The five performers nominated for Best Supporting Actress of Game of Thrones Season 4 have been chosen by you, the viewers and the readers of Watchers on the Wall. A month ago, when the polling began, we asked fans to decide who should compete for the prize and we heard you loud and clear.
The voting was decisive, with the top five finalists emerging quickly. But with only one vote, not five, to cast in the finals, we may see very different results with the percentages.
Congratulations to the five finalists for Best Supporting Actress:
- Natalie Dormer
- Rose Leslie
- Diana Rigg
- Carice van Houten
- Indira Varma
Now, onto the final round of voting. You have one vote, so choose wisely! The poll will be open for 48 hours, until 9/21/14, at 10AM.
Hodormer
IMO the Emmanuel and Kikelli votes will go to Dormer. She’s going to win.
Not sure who voted for Ellie Kendrick, she didn’t have much to do, so I have no idea where those votes would go. Maybe Leslie.
Five excellent actresses, they all had their moments to shine. My vote goes to Indira Varma, however, because everyone else had a lot of time to develop their characters and she impressed me immensely with the few moments she got, achieving quite a lot in a very limited appearance.
I would vote for Olenna, but I love her for those great moments in season 3, not so much season 4. So I guess it’ll have to be Margeary, particularly for her chat with Cersei in the throne room and her sort-of-seduction of Tommen.
The same goes for Melisandre, Ygritte, Missandei and Ellaria: Season 3 was Ygritte’s best season; Melisandre had more to do in Season 2 and she will probably flourish in Season 5; and I really liked Missandei in the scene with Grey Worm (as opposed to most people, it seems), but it was not enough. Also, to my surprise, Indira as Ellaria didn’t do much for me, but she wasn’t given much to do, and I hope to enjoy her in Season 5. So Margeary wins.
Dormer by default, not a very inspiring category though. It took me a minute to even remember what scenes ND had this season.
Tough choice between Rose and Carice. Carice has exceptional screen presence but i’ll go for Rose as she had a little more to do this season not to mention you cannot beat a good death scene.
I went for Rose Leslie, even thought she didn’t have much to work with this year (compared to last’s), she really stood out in episode 9.
I was deciding between VanHouten and Rigg, with Dormer a close third. I stuck with Diana. She did great work for the first half of the season (the murder mystery plot). I really liked Natalie’s scene with Tommen, though, and Carice had various great moments throughout the season, in particular her scene with Selyse (No one gets naked and OWNS it like Carice!)
Went with Diana Rigg, mostly on her scene where she lets Margaery in on the fact that she had Joff killed, and toys with her necklace. Chilling, awesome.
None of them did a great deal this season. I’ll go with Natalie as I think she made the most of what little she had. More so than the others.
It was between Rose Leslie and Indira Varma for me. Ygritte’s best stuff was Season 3, in my opinion, but she really stood out to me in S04E09, at The Wall. Particularly, her bit with Kit right at the end, her unspoken performance as she fought with herself on whether or not to kill Jon (oh, and that subtle little smile, SO GOOD) just made me FEELSS.
Indira Varma was also excellent, and her heartbreaking scream in S04E07 at Oberyn’s death rattled my bones. However, I went with Leslie on this vote, primarily because Ellaria’s function within the story was not nearly so profound as Ygritte’s. Ygritte is an important person in Jon’s character development, something we will see more of moving forward, I think(hope). Ellaria was a fun addition to the story, and Indira killed it, but her character was not so important to the story that it outshines Ygritte, in my opinion.
I didn’t go with either of the other three choices mostly because: Natalie Dormer is a great Margaery, but she was hardly there, and I forgot about her more than half the time. Diana Rigg makes the perfect Olenna, but her best stuff was last season, and again, she was there a short amount of time at the beginning of the season then pffft gone. Finally, Carice van Houten, meh. I like her as Mel, but she didn’t have much to work with this season, I didn’t care for the scene with Selyse, and I think we’ll see a lot more from her next season that will be worth supporting her as a potential contender for this award next go around.
Wow, surprised Shae didn’t make it, her testimony was one of the more powerful moments of the season.
Just makes it easier to choose, I guess. Indira Varma had one great moment, but she wasn’t that much of a character besides being the grieving lover. Olenna was great as always, but didn’t have as much material. I love Dormer and her scene with Tommen is one of my favorites of the year, so I almost want to vote for her.
