… we have Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, respectively.

These were the toughest ones to find clues for, since neither one can be found on IMDB, YouTube, Google, or any of the other places I searched. When you google Maisie’s name, however, you get a bunch of hits for Maizie Williams, a singer for an old pop group called Boney M. But of course THAT Maizie Williams was not our Arya, hence the clue that one player was NOT a boney pop singer.

Here’s our Arya:

Sophie Turner was just as hard to find. No, she’s not the middle-aged actress who played in the DR. WHO episode. She’s not any of the other Sophie Turners that google will turn up, either. I thought about trying to cobble together some kind of “not Sophie Tucker” clue, but finally gave it up as a bad idea, and in the end I never did drop a hint for Sophie.

Here’s Sansa:

(That’s not the best picture, I know. Sorry, didn’t have a lot to choose from. I am sure better pictures of both Maisie and Sophie will be forthcoming).

You guys cannot possibly know how hard these roles were to cast. I’ve viewed dozens of readings for both girls. Sweet kids, some with great looks, all of them bright and eager and enthusiastic… but good child actors are rare. Maisie brought Arya alive in a way that none of the other kids could match, right from the first. Sophie read two scenes; the scene with Arya on the kingsroad, and a much later one when Joff is forcing her to look at the heads on the walls. Two very different sides of the character. She knocked ’em both out of the park.

I think you’re going to love these girls. I know I do.

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… we have Alfie Allen.

I knew absolutely nothing about Alfie when this process began, except that he had done some kickass readings for us. His audition for Theon was particularly strong, especially the scene where Theon returns to Pyke to confront his father Balon (no, that won’t be in the pilot, but it was a great scene to use in the sides).

After he was cast, of course, I went to learn more about him on the internet, and discovered all sorts of interesting things. Like the fact that he replaced Daniel Radcliffe as the lead in the West End production of EQUUS, which became one clue — he has something in common with Harry Potter. Also, he’s the young brother of the British pop star Lily Allen. One of her first hits starred Alfie — being played by a puppet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRX57zprNdw

(Sorry, embedding is disabled on that one, but check it out. I confess, I am not exactly an authority on today’s music, and I had never heard of Lily Allen before Alfie was cast. But in the past couple of weeks I have become a huge fan of her music, especially “Alfie” and “Not Fair.” Be warned, though, her songs have plenty of explicit lyrics).

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… we have Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

I dropped several hints about him. Dutch Treat – NCW played the lead in NEW AMSTERDAM. Going out for a Danish – NCW is actually a Dane. Shows get cancelled – NEW AMSTERDAM was cancelled by Fox. Characters get cancelled – NCW was also in VIRTUALITY, where his character was killed.

And too good to be true? When he was cast, I went searching for him on the internet, I found this on YouTube and couldn’t resist:

<lj-embed id=”9″/>

Watch that, and I think you’ll agree, he’ll make a terrific Jaime.

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The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER has broken the story:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3iebbbd387ec9a77d4420b06999a24352b

Yes, I’m thrilled with this cast. David and Dan and Tom and casting director Nina Gold are assembling a terrific group of actors.

I’ll explain my clues in later posts.

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I wish I could tell you who will be playing Maester Luwin, Grand Maester Pycelle, the Hound, Ser Rodrik, Khal Drogo, Magister Illyrio, Gared, Will, Ser Waymar Royce, and Cersei Lannister… but those parts have not been cast yet, to the best of my knowledge.

A number of other parts have not been cast yet either. That list is by no means exhaustive.

We do have some great contenders, though, and of course I have my own favorites. A few of these might be filled by the end of the day tomorrow. Or not.

At this writing, the secret seven is still the secret seven.

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/>Music: Lovin’ Spoonful
… no news.

No announcements from HBO yet. Sorry, I have no idea when they will release the names of the six actors cast but not announced. Soon, I hope. I know the speculation has driven many of you quite mad.

Things are progressing, though. The production offices have opened in Belfast, and soon pre-production will be underway in earnest. We have had a postponement, though: filming will start two weeks later than previously announced, on October 26 rather than October 12. No big thing, just a tweak to allow David and Dan and the rest of the gang to get all the ducks in a row. On a project of this size, you can’t have crooked ducks.

I expect to hear that several more roles have been filled by week’s end. Though that doesn’t mean I will be able to tell you who has filled them. Sorry.

Having worked in television myself for ten years, I understand how tough the choices can be sometimes, and I understand what David and Dan and Tom McCarthy are going through:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK87ejPDZOk

So all I can say is… be patient, and all shall be revealed.

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