Via Entertainment Weekly:
Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon
Carice van Houten as Melisandre of Asshai
Melisandre will be played by Carice van Houten, a Dutch stage and film actress. She’s appeared in the movies Valkyrie and Repo Men. I think you’ll agree she looks just about perfect for Melisandre.
And Stannis will be played by…
British actor Stephen Dillane, best known to U.S. audiences by playing Thomas Jefferson in HBO’s John Adams.
I’m not familiar with either actor, but they both look the part. Dillane seems to have a lot of experience with period dramas, which is good. Carice van Houten is certainly striking, though google image search seems to indicate she’s more of a quirky, girl-next-door kind of pretty than the strikingly-gorgeous-and-powerful kind of pretty I pictured for Melisandre. Her acting resume seems solid, too.
Carice van Houten played the morally dubious, religious fanatic villain in BLACK DEATH, alongside Sean Bean. A solid performance, and she looked more like Melisandre in that role:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oP-sT_I8jgU/TTOLh_rz_fI/AAAAAAAAAYg/NbK3SptMf50/s1600/Carice+van+Houten.jpg
Stephen Dillane was terrific in JOHN ADAMS. A studied performance, interesting and intense but a little off-putting in his manners. Not far off Stannis, actually.
Carice is a great casting choice. Her role in BLACK DEATH would indicate that she’s already capable of this kind of role, but her work in Paul Verhoeven’s Dutch-language THE BLACK BOOK showed incredible range. Her simultaneous strength and vulnerability was astounding.
I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that Melisandre’s “last name” is one letter away from asshat.
Other than that, I have nothing to contribute. ;)
Lol, trust a male poster to find two large pics of the girl, but only one small pic of the male actor. :D
It helps when the female actor has a bevy of attractive headshots available online and the male actor only has small screencaps.