Celebrity cameos are nothing new for a successful television show, but according to Game of Thrones casting director Carla Strange (no relation to the Doctor), Hollywood stars have had a lot of difficulty getting on HBO’s megahit…not that it’s stopped them from trying.
"We get really strange things and letters and emails from people trying to get our attention. One person sent playing cards where every playing card has their face on it doing a different emotion. Really classy.Someone even sent me a Stormtrooper with a sticker of themselves on it. I’ve had people send Kit Kats. You get very random things in the post."
We assume the Kit Kats had something to do with Kit Harington? Someone angling to play Jon Snow’s next love interest?
Strange was coy about which celebs actually sent such gifts, but we know stars like Ed Sheeran, Helen Mirren, Daniel Radcliffe, and Minnie Driver have all clamored for a part on the show, thus far without success. Did Harry Potter send a deck of playing cards showing off his range? We’re going to say yes.
Richard E. Grant with a cameo as Izembaro.
According to Strange, the problem isn’t that the producers don’t want celebrities on the show, but that they don’t have room for them.
"The stars generally go to the producers directly but then they have a hard time trying to figure out where to put them. There are only so many cameos that you can have!"
Bands appear to have an easier time getting on the show. People from acts like Sigur Ros, Coldplay, Mastadon (pictured up top), and Snow Patrol have all made appearances in some form or another.
Coldplay drummer Will Champion in “The Rains of Castamere.”
Still, celebrities keep going for it. Comedian Rachel Bloom, of The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, had perhaps the best pitch ever. “I will gladly play a dead whore just to be on that show,” she said. “No other show. I will play a dead whore, like, on a dead zombie corpse with, like, my eyeball coming out, just to be on Game of Thrones. Anyway, just putting it out there. Just a pitch for next season.”
So get on that, Strange. Give David Benioff and D.B. Weiss a call and see what they can come up with.
h/t Metro