While it is hard to imagine anyone other than Liam Cunningham (‘Dog Soldiers’, ‘The Guard’) as Ser Davos Seaworth on HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones,’ he initially didn’t audition for the part and almost not even for the show! The idea of a fantasy series completely lost him until he found out a few of the particulars of it. With the final season coming and Winter having already arrived, our time with Davos is limited and I expect if he doesn’t survive to the bitter end, he’ll end up going out in style doing something heroic.
When being sold on even trying out for the series, the initial part of the pitch almost lost him completely until the network was mentioned:
“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.’ I read the script, and the hair went up on the back of my neck. I ran back to my agent and said, ‘Get me in there immediately.'”
I’m sure we can all be thankful that Cunningham is a fan of HBO’s past productions. He’s been a moral compass on the show that has been surprising for an ex-pirate but so fitting for the character.
Cunningham initially tried for another role on the show but he won’t share which one as “it wouldn’t be fair to the other actor.” Here is how it played out for him going for the part though:
“They said the old thing: ‘We’re going to go another way. But: We’ve got more characters coming in Season Two, and we want to see you.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, yeah. This is Hollywood letting me down politely.’ But sure enough, they came back.”
As a Season 1 actor, he could have been up for Stannis himself, Ned Stark, Petyr Baelish, or a few others as well. I’m glad he ended up where he did though as he genuinely has brought the character to life under Stannis and even more so under Kit Harington‘s Jon Snow.
Are you glad that Liam Cunningham ended up as Ser Davos Seaworth on ‘Game of Thrones’? What other characters from the first season do you think he may have auditioned for? Share your thoughts below!
Source: GQ
