15 minute preview/behind the scenes HBO

[C Of K]

Definitely Jay-mee
I've always said Seer-say
Cat-lyn actual sounds more natural, but I never said it like that.

And I just have to ask this, because the ladies are crushing my self-confidence. What in the world is wrong with Jaime's actor? Does he have a wort on his nose that I keep missing? a pock-marked face? a subliminal sign that says "UG"?

Or is it (and I kind of hope it's this one) that you ladies just reached for the stars when you chose your boyfriends and husbands?

Higher standards, I have never seen. I can't see anyone calling him gorgeous, (neither would anyone say such of me, btw) but ugly? That's harsh. Poor guy gets very little love on this forum, someone should buy him a puppy.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I don't now whether it's a comment on the actor by himself, more against the description of Jaime in the books, and not quite...matching up? The golden curls and the similarity to Cersei, I guess.

As I've already said, I think the guy fits the role well. He has a strong, defiant handsomeness about him, fitting for a seasoned fighter and commander of the King's Guard. And arrogance too, of course. But also, as I previously mentioned, the ability to show Jaime's transition through the course of the story. He gets a bit shabby at times, for a start.

 

[Tragedy]

Its Jaim-ee? Wow, I always pronounced it as Jay-mmh. Sounds more badass.

By the way - is that Varys?! If it is, they totally nailed what he looked like in my head.

 

[Culhwch]

Its Jaim-ee? Wow, I always pronounced it as Jay-mmh. Sounds more badass.

Exactly. I've always maintained that 'Jamie' sounds like a member of a boyband.

 

[Ursa major]

...New Kings on the Block or Westeros Life...?

 

[HoopyFrood]

LOL.

Oh, my.

Thanks, Ursa.

 

[Culhwch]

Technically it'd be New Kingslayers on the Block.

 

[C Of K]

Exactly. I've always maintained that 'Jamie' sounds like a member of a boyband.

I always thought that was exactly the way GRRM was trying to portray him at first. He was one of those characters I hated in AGOT. You know, the annoying guy that always has more money than everyone else, just like all those guys in the boy bands. It wasn't until later books that I started to like Jaime's character.

 

[Ursa major]

Re: 15 minute preview/behind the scenes HBO ** Spoiler? **

I think the name's a call for new clients, Cul: not that there'll be a shortage.


(They'll be shorter afterwards, of course.)

 

[hadd]

i thought that the actor playing Jaime was perfectly chosen. Any more prettiness and no-one could believe that he's supposed to be the deadliest fighter in all of Westeros. I also don't find his look to be a departure from the way i see him when i picture what is described in the book. Certainly he's not the same image, but he's far closer that the likeliest choices (would you believe a Brad Pitt pretty-boy as Jaime)
As for George's pronunciation of Jaime's name as Jay-Me... thats always how i read it as being pronounced. pronouncing it Jame smells of naming ignorance. Every Jaime spelt that way in realworld situations that i've come across, is pronounced either Jay-Me or High-Me (the spanish ones i've met at least)... at least imho... seriously. george barely alters normal names in his series... and almost all of them seem likely to be pronounces as we would pronounce their real world versions.

Catelyn as Cat-Lin (i couldn't hear his pronunciation clearly on any replay) or Cattle-In... its his character i suppose. He can pronounce it how he likes... and i'll shudder slightly every time its said that way in the show... but i'll always read it as Cate-Lin

Well George does have a pretty strong American pronunciation imho...
But well as i'm not a native English speaker myself it has always been "Jame" in my head not "Jay-mee". But who knows, maybe in the series the actors will pronounce the names completely differently

 

[TK-421]

By the way - is that Varys?! If it is, they totally nailed what he looked like in my head.

If you mean the bald eunuch shutting the door? Yes, I figured that's him.

 

[Mesanna]

And I just have to ask this, because the ladies are crushing my self-confidence. What in the world is wrong with Jaime's actor? Does he have a wort on his nose that I keep missing? a pock-marked face? a subliminal sign that says "UG"?

Or is it (and I kind of hope it's this one) that you ladies just reached for the stars when you chose your boyfriends and husbands?

Higher standards, I have never seen. I can't see anyone calling him gorgeous, (neither would anyone say such of me, btw) but ugly? That's harsh. Poor guy gets very little love on this forum, someone should buy him a puppy.

No, don't let your self-confidence be destroyed, we're just being pernickity!

I think the guy playing Jaime is quite attractive, but in the books, Jaime is described as beautiful. It's mentioned frequently by many different people just how good-looking he is. The actor (in my opinion) is handsome, but not drop-dead gorgeous. I think us ladies all just had high expectations after being repeatedly told how stunning Jaime is supposed to be.

Beauty is, of course, completely in the eye of the beholder and I have no doubt Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will have legions of female fans. For me personally, this guy with blonder hair is what Jaime should look like. Gorgeous but manly at the same time.

[Goes off to wipe drool from keyboard after looking too long at that pic]

 

[Mouse]

For me personally, this guy with blonder hair is what Jaime should look like. Gorgeous but manly at the same time.

Grr muchly! Yes please. I'll take him.

 

[hadd]

Maybe it's because i'm male but that guy looks pretty much like a brother of Coster-Waldau to me hahaha.

 

[Ursa major]

Perhaps then, hadd, Gabriel should have played Cersei....









