Jacob Anderson, born 18 June 1990 in Bristol, England, UK, is an actor. He has appeared in the TV series Episodes, Silent Witness,Primeval and Broadchurch, as well as the movie Adulthood.
He is also a singer, performing under the stage name “Raleigh Ritchie”. He was released two EPs and has an album planned for 2014. Like fellow Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein, he has collaborated musically with British singer Plan B.
In Game of Thrones he is playing the role of Grey Worm. He was announced in the role on August 20, 2012.
All of Grey Worm’s lines in Season 3 were in Low Valyrian. Linguist David J. Peterson, who designed all of the languages on the TV series, heaped massive amounts of praise on Anderson in his blog throughout Season 3. Peterson is in outright awe of Anderson’s skill at delivering lines in his constructed languages: Anderson perfectly matched the stringent pronunciation rules which Peterson devised for his constructed languages – which was praiseworthy in and of itself – but in addition was able to emote and act the lines flawlessly.
That is, Anderson didn’t just learn the lines as a string of sounds, but paid close attention to what each verb and noun are so he knows which words he should logically be emphasizing – subtle nuances that only a fluent speaker of Low Valyrian would really be able to detect. Anderson’s skill at Peterson’s constructed languages rivals that of Emilia Clarke. Peterson would go on to lament every episode in which Grey Worm had few or no speaking lines, i.e. in “The Bear and the Maiden Fair (episode)”, Daenerys orders Grey Worm to deliver her terms to Yunkai’s leaders, and he acknowledges with a simple nod, but Peterson lamented that he didn’t compose a paragraph-long and flowery speech for Grey Worm to give expounding upon why he was happy to follow the order.
Anderson has credited Peterson’s skill with languages as being vital for the character. He also said he was not recognized publicly for some time after the third season aired, until someone yelled out their recognition on the New York subway. Since then he has been recognized more often, and fans alternate between calling him by his real name, his musical stage name and his character name.
Anderson said of Grey Worm in Season 5:
- “He’s trying to work out how to be a human being, which is again such a weird, incomprehensible thing, that this is somebody who has never thought of themselves as an individual, or thought about their needs or their desires or who they are.”
Season three credits | ||||
Valar Dohaeris | Dark Wings, Dark Words | Walk of Punishment | And Now His Watch is Ended | Kissed by Fire |
The Climb | The Bear and the Maiden Fair | Second Sons | The Rains of Castamere | Mhysa |
Season four credits | ||||
Two Swords | The Lion and the Rose | Breaker of Chains | Oathkeeper | First of His Name |
The Laws of Gods and Men | Mockingbird | The Mountain and the Viper | The Watchers on the Wall | The Children |
Season five credits | ||||
The Wars to Come | The House of Black and White | High Sparrow | Sons of the Harpy | Kill the Boy |
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken | The Gift | Hardhome | The Dance of Dragons | Mother’s Mercy |
Season six credits | ||||
The Red Woman | Home | Oathbreaker | Book of the Stranger | The Door |
Blood of My Blood | The Broken Man | No One | Battle of the Bastards | The Winds of Winter |
References:
- ↑ August 20, 2012. Daario Naharis and Grey Worm Cast. Winter is Coming.net.
- ↑ Interview on Sunday Morning Kitchen, Channel 4 (UK), 13 July 2014