Had things taken a different turn, Game of Thrones' Conleth Hill would have played King Robert Baratheon instead of Varys, the Master of Whisperers. During the initial auditions, he felt good about his performance in front of the casting agents, and thought he had a chance right after leaving the room. However, encountering Mark Addy, who was going to do a reading after him, made him realize the competition was stiff.
As he narrates in The Huffington Post:
"I have to say that I came out of the meeting, which went all right, and looked who was in after me, saw who it was, and went, 'Well, he'd be all right for it,' and he was, and he got it. You know, that's showbiz."
The two scenes he was asked to audition, this time for Varys, are among the most revelatory of his character.The first is his baring open his motivations in protecting the kingdom to a doomed Ned Stark (Sean Bean) who was imprisoned in the dungeon. In the second, he narrates his rise from slave boy to Westeros' head of espionage.
Addy's King Robert didn't make it past the first season, thanks to the scheming of Cersei (Lena Heady). Considering that Varys has become one of the architects out to ensure the rule of Daenery (Emilia Clarke), Hill might have gotten the better deal after all.
Related story: Game of Thrones Cameo and Character Sightings Spark Speculations
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