The Small Council: Who was the best actor of Season 5?

It’s time for that old awards season standby: the Best Actor award. Which performance by a male cast member in Season 5 left the best impression on us? Read our arguments below, and sound off in our poll!

ANI: All my best actors are dead. Save one. And he spent the off-season stuck in a crate, so when he tumbled out in the Season 5 premiere, he looked pretty damn awful.

Peter Dinklage has been doing excellent work for season after season on Game of Thrones. Even early on, when you were still trying to remember which Stark was which, and how that Snow guy was related to those people, and what that girl in the silver wig was doing, and WTF was up with those creepy incestuous twins, Dinklage was walking away with the entire production. Season 5 was no exception. I was actually a little worried he wouldn’t be able to top some of his high points from Season 4, not after starring in the King’s Landing Trial of the Century and murdering both his father and his lover on his way out the door. This was an especially big concern when I factored in how in his head Tyrion was in the latter books of the series.

But I should not have feared. From the moment that he rolled out of that crate and began drinking all the wine he could get his hands on, Dinklage owned the screen. Name the top five most thrilling one on one conversations of the season, and you’ll realize that he’s in most of them: the drunken scene with Varys when he chooses to accept his mission, the drunken scene with Varys in the litter, the scene in Volantis with the prostitute, those one-on-one buddy moments with Jorah over land and sea, and the meditation on violence in entertainment with Hizzy. And of course, that tete-a-tete with Dany in her chambers, as the two of them took the full measure of each other and decided that this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

It was another year of unforgettable performances from Dinklage. Let’s hope that this year the Emmys paid attention.

DAN: Stephen Dillane often had a thankless job on Game of Thrones. As Stannis Baratheon, it was his task to be dour, severe, and curmudgeonly. Dillane provided everything needed for the role, but these traits made Stannis a difficult character to understand. He had too many hard edges to really be likable, and the only time he showed emotion was when he was trying to suppress it.

However, these characteristics became a boon to the show late in Season 5, as Stannis struggled with the decision to ritually sacrifice his daughter Shireen. Suddenly, Dillane’s weather-beaten face, a rigid face that had always concealed what the character was thinking, became a fascinating puzzle. Would Stannis really go that far? Dillane revealed nothing, but there was a faraway look in his eyes that made everyone nervous.

Dillane’s best scene of the season, and probably of the series, came in “The Dance of Dragons,” when he sat down with Shireen to discuss how she could help his war effort. Again, all of the things that could make Stannis a frustrating character worked to the show’s advantage here. Every word Stannis didn’t say and expression he didn’t make gained a ton of weight, and it became clear how deftly Dillane could use subtle facial movements and modulations of his voice to convey a world of meaning.

We quickly found out, of course, that Stannis had chosen to sacrifice his daughter, but it was Dillane’s performance that made the scenes leading up to that horrifying moment so unbearably tense.

Dillane also did a great job with other scenes from Season 5, particularly the scene from “Sons of the Harpy” where he bonded with Shireen, and the scene from “Mother’s Mercy” where he accepted his death with weary resignation. In his final season on the show, Stephen Dillane got to explore the darker corners of the character, and brought him unforgettably to life.

RAZOR: Every member of the Game of Thrones cast is incredibly talented. Season 5 saw some phenomenal acting from series regulars like Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Kit Harington, and more. However, the actors who really stood out to me were the ones who played the Sand Snakes…I’m kidding, please put down the pitchforks. (In all seriousness, I wholeheartedly believe that the Sand Snakes were victims of poor writing, and that the actresses did as well as they could given the circumstances.)

To me, there was one actor who distinguished himself as a force to be reckoned with, and he did it without uttering a single word: Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy/Reek). I know that the events of Sansa’s wedding night were extremely traumatizing for fans of the show, but what made that particular scene work so well for me, from both a storytelling and a performance point of view, was the full gamut of facial expressions on display on Alfie Allen’s face.

He didn’t need to speak. He didn’t need to physically do anything except stand there, in the corner, as Ramsay raped Sansa. The scene spoke to the power that Ramsay held over Theon (or at that point in time, Reek),  a power he’d attained by viciously torturing Theon for months and months and months.

Alfie Allen has always turned in fine performances on Game of Thrones. In my mind, he was the perfect choice for Theon Greyjoy, and he played that part expertly. However, Season 5 is where he really shined…and it all hinged on his reaction to Sansa’s rape. The look that passed over his face as he watched a girl he grew up with be sexually assaulted, convinced that he could nothing to stop it, sent chills down my spine. And then there were the tears; tears of grief, anguish, and sorrow.

This scene was always going to be controversial, but the superb acting from Alfie Allen was what made it so powerfully poignant, and for that reason, Alfie deserves to be recognized as the best actor of Season 5.

CAMERON: Deep within the muck that was the Dornish storyline, there was a bright spot: Jerome Flynn. Sure, the story was partly about Jaime Lannister, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau continues to be charming and driven by purpose. But the real fun was watching Bronn in a new habitat, joking and fighting and basically having a good time. It’s a good thing he was, too, because no one else was. And that’s a shame, with how much people were looking forward to Dorne’s inclusion in the show. But hey, at least we have his beautiful singing voice.

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• Published on 08/14/2015 at 4:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 08/14/2015 at 4:21 PM CDT