"Game of Thrones" has found its Briennne, Maid of Tarth.
"A Song of Ice and Fire" author George R.R. Martin revealed on his blog Thursday that newcomer Gwendoline Christie has landed the role of Brienne for the upcoming second season of the hit HBO fantasy series.
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"This was another one of those cases where there was hardly any debate," wrote Martin, who serves as co-executive producer on "Game of Thrones, which is based on his book series. "The day the first batch of auditions went up for the role, we looked at a dozen actresses who were reading for Brienne and one actress who WAS Brienne. Gwendoline gave a great reading, and her look was just perfect."
Christie comes to the role as a relative unknown — her most high-profile big-screen role has been "Classy Shopper 2" in 2009's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and, as Martin notes, she had a role in a production of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" at London's Barbican theater. She also starred in the music video for Patrick Wolf's "Damaris," as seen below.