| | C.S. Lewis buffs know full well who Prince Caspian is. (Good guy, check. Rightful ruler of Narnia, check. The fantasy world's last, best hope to defeat his power-grabbing uncle, King Miraz, check.) But who the hell is Ben Barnes? Well, other than a 26-year-old British stage and TV actor who stars as the titular royal in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and owes his newfound Hollywood career to one Mandy Patinkin? We asked. He told.-Joal Ryan of here
The Brit looked to a Rob Reiner spoof to hone a Spanish accent.
"They said, 'Please prepare with a Spanish accent,' and I thought, Oh, I don't know; what could I look at to copy? I was looking for an Antonio Banderas DVD, and I didn't have any, so I had to look through my DVD collection and thought, Ah, there's The Princess Bride! There's a Spanish guy in that! So, I watched that on the way to the audition. I was repeating his mantra — 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!' — under my breath."
His big, giant head leaves him speechless. And, okay, a bit creeped out.
"The billboard on Sunset Boulevard was a very surreal experience. It's sort of 10 stories high, and to see yourself staring down at yourself is definitely intimidating."
Insta-fame can be a little overwhelming for a guy.
"Usually, people achieve something, then they're asked how they feel about it. Because the first movie was such a big hit, I'm getting preemptively asked this question. And it's just impossible to know how people are going to react. They might go, 'Oh, if I see one more poster with that guy with the hair … !"
Casting directors fell for him right away; his co-stars, well …
"I know they'd been looking a very long time. I think over a year by the time the casting director saw me in The History Boys in London. And then I went in for an audition and then a screen test a week later and then, literally, I had the part the week after that. My audition process lasted about three weeks, which infuriated the actors who played the Pevensies because their casting process took about 18 months, so they were a little envious."
Little did they know, he'd been a little envious of them.
"When I was 8 years old, I wanted to be Peter Pevensie. I wanted to get the magic sword from Santa Claus!"
He may look all pretty and romantic, but don't call Caspian a softie!
"I was very, very keen to not be this kind of glamorized Hollywood version of a prince. I knew that Caspian was this character who was very ambivalent about the positions he finds himself in. He doesn't feel like he's ready to be a leader and doesn't feel like he deserves to be a king, and I think the fact that he makes mistakes during the story, and the fact that he's fallible, makes him very interesting to me as an adult."
So he's dark and complicated — and he knows the secret to a good sword fight.
"Simplicity, actually … All the sword fights are choreographed from eight basic moves, which you can learn in literally five minutes, and then (it's about) putting them together in different spins and different combinations — and that makes them fantastic."
He's looking forward to Caspian growing up a bit.
"At the end of (Prince Caspian), Caspian says, 'I don't think I'm ready to be a king,' so obviously in the third one he is the king, so I'm more intrigued than anyone to see how being a king sits with him."
But does he think the story is all about Jesus?
"There's certainly a lot of symbolism in the first book. But you don't process those things if you're eight, and it phases out by the time of Prince Caspian, which is more of an action story. You could definitely read a Christian-faith message into both the book and the film, but you can choose to see it just as much as a human, emotional story."
So far, the biggest perk to his newfound fame?
"I rang the bell for the New York Stock Exchange!" Photocredit:sodahead.com |
| | Posted 5/19/2008 2:02 PM - 5 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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