Game Of Thrones: 10 Criminally Overlooked Performances

7. Kate Dickie As Lysa Arryn

I'd be thoroughly surprised if you did not think Lysa Arryn made a memorable first impression upon her first appearance in season one. The Lady Regent of the Vale, sister of Catelyn Stark, and (lest we forget how the inciting incident of this medieval epic was a murder mystery) widow of the late Jon Arryn gets one of the more strangely off-putting introductions Game of Thrones has yet to offer. She is sitting on her throne nursing her son Robin, who is far to old for nursing and must be looking forward to some seriously Freudian emotional disorders later in life. Right off the bat, this scene conveys just how unstable a woman Lysa is. She is both mad with grief, and intensely paranoid about her husband's murder. Kate Dickie's performance is impressive for the way she takes a fairly one-note character and adds layers of nuance €“ her struggling to negotiate her noble dignity and composure with her grief and emotional instability makes for a striking portrayal of fantasy madness. Why is this Performance Overlooked? Kate Dickie has the arguable misfortune of playing almost every scene opposite Tyrion Lannister, who is frankly given much more to work with in these scenes, while most of her part is in reacting to his goofiness. Throw on top of that the fact that it was still relatively early in the show's run and we were still getting used to Peter Dinklage's scene-stealing, smaller parts like Lysa Arryn fall to the background.