While everyone else is wondering what effect Ian McShane’s character, Brother Ray, will have on The Hound in Game of Thrones, a certain hopeful bunch of director/writer/producer types have a different question. They are presumably less concerned with whether The Hound will take Brother Ray’s advice from “The Broken Man” episode and find a way to change his life. What these people selfishly want to know is: How can we get some Ian McShane?
Entertainment Weekly sometimes takes the insider perspective — so they asked McShane how GoT managed to stir him into service in Westeros. McShane revealed what brought him to the job, saying: “Well, they wrote a two-page speech – so that’s why they invited me. It’s a big soliloquy, like in Deadwood, and they needed to get somebody who could do that.” So there’s the formula to get McShane on your project, though a two-page soliloquy won’t fly on too many other shows. McShane is busy though, so it’ll have to be a very strong two-pager. The Deadwood star hopefully has the Deadwood movie to do.
