Gwendoline Christie
For the role of Brienne the producers chose the English actress Gwendoline Christie. According to the character's creator George R. R. Martin, when he saw the first batch of auditions he saw "a dozen actresses who were reading for Brienne and one actress who "was" Brienne," and it was one of the cases when there wasn't any debate. Due to her outstanding height (6 ft 3 in, 1.91 m) she was earmarked early on by fans of the books as a good fit for the character, and one of them even emailed her agent. Christie already knew about the role and felt that she could relate to the character after having been bullied for her height and androgynous looks. After deciding to "go all out for it," she read the books, started building up with cardio-vascular exercises and kickboxing practices, and even started to wear unisex clothing in order to increase her own masculinity. After she had been cast, she continued to train and received extensive sword fighting and horse-riding lessons. Her last step in the process of transformation was cutting off her long hair, which she found deeply upsetting because she felt it was her last bond to her old self. The day after her hair was cut off, she went to her hotel room and cried.