Catelyn Stark, Lady of Winterfell

It’s been a while since I’ve done a casting post. For this post, we are going to stay in the North, but head back to the Stark family. Catelyn is one character that shouldn’t be too hard to cast. She is your fairly standard “motherly” character, at least for the first season or so. A relative unknown seems like the best choice for Lady Stark. That is probably one of the reasons why there hasn’t been as much discussion over who will play Cat, as opposed to someone like Jaime or Sandor. Even so, it is still fun to take a look at some of the potential names being thrown around.

Sonya Walger – Walger, in contrast to some of the other actresses on this list, is primarily a television actress. She has had parts in Lost, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the HBO series, Tell Me You Love Me. Her resume seems like it would be a good match for the type of actress they would be looking for, but in my opinion I don’t think she is attractive enough for Catelyn. I guess it is up to the producers whether they think she has the right look though.

Saffron Burrows – This model-turned-actress has a diverse credit list of TV and film work. Most recently she starred in the short lived NBC series My Own Worst Enemy. As far as her film work goes, she appeared in Troy, giving her a Benioff connection. One possible problem with her casting though, she recently landed a role in a CBS pilot. That would most likely rule her out, unless that pilot goes nowhere.

Natasha McElhone – Another actress that seems comfortable in both films and television. The London-born McElhone’s big roles include turns in The Truman Show and Ronin. On the small screen, she has a connection to the BBC, starring in their television movie The Other Boleyn Girl. Unfortunately it is her current role on Showtime’s Californication that may cause her to be out of the running.

Connie Nielsen – This Danish-born actress is probably best known for her role as Lucilla in Gladiator. She certainly has the look and seems a competent actress. Looking at her credit list, however, she doesn’t have too much TV work. She seems to prefer feature films. But, as their tagline says “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” Assuming she is willing to do it, I think she could be a good fit.

As I said, the competition for Catelyn isn’t as exciting as some of the other roles up for grabs. It does get quite a bit of screen time, but doesn’t have the depth of character that other roles would seem to have. Still the role is a prominent one, so they may go with a bigger name than I expect.

• Published on 03/20/2009 at 1:50 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 4:56 PM CDT