Diana Rigg, Ciaran Hinds: 'Game of Thrones:' A Look at Season 3's New Faces and Characters (YAHOO)

By Carrie Bell | Yahoo! TV – Mon, Mar 25, 2013 1:03 PM PDT

The cast dishes on Ciaran Hinds, Diana Rigg, and (spoiler!) a giant arriving in Westeros this season.

Helen Sloan/HBO - Mance Raydar (Ciaran Hinds) and Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) in "Game of Thrones" Season 3.

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains storyline and character spoilers for the third season of "Game of Thrones."

With 27 series regulars and hundreds of guest stars, day players, and extras wandering in and out of Westeros and points beyond, keeping track of who's who on "Game of Thrones" is almost as big a feat as planning the Battle of Blackwater Bay. That task isn't going to get any easier when Season 3, which was shot by three units across five countries and promises plenty of fresh faces, begins March 31 on HBO.

Arguably, the most major addition to the cast was Ciaran Hinds. One, his resumé is as respected as Tywin Lannister's and almost as long as the feared coming winter, with "Rome," "Harry Potter," "Political Animals," and "There Will Be Blood" among the highlights. Two, he is portraying Mance Rayder, the ex-Night's Watchman who united 90 clans into one Wildling army currently moving in on the Wall. Rose Leslie (Ygritte) admitted at the junket last week in Beverly Hills to being a tad starstruck as "we've been watching him from a young age. Phenomenal."

Kit Harington, whose Jon Snow is trying to infiltrate the camp and must get Rayder to trust him, was also in awe. "He's a wonderful, wonderful man, and for someone who hadn't read the books and hadn't even seen the show when he joined and did his first few scenes, he nailed the character. That's the mark of the man's genius and genius of the writing."

READ MORE: http://tv.yahoo.com/news/-game-of-thrones---a-look-at-season-3-s-new-faces-and-characters-200346280.html

Tom Hiddleston wants to work with Daniel Day-Lewis

Speaking to BANG Showbiz at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2013, where he picked up the Times Breakthrough Award, Tom said: ''I'd love to have a chance, even a chance, of trying to work with Daniel Day-Lewis because I admire him so much. I am so intrigued. He's always inspired me.

''Just the commitment he takes on every time he chooses to work and kind of what he chooses. You can always see this. He gives 110%.''

The 31-year-old actor - whose CV includes 'War Horse' and 'The Hollow Crown' - once had the chance to meet his idol and ruined the moment by ''gushing'' about how much he loved his work.

He reminisced: ''I met him once, a couple of years ago. It was long before I'd made a film and I was working in theatre and I happened to be somebody's plus one [to an event]. I stopped him on the stairs as I had to tell him he's one of the greatest things; being an actor.

''He said, in his beautiful English/Irish [accent], 'Thank you so much, it means a lot, thank you so much'. It was basically me gushing about how much I loved 'In the Name of the Father' and 'The Last of the Mohicans'.''

READ MORE: http://www.contactmusic.com/news/tom-hiddleston-wants-to-work-with-daniel-day-lewis_3562170

Oscars 2013: Daniel Day-Lewis collects record third Oscar with a smile Lincoln star says he needs to 'lie down for a couple of years' as he dismisses attempts to label him greatest ever actor as 'daft' Maev Kennedy and Catherine Shoard The Guardian, Monday 25 February 2013 17.43 EST

Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, and Christoph Waltz. Photograph: Peter West/Rex Features

Long after the Californian sun rose, the Oscar winners and losers were waking up after a night of loud applause and louder frocks, hilarious acceptance speeches and dire jokes.

As universally predicted, Daniel Day-Lewis took the Oscar for best actor for his towering performance in Lincoln, and also enters the record books as the first male actor to be a third-time victor, after winning for My Left Foot in 1990 and There Will Be Blood in 2008.

Day-Lewis is sometimes seen as a remote and slightly chilly figure, renowned for his obsessive preparation and for remaining in character throughout the filming – hard on his wife, the actor and director Rebecca Miller, given that the 16th president of the United States had a notoriously difficult relationship with his wife, who spent time in a mental hospital after his death.

"Since we got married 16 years ago, my wife Rebecca has lived with some very strange men," he told the audience. "Luckily she's the versatile one of the family and she's been the perfect companion to all of them."

Day-Lewis also won the audience accolade for the best joke when he insisted that Meryl Streep, presenter of his Oscar, had been Steven Spielberg's first choice to play Abraham Lincoln, and in return he himself had been destined to play Margaret Thatcher.

Backstage after his win, he said he could not think of anyone else he urgently wants to play. "I need to lie down for a couple of years. It's really hard to imagine doing anything after this." He dismissed any attempt to label him the greatest actor of all time as "daft".


READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/feb/25/oscars-2013-winners-lincoln-argo