Top 10 most perfectly cast actors on Game of Thrones

10. Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth)

While a television series is in no way obligated to remain perfectly true to the book it is adapted from, it’s always a joy to see actors whose performances are perfectly aligned with how we saw the character on the page. Liam Cunningham did this when we donned the knuckle pouch of Stannis Baratheon’s righthand man, Davos Seaworth.

Cunningham brought the charm and wisdom needed to play this smuggler survivor. He seemed to intimately understand the character’s motivations, mixing hardscrabble realism with one of the few kind hearts in Westeros, and we couldn’t get enough. While it would have been possible for other actors to play Davos, Cunningham seemed dreamt into being by Martin himself.

Cunningham has a pedigree that perfectly prepared him to play Davos. He’s a seasoned vet of both television and film, he’s been extensively decorated with award nominations and — in perhaps him most in-character moment — he revealed to GQ that the initial casting call for Game of Thrones didn’t even appeal to him:

"They contacted me and said, ‘It’s dragons.’ And I said, ‘Stop right there.’ And they said, ‘It’s HBO.’ And I said, ‘Send me the script.’"

Isn’t it just typical of our man Davos to question the magic but stick around for the brand power? Leave it to Liam Cunningham to have a mentality that’s perfectly in tune with his character.