[MULTI] Tamzin Merchant - Carnival Row (2023) s2e5 1080p Web

This is the girl who would have been Daenerys Targaryen instead of Emilia Clarke if HBO had gone ahead with the original pilot

 

Daenerys was the most important part that got recast for the second pilot. The failed pilot has been quite the albatross around Merchant's neck, as she was a natural fit, given the descriptions in the books, to play her, yet it worked much better with an unknown brunette in a blonde wig.

 

I'm not sure that Albatross is quite the word. It's not that they fired her, she asked to be let out of her contract i.e. she didn't want to do the full series. Same with Jennifer Ehle who played Catelyn Stark in the pilot.

Unless you mean that not wanting to commit to the series was a colossal career miss for her?

 

Many actors are allowed to save faces and say that they ultimately opted out of a part, that there was some "scheduling conflict", etc.
If Merchant left the show because she wanted to, good for her. But it still turns out that her main claim to fame is not her resume, but the fact that she played Danaerys on the original version of a pilot that was regarded as horrible, with a possibility that her performance was a factor, in a show that later turned with reshots into a global phenomenon (which was hard to predict at this point). That's the albatross that I had mentioned.

There are tons of actors who were hired to play some major part in a project, then got fired (or left on their own) with their replacement becoming a star in the process. It didn't always hurt the career of the actor. But for some Harvey Keitel, there's always a Stuart Townsend or an Eric Stolz.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought you meant. It's hard to know what's going to be hit. Take Casablanca, considered one of the greatest movies of all time, was thought of as 'just another film' by the cast and crew when it was being made.

In any case, I sure would like to see the original pilot. You would think that, with all the stuff there is out there on Game of Thrones, that it would have gotten released or leaked somewhere down the line. After all, the original pilot for Star Trek got released, and the original pilot for Blackadder got leaked. Plus, Tamzin's supposed to have a nude scene in it

 

I'm really hoping the pilots for...

- HBO's Open (lesbian series with Anna Torv, Jaimie Alexander & Michelle Monaghan)

- Occult with Lynn Collins

Get leaked/released.

 

I swear networks used to burn off pilots that didn't get picked up to series during the summer, when nothing else is on. It's a shame they don't do that any more. There's so much media out there these days, they could easily drop a few of these pilots on streaming or something and, who knows, maybe generate interest in something the execs didn't think would sell/didn't test well

 

Tamzin has gone on to do alot of nudity in other roles, which Emilia might not have if she hadn't got Dany's part, so win/win for us perves!

 

There’s probably financial reasons to just trash such pilots. Kind of like with “Batgirl”. Tax exemptions and avoiding residual payments to cast and crew.

 

Probably true but I don't think that applies in Game of Thrones' case. They used a lot of the scenes from the original pilot for the aired version

 

Ever since tamzins scenes in tudors ive thought she is so sexy/cute. Was glad she gave us more in this show, also seems to be the only one to give us nudity this season. A shame cause season 1 had lots of nudity.

If she did have a nude scene in that GoT pilot similiar to what we got from emilia, id love to see that.

 

GRRM confirms that there was a sex scene, and it was a lot less rape-y than in the aired version