But that look on Ygritte’s face when she sees Jon Snow…so much weight on this one moment. On paper, the silent reunion of thewe two after spending the entire season apart shouldn’t be that powerful. But Harington and Leslie really sold it for me. So I’m voting for her.
Five Amazing Actresses…O.K, Rose and Carice!!
I went for Carice because she is my GF.
I disagree: SER POUNCE! 😉
Carice please
Indira Varma by a landslide.
Rose Leslie all the way. She was great as pissed-off Ygritte in her limited scenes before Episode 9, and was of course excellent in the biggest episode of the season.
Indira Varma and Diana Rigg did well this season. But subjectively, Natalie Dormer had more to do and did well. She gets my vote.
(If Indira is among the choices for Guest actress, there she’ll get my vote.)
I went with Diana Rigg because she showed all those young(er) actresses how it’s done in roughly 2 scenes:
– the great sarcastic one-liners at the Purple Wedding
– her one-on-one lesson with Margaery on how to get a man
As said above, Margaery and Ygritte had lesser moments than in season 3 and Ellaria was a very tertiary character, while Carice’s best performance as Mel this season was looking at Jon through the Fire in episode 10. I do admit that while book!Mel creeps me out and I cannot tell if she is pure evil or genuinely trying to save the realm, show!Mel just does nothing for me, although I cannot say if that it because of the writing or the actress.
Nooo! My post got eaten. I went with Rose Leslie but am now to lazy to type out my whole explanation post again. 🙁
Such a Stannis fanboy that AI voted For Melly Sanders even though she did not have much material to work with in season 4
I had to go with rose simply because she talked about “fooking” bears. Missandei’s boobs were a close second…
Natalie Dormer!
Carice for being so goddamn magnetic. She only had three appearances in s4 but I’m glad she’s in this category because she made the best of that screentime. In 402 she got to react with “agony and ecstasy” to a burning ceremony, she got to be bored at dinner with her King and Queen and she got to tutor Shireen creepily and once again hint at her likely horrible past. In 407 she got to talk shop with the woman who is essentially her sister-wife, reassuring her and seducing her simultaneously. In 410 she didn’t even say a word but got people talking about her screentime anyways. As always she’s GREAT!
Indira for runner up because I can’t forget that scream…
As wonderful as all of these actresses are, they all had to contend with similar issues this year – namely, a relative lack of screentime and/or a relatively imbalanced distribution of said screentime over the course of the season. Therefore, when casting my vote, I tried to focus on the range and lasting impact that each actress demonstrated when given the opportunity. It wasn’t easy, as they all had great moments to their credit, but I’m ultimately very comfortable with my choice.
Melisandre can never truly fade to the background, but Carice van Houten’s Red Priestess mostly operated on the margins this season (she was technically eligible in the Guest Actress category this year because she only appeared in three episodes). When she did appear, her characteristically magnetic and ominous charm was on full display. The long look that she shared with Jon over the fire served as a strong indicator that Melisandre remains a major player. We will most certainly be seeing more of her going forward, but this season, she mostly kept to the shadows (several of which may be her demon offspring – no one wants to get close enough to check).
Indira Varma spent the early part of the season partaking in various sex scenes and other debauchery – something that certainly did not go unnoticed or unappreciated in my corner. But you don’t just hire Indira Varma to look good – you hire her to bring gravitas and navigate emotionally fraught scenes with grace and poise. Ellaria’s heartfelt plea to Oberyn – “Don’t leave me alone in this world” – and her horrified scream when he did leave her (in spectacularly brutal fashion) ensured that she left her mark.
Natalie Dormer was almost completely absent from the latter part of the season, but she absolutely shone early on. Margaery’s sharp wit was on display as she sparred with Cersei and commiserated with Olenna, and her graceful if futile attempts to contain Joffrey during the Purple Wedding were highly amusing. Her seduction of Tommen in “Oathkeeper” was her best scene of the year, and it was a superb display of everything that makes Margaery so formidable.
Dame Diana Rigg and her caustic wit are not-so-secret weapons that Game of Thrones is wisely unafraid to deploy in liberal fashion. The Queen of Thrones set the entire season in motion with her murder of Joffrey – and that she did so moments after brilliant decrying the horrors of committing murder at a wedding only made it sweeter. Olenna departed King’s Landing after “Oathkeeper”, and it’s possible that we’ve seen the last of her. But I hope that she’ll return at some point – and I have faith that Benioff and Weiss won’t be able to resist.
