Casting Tywin Lannister
While we wait for the official announcement, let’s continue to speculate on future castings. This time we’ll turn our attention to the head of the Lannister family, Tywin. Tywin’s role in the first season is relatively small, however it does expand in subsequent seasons. Even so, his role never gets too large. This seems like a good role for an experienced and somewhat well-known actor to come in and really shine. Let’s take a look at a few of the possibilities.
Patrick Stewart – A man who needs no introduction, Sir Patrick has appeared in countless films, television shows and stage productions. Most notable among them, Star Trek: The Next Generation and the X-Men trilogy. Looks-wise I think he is a good fit. Another plus is he would bring with him a decent sized fan base. Fans of Star Trek and X-Men are definitely the types of folks that could become huge fans of the show and having Captain Picard/Prof. Xavier in the cast will give them a reason to watch. One potential issue though is that Stewart has the tendency to gravitate toward “good guy” roles, so he might not see Tywin as a good fit.
Bill Nighy – Another easily recognizable actor, he doesn’t however have quite the name recognition of Stewart. Still Nighy has appeared in dozens of popular films over the past decade, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Underworld and soon-to-be popping up in the film series that seems to have employed all the best British actors over the past few years, Harry Potter. Nighy doesn’t quite have the look I imagined for Tywin, but the actors they cast for Jaime and Cersei weren’t a perfect fit either and that seemed to work out just fine. They’d have to see what he looks like bald first, but I think they could make it work.
Charles Dance – Although not as well known as the previous two gentlemen (at least not in the States), Dance is still an experienced actor. The bulk of his acting work has come in television. Perhaps his best role was as Mr. Tulkinghorn on the BBC drama Bleak House for which he received an Emmy nomination. He also has a Belfast connection, having worked on Your Highness, which of course filmed in the Paint Hall just prior to Game of Thrones. Whereas the role of Tywin may be a little off-type for Stewart, it is right in Dance’s wheelhouse as he tends to play the powerful villain type. Looks-wise, I think he is perfect. He has that steely gaze that just screams Tywin to me.
Alan Dale – The only non-Brit on this list, Dale was born in New Zealand and started his acting career there and in Australia. He starred on the Australian show Neighbours for 8 years and after leaving there decided to move to the States. Since then he has appeared on quite a few popular US TV shows, including The O.C., Ugly Betty, Lost and HBO’s own, Entourage. He looks most like how I imagined Tywin to look, just slap some mutton chops on him and he would be perfect. Despite not being British he most likely does belong to British Equity (an important element to getting cast it seems) as he starred in the West End production, Spamalot. We’ll see if that is enough to get him cast.
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