* Gets coat and rushes off to book passage for Pentos. *

 

[The Imp]

I think the thing that we all need to keep in miond is, the characters will look the way they are presented to the VIEWING audience. Roy Dotirce will NOT be narrating in the background, and there will be no mention of Jaime's golden hair. There will be hundreds, probably thousands of things that any one of us will be able to point to and say "That's NOT how it was described in the book". We're going to have to live with that, or not watch it. To use a great Nucky Thompson quote from Boardwalk Empire

"We all have to decide for ourselves how much sin we can live with."

Substitue change or difference for sin. Every fan of the books will have to make this decision, because there WILL be differences, some probably being much more important than the color of Jaime's hair

/gets down off soapbox and departs to get some much needed coffee

 

[Mouse]

Blimey.

Imagine how annoyed people would be though if Jaime was a brunette in the show. Or if Dany was a blonde.

 

[Ursa major]

I think most of us want to have the series made for the screen. Why?

We perhaps do so because, like armchair missionaries, we want others to see the light: that ASoIaF is a story worth knowing. We want them to know even at our own expense, because we want GRRM to be involved to keep the producers honest. It will also be at our expense because for most of the people who will "know" ASoIaF, they will "know" it through the HBO series, which may have consequences for the so-far unpublished and unwritten books.

What do we want these converts to see? Why are we willing to allow a translation of the series? Is it so see how golden Jaime's hair is, how similar he looks to Cersei? I suspect not. Literature (and I use the term in its widest sense) cannot be devoid of golden-haired anti-heroes. And would the story be destroyed if the series were to be made in Japan or Nigeria using their local actors?

I, for one, will watch (when I can) and hope to enjoy watching. My enjoyment will be increased if I know that thousands or millions of others have enjoyed/are enjoying/will enjoy the HBO series (in the same way as I enjoy reading the books knowing that others are doing likewise). It is all I, as a viewer, can do. If I worry about the colour of someone's hair, I won't be immersed in the story, which can only harm me. If I want 100% fidelity, I'll go back and read the books.



By the way, and to give you an idea of my feelings about translations to other media: While typing this, I've been listening to Beethoven's First Symphony, played on the the piano. Luckily, the transcription was done by a master - Liszt - and the music is satisfying even without the violins and woodwind, etc. It is also clear that Liszt loved the original, symphonic version, even though changes to the score were inevitable once it was "reduced" to the piano**. I only hope HBO does a similarly good job of transcription, and in a similar spirit, that they love*** the work so much that they want to share their love with the world. I can only hope they've chosen good actors to be the characters we love (or love to hate) even though they aren't identical to the images we (may) have in our heads.



** - This type of work is sometimes called a "piano reduction".

*** - Just to prove I'm still cynical, I'm sure they also want to turn a buck.

 

[The Imp]

I think most of us want to have the series made for the screen. Why?

We perhaps do so because, like armchair missionaries, we want others to see the light: that ASoIaF is a story worth knowing. We want them to know even at our own expense, because we want GRRM to be involved to keep the producers honest. It will also be at our expense because for most of the people who will "know" ASoIaF, they will "know" it through the HBO series, which may have consequences for the so-far unpublished and unwritten books.

What do we want these converts to see? Why are we willing to allow a translation of the series? Is it so see how golden Jaime's hair is, how similar he looks to Cersei? I suspect not. Literature (and I use the term in its widest sense) cannot be devoid of golden-haired anti-heroes. And would the story be destroyed if the series were to be made in Japan or Nigeria using their local actors?

I, for one, will watch (when I can) and hope to enjoy watching. My enjoyment will be increased if I know that thousands or millions of others have enjoyed/are enjoying/will enjoy the HBO series (in the same way as I enjoy reading the books knowing that others are doing likewise). It is all I, as a viewer, can do. If I worry about the colour of someone's hair, I won't be immersed in the story, which can only harm me. If I want 100% fidelity, I'll go back and read the books.


(By the way, and to give you an idea of my feelings about translations to other media: While typing this, I've been listening to Beethoven's First Symphony, played on the the piano. Luckily, the transcription was done by a master - Liszt - and the music is satisfying even without the violins and woodwind, etc. It is also clear that he loved the original, symphonic version, even though changes were inevitable. I hope HBO does a similarly good job of transcription, and in a similar spirit, that they love** the work so much that they want to share their love with the world. I hope they've chosen good actors to be the characters we love (or love to hate) even though they aren't identical to the images we have in our heads.)


** - Just to prove I'm still cynical, I'm sure they also want to turn a buck.

As I've said before, maybe in other threads, HBO has turned out the best television in the past decade. Shows such as The Sopranos, Oz, The Wire and Boardwalk Empire are the gold standard that any new show could aspire to. I have great confidence that they will do a similarly fine job with GOT becuase of this fine track record, and becuase GRRM has been actively involved with the series, even writing one episode. I think it was the 8th, but I could be mistaken. I won't say more in case a noob has wandered in and might read a spoiler.

If GOT turns out to be at the same level as the 4 shows mentioned above audineces will love it. It's not guaranteed that all fans of the book will though.

to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln/PT Barnum

You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

 

[the smiling weirwood]

I think you're being a little patronizing in dismissing a discussion of the disparity between characters we know and the actors being cast to play them.

None of us here have vowed to boycott the show because they didn't include this or that or show the other thing this particular way, but I think it's a perfectly valid discussion to be having.

Personally, I find it both interesting and entertaining to hear everyone's vision of the story and characters hashed out in relation to how they seem to be portraying them from what we've seen so far, which is admittedly a limited sampling.