Game of Thrones actresses racked up lots of nominations at this year’s Emmys, but plenty more were left out. Who do we think was the best supporting actress on Season 6? Read our takes below, sound off in the comments, and vote in our poll!
DAN: Since we probably won’t see her again, I’m going to throw my weight behind Hannah Waddington as Septa Unella. Despite saying only two words in Season 5 (you know the ones), she was the breakout character of that year. She had a little more to do in Season 6, although nothing as memorable. Still, I appreciated her quiet, implacable presence.
I like how Game of Thrones is willing to cast actors less for their acting ability than for their presence. That’s not to say that Waddington can’t act. (Incidentally, she’s an old hand at musical theater, a gift she definitely couldn’t show off in this role). Witty repartee just isn’t the point of Septa Unella. The point is her physical presence, the fact of her. At 5’9”, Waddington is tall, and has an athletic frame you wouldn’t expect on a septa. Just standing behind Margaery and Olenna as they talked in “The Broken Man,” she was imposing. When the Queen of Thorns threatened Unella with “a good bashing,” she smiled thinly, but it wasn’t misplaced arrogance. Strong and silent, Septa Unella had the power to back up her bad behavior.
Much of Unella’s power came from her silence, something Cersei recognized when she wine-boarded Unella after her pyromaniacal killing spree in “The Winds of Winter.” Unella never let on about her true feelings, but when Cersei sicced Gregor Clegane on her, she was afraid, and screamed. That’s something Cersei understands well.
So far as Cersei is concerned, the monster has been defanged. I don’t see Unella getting out of that room anytime soon. Or at all. But she made an impression with the time she had, and proved that villains don’t need to be flashy to be effective.
KATIE: I have to give it up to Essie Davis for her portrayal of Lady Crane—a gifted actress played by a gifted actress. I wanted to see so much more of her in episodes to come but, alas, that joy was stolen from me. I don’t think I’ve ever been as disappointed in a supporting character’s death as I was when Lady Crane was sliced by the Waif.
Although she won’t be back to enthrall us as she did this season, Essie Davis made a splash in her role. Lady Crane was captivating, clever, and instantly likable in a way you just don’t get with most of the characters on Game of Thrones.
Arya’s response to Lady Crane is part of what made her so appealing. Arya, who doesn’t like many people and trusts no one at all, established a bond with Lady Crane in a short amount of time. Arya has had little joy since her departure from King’s Landing, but she found a slice of it watching Lady Crane perform. More than that, Arya has found and lost kinship with so many people along the way: Lommy, Hot Pie, Gendry, the Hound, and Jaqen were all lost to her, one way or another, and Lady Crane went the same way. But for a time, it seemed as though Arya had found companionship with someone who would care for her as a mother and a friend alike.
Thanks to the Waif, that all came to naught, but Davis played the part so convincingly that I, for one, kept the faith that she’d live to see another season. She played Lady Crane with the same confidence and fierceness with which Lady Crane herself played Cersei. Ultimately, it was just a vicious circle of boundless talent and charisma. I’m a sucker for a woman with a dry wit and straight posture, and Davis fit that bill beautifully.
ANI: As I have beaten Razor to the punch I will gleefully seize the only answer that is the correct one on this list: Bella Ramsay as Lyanna Mormont.
But seriously folks, how the hell does casting director Nina Gold *do* this? Year after year, season after season, that woman has a nose for child actors. Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Sophie Turner, Jack Gleeson…
Taken as read from the page, this show should be a child casting nightmare. Remember folks, in the books, Robb Stark and Jon Snow are boys of 14, Bran is 7, Rickon is a bloody toddler. Even with all the aging up, there are still tons of children who have to carry entire main plot threads for years. And although the original batch have aged up or been killed off, there are still kids that keep cropping up, and not in a Cousin Oliver kind of way either.
Lyanna Mormont is just another example of this, as the War of the Five Kings cuts down all the men and boys, leaving, in this case, a girl who is still years from being “of age” to run an entire segment of the North. In some lesser production, this could have been a disastrous part, at best forgettable, at worst painful. Instead, they found a kid, Bella Ramsay, with barely a school play to her name. She walks onto the sets of Belfast and proceeds to carefully pack up every scene she’s in and put them in her pocket. Then she looks around and wonders why the adults are looking at her like that.
Watch those scenes again. Watch that moment where she verbally disembowels Sansa with barely a glance. Watch her set Jon Snow in his place when he first come before her. Watch that fantastic exchange with Liam Cunningham. Then head to the finale and watch that kid walk off with the King in the North scene, remembering that she is *11.* Could you do that at 11? I doubt it.
There is only one person we recognize to vote for in this poll, and her name is Ramsay.
COREY: I should have spoken up sooner, but I have to agree with Ani. At 11 years old, Bella Ramsay held her own with some pretty strong actors. Even in scenes where she had no lines, like the parlay with Ramsay Bolton in “Battle of the Bastards,” Ramsay’s glare was enough to leave a mark (and launch a bevy of internet memes).
Ramsay caught us all by surprise from the very first moment she appeared on screen, verbally thrashing our heroes. Compare that to the scene immediately after, when Robbett Glover (Tim McInnerny) did something similar. While both actors give strong performances, Ramsay’s is clearly the more memorable of the two. Ramsay should receive double points for, again, doing this at age 11.
The producers clearly have confidence in Ramsay, as they trusted her to carry the scene where Jon was made King in the North. That speech could have gone to any other Northern lord in that room, but Ramsay was chosen, and in the words of Veronica Corningstone, she nailed it.
I don’t know what kind of awards casting directors can win, but Nina Gold deserves every award possible. Ramsay was a grand slam, slam dunk, hat trick, or whatever sports analogy you care to use. This kid can act. It will be exciting to watch her on the final two seasons of Game of Thrones, and hopefully after.
RAZOR: I’d love to go with Bella Ramsay, and let’s be honest: she will probably win this pole. However, I think we would be remiss not to acknowledge Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed and Hannah Murray as Gilly. These two actresses have been reliable supporting players since they arrived on Game of Thrones.
Ellie Kendrick has quietly become a top-tier supporting player. She proved that this year, particularly during the battle with the White Walkers in the Three-Eyed Raven’s cave. After sitting out Season 5, Kendrick picked up the role of Meera Reed as if she had never been away. Watching her, we could feel her sadness over the loss of her brother, Jojen, and her fear and desperation at the prospect of having to drag a teenage boy through a snowy forest with an army of wights at her back. Also, let’s not forget that Meera Reed became the third person on Game of Thrones to kill a White Walker. She’s now part of an elite club that also includes Samwell Tarly and Jon Snow.
Then we have Hannah Murray as Gilly. It’s quite an accomplishment to have survived what Gilly has without succumbing to madness, desperation, or death. Instead, she holds her own, standing up to bullies like Sam’s father and bearing the long trek across Westeros with good humor and a sense of discovery. That has to place Murray on the short list for best supporting actresses.
A note on the poll: When trying to decide which actors to call supporting players and which to call members of the main cast, I considered a combination of their screentime, their importance to the story, and how long they’d been with the show. It wasn’t an exact science, but I hope the results are satisfactory.
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