Celeb roundup: New BBC Roles for Some, Irish Dates for Others
By Ani Bundel
This week’s “Game of Thrones Actors Cast in Other Projects” news includes two familiar faces from the show, but who never worked together. In fact, they weren’t even cast during the same period. The BBC One/FX collaboration Taboo is a period piece set in the early 1800s and stars Tom Hardy as James Keziah Delaney. According to the plot summary: “[Delaney] returns to 1814 London after 10 years in Africa to discover that he has been left a mysterious legacy by his father. Driven to wage war on those who have wronged him, Delaney finds himself in a face-off against the East India Company, whilst playing a dangerous game between two warring nations: Britain and America.”
And now the show has cast not one, but two show alumni. Oona Chaplin, who was something of a major supporting player in Seasons 2 and 3 as Talisa (their Jayne Westerling substitute who married Robb Stark, despite the fact that she should have known better, and basically accidentally ruined everything) will be playing Hardy’s half sister, Zilpha Geary. Jonathan Pryce, who only started on the show as the High Sparrow in Season 5, but has already brought the Lannisters and the Tyrells low, is playing Hardy’s nemesis, Sir Stuart Strange, the head of the East India Company. I look forward to seeing the both of them in period appropriate regency outfits.
Jonathan Pryce in something vaguely approaching regency period clothing.
Meanwhile, in “Game of Thrones Actors Being Hyped in Other Projects” as a Doctor Who fan, I am here to tell you to ignore anyone and everyone who tries to suggest that Maisie Williams will be taking over as the companion to Capaldi’s Doctor next season. In fact, [SPOILER ALERT] not only did her foolish game playing kill Clara (she didn’t mean to doesn’t make that fact go away), but by the end of last week’s episode, Capaldi warned her to stay out of his way if she knew what was good for her, giving the show an out on using her at all next season if they can’t make schedules work.
I don’t expect she will be absent the whole of next season, Moffat set her up as a good reoccurring foil for the Doctor. But with rumors that Who filming won’t start until May 2016, and Williams most likely locked into another six month July-December commitment for Game of Thrones Season 7 (knock all the pieces of wood Arya lives to the end of Season 6), they’ve made it so if things simply cannot be worked out, it won’t be totally weird.
Maisie just learned it’s very bad to make the Doctor angry.
And finally, those who are not involved in BBC projects are parading about their significant others. Aidan Gillen was seen taking out his new girlfriend, singer Camille O’Sullivan, to a U2 concert in Belfast, according to the Irish version of The Independent. And if that was stereo-typically Irish enough for you, Natalie Dormer found the best way to get an Irish newspaper not to ask her about Game of Thrones filming is to boast about her Irish fiancé. Talking to the Irish Daily Mirror, she admitted: “When you spend two years in Ireland you end up with an Irishman.”
“There was translation issues in the beginning of the relationship but we worked through them. We’re the personification of the Anglo-Irish agreement. I know all the Irish idioms. We had to long debates about it not being a ‘hot press’ but an airing cupboard.”
Don’t worry guys, you’re both wrong. It’s called a boiler closet. You’re welcome. (/American)