Unfortunately, we have seen the last of Rose Leslie – at least on Game of Thrones (I expect that she’s got a long and distinguished career ahead of her). There’s no doubt that Ygritte was both more prominent and more dynamic in Season 3, as she spent most of Season 4 in silence. But reticence in the hands of the right performer can be just as effective as verbosity, and Leslie never allowed me to forget Ygritte’s broken heart even as she channeled her pain into a murderous rage. In the previous category, I singled out “The Watchers on the Wall” as my favorite episode of the season, and Leslie’s performance was no small part of that. I could try to ignore all of the setup and focus solely on how great Leslie was in Ygritte’s final moments. But ultimately, the moment was so powerful because of the life that Leslie brought to Ygritte during the three years on the show, and I feel that to try and extricate the two would do a disservice to such a fully-realized and committed performance. In the novels, I cared about Ygritte primarily because Jon Snow cared about her. In Game of Thrones, I cared about Ygritte because Rose Leslie helped make her charismatic, vibrant, and memorable in her own right. For that reason, I consider it an honor to celebrate her work one final time.
My Vote: Rose Leslie
Dianna Rigg was such a great actress that she could tell a story with just her face. (like Bill Murray and Tom Hanks can)
Carice was wonderful this season and really brought Mel to life, and Indira Varma had the great moment in The Mountain and the Viper, but Rose’s scenes as Ygritte stood out to me this season as the strongest, particularly in Watchers on the Wall, so I voted for Rose.
Rose Leslie! You could feel the pain in her short scenes throughout the season, and her reunion with Jon and death was heartbreaking. Carice and Natalie were also amazing and I’m sure it’ll be tough deciding between them in next year’s poll because I’m sure they’ll have some great stuff to do next season!
I think Sibel had the best scene from all supporting actresses, but there still too many prejudiced people around who use her porn past to talk down her performance. So i picked Rose even though she had not much to do in season 4 (same as other nominated actresses).
I was really torn between Dianna Rigg and Carice, but I had to go with Carice. I absolutely despise Melisandre as a character–because I personally define evil as someone who uses other people exclusively for their own ends regardless of how it affects those people. IMO she’s the perfect villain and Carice plays her perfectly. She’s totally convincing in her zealotry and absolute conviction wrapped in a really sexy package that you’d have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to recognize.
Can I change my vote? I voted for Natalie, but the more I am reading why others picked who they picked, I’d vote for Rose. The other actresses were superb, but her character had the most affect on what was happening at the moment, and it only worked because of her outstanding acting. Plus she turned a character whom I didn’t care about that much in the book to one whom I was very invested in. Anyway, if I can change it, let me know how.
Had to go with Rose Leslie.
Voted for Carice. Always a great presence in her (limited amount of) scenes. That look in the final episode!
Them wildling feels are too strong, gotta go with Rose Leslie.
Natalie Dormer for the wedding feast, Tommen’s night-scene and the coronation-scene with Cersei.
Dutch maester,
Also you’re patriotic. Her and Huisman are top notch exports.
I’m mildly annoyed that Missandei didn’t make the final round, but either way I’d have voted for Olenna Tyrell.
Margaery is good but didn’t have as much to do this season. Melisandre was barely in it.
Really, this is a choice between Olenna Tyrell and Ygritte….Ygritte really only had one big episode this year, but it was her death episode, and carried a ton of dramatic weight, and was great acting. She also gets the sympathy vote due to leaving the show and now being unable to win in the future.
Still, between the two, Olenna Tyrell had a lot more nuance and a lot more stuff to do.
This award belonged to Sibel Kikelli this year. Really surprised and disappointed she didn’t make the top 5. Her performance made Shae a compelling, sympathetic and tragic character, one of the few cases where the show substantially improved on the source material.
I voted for Carice. And yes, being the most beautiful member of the cast played a part. She also rocks it as Melisandre, who I just find more intriguing than Margaery,Olenna,Ygritte, and Ellaria.
All of the actresses here had fairly minimal screentime, with one or two really notable moments. I ultimately went with Carice.
Pick between Rose Leslie and Diana Rigg was hard but… my vote goes for Rose Leslie.
Call me shallow, but I voted natalie because she is just unbelivably hot.
