This week’s new episode of Game of Thrones marked the debut of Yezzan, who purchased Tyrion and Jorah from slavers, and Hunger has an interview with the actor who plays him, Enzo Cilenti, as part of their Game of Thrones: Newbies are Coming series. (Check out their other interviews with Alexander Siddig, DeObia Oparei, Jessica Henwick and Toby Sebastian.)
Cilenti is something of a different take on Yezzan than the man in the books who was dubbed “The Yellow Whale.” He tells Hunger:
I read the description of Yezzan when I was doing some research before the audition and thought, “I don’t know why I’m being considered!” But then I stopped being stupid; you have very clever people running the show and part of the joy for those who have read the books is that it sometimes diverts away from the books and sometimes it sticks to them – there’s always a really good element of surprise. David and Dan are incredibly creative and aren’t constrained by thinking in a very narrow fashion. I stopped worrying about not being able to get the job because I wasn’t obese and didn’t smell of urine.
Cilenti takes part in a video Q&A with Hunger as well:
Swing by the magazine for the rest of the interview!
![GOT507_102314_HS_DSC_0826[1]](https://watchersonthewall.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/GOT507_102314_HS_DSC_08261.jpg)
There’s a new interview with Eugene Simon over at MakingGameofThrones discussing Lancel’s change of heart and his revealing of his relationship with Cersei to the High Sparrow in “The Gift.”
On his change since we saw Lancel during the Blackwater battle, Simon says:
I think the way in which Lancel is presented to us now is given so much meaning because of the time that he’s been gone. He believes the only reason he’s still alive is because the gods have a divine purpose for him. Lancel feels that in order for there to be peace in the world, everyone must play by same set of rules. And to him, the gods provide those rules and they’re unbreakable.
HBO asks if it took a lot of prodding for Lancel to “unburden” himself to the High Sparrow. The actor says:
I think it didn’t require a great deal of effort for him to reveal his incestuous relationship with Cersei. The real issue for him is to redeem his sin and to do that, he has to bring Cersei with him. He’s totally bound to Cersei. His redemption and her redemption are one and the same. And his primary challenge at the moment is to pay the penance for that sin.
DeObia Oparei talks to Zap2it this week about stepping into the fray between the Sand Snakes and Jaime Lannister in Dorne.
Areo works as a counterweight to the brass hysteria of the Sand Snakes. […] But behind, Areo is also a political animal too. I think we get to see that later on, that he has a mind behind the brawn. I think that’s what’s exciting too, that it’s not just brawn, but of course I’m hungry to take some heads.
Oparei also discusses the interpersonal power dynamics of Game of Thrones, noting that, “The TV show does this quite often with very powerful figures … that in some way they’re physically incapacitated, just as the prince is. Then they have this physical presence that is there to carry out their power.”
The actor has much more to say, so head over to Zap2It for the full interview.
Cilenti was actually very, very good. But in an episode packed with excellent performances his didn’t make it to the limelight…
dothrakian raven,
Yeah, it’s one of those performances that isn’t very flashy so it won’t grab attention but he’s very good actor.
Enzo Cilenti definitely gets this year’s Dan Hildebrand Award. He did so much with so little in last week’s episode. Tiny little comic gem of a performance. Shame it was most likely a one-and-done appearance, but he’s quite awesome in the “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” miniseries currently going on.
When asked what characters he would like to share a scene with, Eugene Simon (Lancel) stated he’d love a one-on-one scene with Kevan to show their father-son relationship and how it deteriorated. The way it’s worded sounded to me
I feel like he could be in season 6 maybe. Kind of like how Burn Gorman appeared briefly in season 3 before being given more to do in season 4.
Good performance by Enzo Cilenti, even tho part of me still misses the “Yellow Whale” aspect of the character. But I assumed D&D would go this way and keep just the name, so no biggie. I still kinda hope that my namesake will have more than just the one episode (or three scenes, if you prefer counting it that way), but one has to be realistic…
Yezzan zo Qaggaz,
I think he said it was two episodes in the Hunger interview.
Sue the Fury,
i actually really enjoy that they get great actors even for the bit parts, its brilliant they can get known actors to give up their time for a one or two episode stint.
Go ahead, Yezzan…pimp slap Tyrion again once he hops on Viserion.
Yeah I loved show Yezzan. And whilst he doesn’t look the part from the book, it would have been great to see him act out some of the Yezzan content in the books which I actually really enjoyed for some probably weird reason.
Alas, there’s no way he could have gotten more screen time than he got. Such is the way of season five. What a difficult season it must have been to make.
Sue the Fury,
Interesting – I wonder if the second ep means he will hold on to Jorah a bit longer or if he will be in some hot water with Dany.
Now I’m wondering if the show is skipping the pale mare plot?
WeirwoodTreeHugger,
I kind of assumed this when the Yunkai situation was a non-event handled by Daario and Hizdar. No seige, no battle, no pale mare. One big disease is enough, I guess.
