Ben Barnes Q & A

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which is the second instalment of Disney’s big screen version of CS Lewis’s classic stories, is set for release this coming summer and is undoubtedly among the most anticipated movies of the year. The film finds the Pevensie children mysteriously summoned back to Narnia to discover that the gentle Narnian creatures have been driven into hiding by the evil King Miraz; and that the only hope for the once peaceful land is for them to fight to put the rightful ruler on the throne: Miraz’s nephew Prince Caspian. The story takes a darker turn after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and, compared with the first film, is also on a bigger scale, involving a larger cast, more locations, grander sets, many more mythical creatures and an extraordinary number of effects shots. Yet returning director Andrew Adamson says that his greatest challenge on the new film was finding the right actor to fill the all-important role of Prince Caspian. Adamson spent a year in the search and met candidates from Europe, Australia and both North and South America before he finally cast 26-year-old British actor Ben Barnes, who has also been signed to appear in the third Chronicles of Narnia film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is scheduled to start shooting later this year.
Prior to winning the coveted role, Barnes was best known for his stage work, including a performance in the National Theatre’s production of The History Boys in London’s West End, and for a small role in the 2007 film Stardust, but he admits that none of it quite prepared him for starring in one of Hollywood’s biggest productions of recent years. “Still, the good thing about playing Caspian,” Barnes says, “is that he’s not a full-on action hero and he doesn’t feel ready to be a leader. In a way he’s terrified of the position he finds himself in, which was sort of like me during my first few days on set!” The handsome and, as it turns out, charmingly modest Barnes talked to us at the recent Berlin Film Festival, where Disney gave a preview of some stunning early footage from the new film and Barnes discussed the perils of horse-riding, how he got his start in acting, and why his friends tease him about his hair.
Q: When you auditioned for the part of Prince Caspian, did you realise you were up against hundreds of other young actors?
A: I tried not to think about it, but it actually all happened pretty fast for me. The casting director saw me in The History Boys and asked me if I would come in and read a scene, which I did before work one day and took about five minutes. Then a few days later I did a screen test for the producers and the director where they had laid out all these different swords on a table and they said, “Just pick a sword and swing it about a bit.” I just thought, “This is a bit dangerous, isn’t it?” I mean, I had no idea what to do with a sword but I decided to have some fun, so I really went for it and three days later I had the job.
Q: Did you read the Narnia stories when you were a child or was this your introduction to them?
A: No, I knew them quite well and when I got the job I went and looked on my shelves and I found my copy of Prince Caspian and it had my name in the front in my 8-year-old handwriting. I bought it to coincide with a BBC adaptation that I remember thinking was really magical.
Q: Did that mean you already had an image of Prince Caspian in your head?
A: I always thought he was about 13 and had blond hair [laughs], which is certainly how he was on television. But actually, I think it make a lot of sense the way Andrew [Adamson] has gone with it because Caspian is part of the Telmarine race and the book mentions that they are descended from pirates, so the darker look works well and it also meant they were able to cast these great Spanish, Italian and Mexican actors to play all the other Telmarine characters.
Q: Prior to making Prince Caspian you were in Stardust, which was your first big film. Did your experience on Stardust help prepare you for this role?
A: Yes, absolutely. Basically I’m only in the prologue of Stardust. I played the hero’s father twenty years earlier. But it was really helpful to get used to having all these people standing around watching you work, which is what happens on a film set and is very different from the theatre where you rehearse for a month or more before anyone sees the finished product. Just to see something on that scale was good training as well. You know, I walked onto the set of Stardust just before I was due to start filming and I was looking around in complete awe and the director came up and said, “You know that look you’re doing now? Well, you need to do it for the cameras in about half an hour.” [Laughs]
Q: What was the most difficult thing about making Prince Caspian?
A: The first month I was definitely very nervous, but it got less scary and we shot for over seven months and you can’t be nervous every day for seven months! The other thing was getting to grips with the horse riding because I hadn’t really done very much horse riding before. I had these fabulous Spanish teachers who worked with me for the first couple of weeks, for like six hours every day, and I would walk very funny to start with, but I really got to love it, and by the end of it I was galloping through woods and across rivers and rearing up and I really got into it. In fact, I think it’s a bit sad that the next film’s set on a boat because I don’t think you can fit many horses on a boat.
Q: You didn’t fall off at all?
A: I had a scary turn when the horse fell in the river and I was kind of trapped between the horse and the riverbed. I wasn’t scared of anything other than that I might break my leg and wouldn’t be able to carry on, but the horse got up, I managed to stay on its back and all the stunt men started clapping!
Q: You joined a tight-knit cast from the first film. How did you get on with the four Pevensies?
A: They were very welcoming, they couldn’t have been nicer, but I did have an interesting relationship with William Moseley [who plays Peter] because our characters are competing with each other in the story and both of us are also very competitive in real life. Unfortunately for me, William is very physically fit and so we’d go to the gym together to try and keep fit for all the fighting scenes and William would just keep chugging away on the running machine for like an hour or more and eventually I’d just have to give in and go back to the hotel and eat pizza.
Q: People are going to want to know a little bit about your background and how you got into acting. What can you tell us?
A: Well, I grew up in southwest London and my father is a professor of psychiatry and my mum is a psychotherapist, so we always spent a lot of time talking about how we feel [laughs]. I’ve also got a younger brother called Jack who’s now 23 and much cooler than I am, very laidback and easygoing and a party animal, so I try and be a bit more like him really. I think I’m pretty shy.
Q: You don’t seem very shy…
A: It’s not like I stand in the corner of the room or anything, but I always seemed to be the youngest in my class and was probably young for my age anyway, so I was never the cool kid, never the captain of any teams or anything like that.
Q: And how did acting come about?
A: I was always into music and I was a chorister and then when I was about 15 this semi-professional company called The National Youth Music Theatre, which Jamie Bell and Jude Law had been part of, came to my school to do some auditions. I ended up working with them every year for about the next six years and I did my first West End show with them: a production of Bugsy Malone. So that was really my training and after I left university I did some fringe theatre and a couple of things on television and sort of worked my way up.
Q: You’re shooting another film right now, aren’t you, before you do the next Narnia film?
A: Yes, it’s a romantic comedy called Easy Virtue. It’s based on play by Noel Coward and it’s got Jessica Biel, Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas in it. It’s great because Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas are both sort of idols of mine and they play my parents and Jessica Biel plays my girlfriend and she’s just fantastic.
Q: There are already several fan sites devoted to you on the Internet. How do you feel about becoming the next Hollywood heartthrob?
A: Embarrassed! [Laughs] If it happens, that is. I mean, I’ve been told there are a few things on the internet but I haven’t looked because I think it’s a bit dangerous to be the kind of person who Googles yourself. But, anyway, it’s just not how I see myself. I never in a million years thought that I would even be cast in a film with any action in it. I thought I would always be cast as the geeky kid.
Q: So you don’t think the adoration will go to your head?
A: No, because I think my brother and my friends will always mock me mercilessly. I mean, they’re always teasing me about the long hair I have for Caspian. They think it’s just hilarious, though I have to say I like it. I have really big ears and the long hair helps cover them up.