” on PBS it might be worth giving it a go. Enzo Cilenti was in that (I’m sure I mentioned it on another thread when the season 5 casting announcements were announced and folk were like going “Who he”). He played the part of a prisoner who was wrongfully accused of child molestation. Iain Glen was in that show too as the “big bad” – Polly Walker played his (Iain Glen’s) wife and David Bradley (Walder Frey) played Polly Walker’s dad (playing a goodie for once).
BARATHEON GENERAL must win!!!
“There won’t be a Siege your grace”!!!! Loyal Badass till the end!
Ciarán Hinds ~ For his nuanced performance in the final scenes… the abhorrent death, the strength, courage and fear so perfectly personified by his words and mannerisms.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Hodor’s Bastard, which flasher? The man or the woman (who then gets coshed)?
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