A moment of silence for the loss of Sweets, please.
What’s this show got against fat people? Illyrio isn’t fat. Kraznys isn’t fat. Yezzan isn’t fat. Fat Walda looks more like Chubby Walda.. I bet this Yezzan doesn’t even smell like piss! The nerve of these people.
#stopfatpeopleomissions2015
Given that we’ve seen many aspects of sexuality already portrayed adventurously in the show, I’m sure hermaphroditic love is not far away. 🙂
I’m confused for both wanting Yezzan in more scenes, but not wanting Jorah to get curb-stomped for that elbowing penalty.
Pigeon,
I cried foul when Jorah stormed the arena pit uninvited. He basically won by surprising the other competitors who were already engaged (and tiring). Unfair!
(but to his credit, there were about 8 of them left when he did crash the pit party; not bad for a 60-yr-old)
Hodor’s Bastard,
At least he just took them down, he didn’t go all tazmanian devil crazy like that one dude (which i guess was the point). He can’t win for losing. Or win for winning. Or just win.
I keep yelling at the tv that he’s not old, but apparently they aged up Iain Glen. LOL. I always thought of Selmy as the ‘old knight’….guess he passed it on.
I may be guilty of singing “StoneMan” to the tune of “SpoonMan” when he appears.
Hodor’s Bastard,
and he finished with a flourish, knocking a dude out with his own helm, that’s class right there.
Roose On The Loose,
I would have appreciated a scene of him making the guy hit himself in his own face, like my sister and I as kids. “Stop hitting yourself! Gah!”
Pigeon,
Roose On The Loose,
Yeah…it’s hard to diss Jorah. Iain Glen made him a likeable guy. Plus, he hasn’t got his kiss yet.
SpoonMan/StoneMan… lol
an interesting thought i got now that is Jorah connington/victarion Mormont
we have seen jorah getting Greyscale and becoming jorah connington …but a thought just occured to me what if he takes the role of Victarian next season i.e., gets his hand healed by a red priest ..we now know that there is a red priest being cast for Season 6 ..
so if he gets healed he will become jorah mormont again
dragonbringer,
I made a joke awhile ago about how he really needed a red priest to ‘give him a hand’, lol. I quite like the idea…Jorictarionnington?
Pigeon,
i am starting to think this is possible because they would have wanted to increase jorah to get affected to increase the tension and in a way to show us about greyscale
but in the end he must become jorah mormont again..and a red priestess must show what she is capable of ..what better way to show that than by healing jorah mormont
notice that he is affected in the left hand similar to victarian (i may be wrong here but i think victarian got affected in his left hand)
if jorah can become connington he can certainly become victarion…and it will be a fan service for the book readers
dragonbringer,
IF he ends up surviving Season 5, which I hope but am not counting on. :/ It would be interesting since you would think greyscale is going to be more of a plot point than ‘Ah shit, Jorah got it. Oh well.’
Eugene Simon has done such a terrific job this season as Lancel. Can’t believe I’d ever be saying “Yay Lancel!”, but there it is. 😛
Bring on more Hotah!!!!! 😀
Tyrion Pimpslap,
He was the most devoted whore in all of Essos. He was a good man… woman… And now his Watch has ended.
Renly’s Peach,
Illyrio and Walda are obese. Not morbidly obese as in the books, but certainly more than “chubby.” Meanwhile, Yezzan is essentially a completely different character; Yezzan in the books didn’t even deal with pit fighters. That’s more Zahrina than Yezzan. And the “on-hand” approach is more like Nurse.
And worst of all, the omission (or hopefully postponement) of lord Manderly. T_T White harbor got a name drop, tho, so there’s hopes! … and the introduction of their house in S3 extras and Wendell Manderly at RW (although there’s not one really clear shot of him; it’s gonna be hard for them to even “reintroduce” him in one of those previously-on-got videos) … granted, that was probably the era, where Northern lords (in place of LF) at Winterfell were still a matter of course.
I don’t think you could actually have book Yezzan on the show, unless you went the full “Yezzan the Hutt” (with CGI) route. He’s another one of those characters like Vargo Hoat or Strong Belwas that would just look ridiculous on-screen if played as written.
That’s been twice a Dornish character actor said his character has some political accuity…
First Jessica Henwick, then Deobia Oparei.
I stick to my theory that Nym (who is the last Sand Snakes that didnt get a more personal scene) will have a face to face with Doran where he’ll send her to King’s Landing.
As for Areo, I guess that will come up during that climax Dornish discussion…
Tyrion Pimpslap,
I just poured out a bit of my 40 for him/her…
Totally OT, but here’s a great little article (somewhat) related to Thrones. An interview by James Hibberd with Bryan Fuller, the creator and showrunner of Hannibal, that sort of goes into how rape is used as a plot device and the difficulties that arise. It’s a great read, especially if you’re a fan of Hannibal!
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/28/hannibal-rape-thrones