In all seriousness though, I do feel this is a weak category, because I don’t really feel any of them did anything outstanding (not that I’m saying they were bad, just merely good). Personally I feel it should be either Natalie, Diana, or Rose, as they are the only three that gad eniugh screentime to make an impression. Carice and Indira had mvery minimal screentime, even less than these three so I had to exclude them from contention.
When Mel raised her hands while riding her horse bareback with her red shawl flowing around her perfectly poised body, I was in awe. Then when Orell’s eagle began to burn, I had chills. Such an awesome scene. Of course, Mel had my vote…
Oh wait….never mind…
“We all must choose. Man or woman, young or old, lord or peasant, our choices are the same. We choose light or we choose darkness. “
It doesn’t matter who of them wins, they all did great jobs with the material they were given. I think this is gonna come down to a popularity vote for the characters…
Most people weren’t that affected by ygrittes death scene, but it brought me to tears. rose’s got my vote.
I liked Dormer before Game of Thrones, but when she first started playing Margery, I had a tough time getting past some of her mannerisms…things which seem more Natalie, than they do the character. She’s grown on me, since then, but there are still moments when I feel like I’m watching Natalie, and not Margery.
Leslie was wonderful, and the moment she saw Jon Snow was…it definitely stuck with me. That wasn’t’ enough to get my vote, though.
Varma is someone I’ve liked since I saw her in Rome. She did have a few good moments, but she seemed to spend most of the season as glorified set dressing (through no fault of her own). I look forward to seeing some of her acting chops on display in Season 5.
vanHouten has never done it for me. That is not to say I don’t think she does a good job. Maybe it’s just that I dislike the Melisandre character so much, I can’t get beyond that.
As far as Rigg goes, every moment she appeared on screen, whether she had dialogue, or it was just a reaction shot during the Purple Wedding, was pitch perfect, imo. Thus, she is the one who got my vote.
Indira Varma, just for her horrified reaction to the Red Viper’s death
Exactly this.
Rose all the way.
Braincandy,
Agree
Got to go with Rose Leslie on this one! She was the one bit of reprieve Jon got in his harsh and tumultous life…up to this point obviously…Ygritte was an important, albeit brief, presence in Jon’s life, who might have had a more profound and long lasting impact on him and his world than many others, including Ned…
Gotta be Rose. Dormer didn’t do much…
I agree Ygritte was pivotal in Jon’s development, but you can’t pass by the fact that his entire personality is a reflection of the Stark heritage, with Ned being the main proponent of that.
Tar Kidho,
I don’t know about that. One of the reasons that Jon Snow is one of my favorite characterw is because, like Ned, he’s always trying to do the right thing. But unlike Ned, he’s a lot more confused about what the right thing is. His mixed feelings towards the wildlings and his bitterness towards the societal system that treated him badly because of his parentage really distinguish him from the other Starks, I think.
ash,
you can just vote again and do rose twice to even it out
My elaboration on why I voted for Ellaria: Ellaria’s horror scream & Melissandre’s stare through the fire at Jon Snuu are two of the most magnetic and haunting moments of the entire season IMO. I picked Indira because she supports Oberyn so well as a character. Dianna Rig is great as Olenna but it wasn’t as significant this year despite the necklace thing being executed really well. Margaery had a great moment during the wedding (“Look the pie!”) and a great scene with Tommen, but she was a sidenote this season to be honest. As for Ygritte, I loved her in season 2. But everything became so cheesy afterwards, nothing to do with Rose as she does a very good job but the writing for Ygritte’s relationship with Jon wasn’t that enjoyable in S3&4. Ygritte had better scenes with Tormund this year. I did like her funeral a lot though, beautifully shot.
Blob,
Shoot, didn’t see this till this morning; the poll is closed (but, its only 9:55 am here on the west coast! 🙂 Ah well. Thanks anyway
(see this only now…)
Well, the fact that Ned took Jon as part of his household (and all theories about who Jon really might be aside…) actually shows to me that Ned didn’t agree with parts of the societal system either, and just like Jon he acted upon this. Sure, Jon’s particular case made him stand apart somewhat from the rest of the young Starks in times of peace, but come danger, they all acted the same: to protect the weak. If Ygritte has really been THAT influential, he would have put his(/their) own sake first. Instead he did the Stark thing of doing what is right, leaving her behind and going to warn the Night’s Watch.
Carice Van Houten and Diana Rigg were amazing!!