Casting continues for Season 2 of Game of Thrones , with the role of Brienne, a notable character introduced in the second book, now filled. Brienne will be played by Gwendoline Christie, a British model and actress whose only previous professional screen credit was in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

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I'm going to discuss the very basics of Brienne and how she is physically described below, for those non-book readers who don't even want to know that. But if you don't mind the basics, I 'm not going to go into any details of her storyline or characters she interacts with.Brienne is "The Maid of Tarth," a very large, strong woman who is mocked for her desire to be a knight in a world where women are expected to be "ladies." But Brienne has formidable skills as a warrior and is more than a match for most experienced swordsmen.In the books, Brienne is described as being, physically, rather unattractive. IGN's Matt Fowler (who reviews Game of Thrones for us) and I had just been discussing how we figured that we'd probably get a prettier Brienne than the one described in the books, but hey, that's TV for you. However, Christie is 6'3", so she brings the right size and I'm sure will be made to look much rougher and grittier on the show than her everyday appearance.On his blog , Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin -- a co-executive producer on the TV series -- wrote about Christie's casting, using the above photo as accompaniment.Wrote Martin, "This was another one of those cases where there was hardly any debate. The day the first batch of auditions went up for the role, we looked at a dozen actresses who were reading for Brienne and one actress who WAS Brienne. Gwendoline gave a great reading, and her look was just perfect. No, when she auditioned, she did not look she does in the photo above. She came in looking... well, like Brienne."Game of Thrones: Season 2 begins filming at the end of July and will debut spring 2012 on HBO.