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Prince Caspian speaks!
We sit down with Ben Barnes...
07 Apr 2008 Total film
We might not be the biggest fans of the
first Narnia flick, but we have high hopes for Prince Caspian - not least
because its titular star is a thoroughly charming young man. Opening our
encounter with a smile and a gambit: "Theres a competition for
who can ask me the most questions about horses." Sadly, we didn't have
any equine questions, but, as it turned out, Barnes was relieved...
We can talk about horses
if you want
No! No! I dont know anything about them!
Have you seen the finished
film?
Ive seen obviously the trailer and the first ten minutes and Ive
seen a little bit more than that having done ADR, the voice looping, but
little tiny bits. Honestly, they asked me if I wanted to see it as it was
but I said that I wanted to see it finished because I want to be as excited
as anyone else. Im a Narnia fan, I read the books when I was eight
and watched the TV series and since Ive been so heavily involved in
it I dont want to see it and have it not completely fulfil my expectations
because it was such an amazing experience doing it, went to all these amazing
places, to have it then not be completed
I just want to be blown away
like everyone else and I know I will be.
In which case, are there
any moments youre particularly excited to see?
Im very keen to see the scenes with Reepicheep, because that was very
testing for me. It was the only real scenario where I had to fake everything
because everything else they did for me they built a castle on the
backlot, they had an actor in a green suit playing a badger, with a little
tray doing little movement and you have someone to relate to, the centaurs
spend a few hours in make-up so they really look like centaurs and theyre
on power-risers so it looks great and the fighting is very physical, you
really get stuck into it. So everything is real you go to these amazing
places where everything looks CGIed, with a river, a beach, trees, a snow-capped
mountain and a sunset
I thought it looked like CGI when I was there.
But Reepicheep Im keen to see because that was literally a wire with
an orange dot on the top with someone shouting off from the side. Im
keen to see how that pans out. But all of it! Im excited to see how
all of it looks.
You got a taste of working
on a big budget flick with Stardust
Yeah, I was only on that the odd day here or there, so it was really just
a taster. But I got my first little taste of CGI and being around a crew
of that size and being the focus of attention even if just for a short while.
It was an invaluable experience on that actually, and I really enjoyed doing
it.
Are there differences
between the movie and book?
Yeah. In the book Caspian is evidently a lot younger than me, and blonde.
It says hes got blonde, curly hair. But it also says his race is descended
from Pacific islanders and pirates so why youd have a blond kid from
that Im not quite sure, so they went down that route and decided to
make him kind of European and swarthy and piratey, so that is necessarily
different. I think also because there was a good period of a few years between
making the first and second, the kids have obviously grown up. William Moseley
is now 21, and the thing the book says about Caspians age is that
hes about the same age as Peter and because of the tension weve
built into the story between those two characters its important they
were about the same age. Im 26, but on screen me and Will look of
similar ages.
So thats obviously different and the characters are that bit older and I think that obviously the main difference in the stories is that in the second one the magic has been drained from the land of Narnia. Theres a human whos driven by his lust for power and ambition whos usurped the thrown and become a dictator and hes a human villain which is more scary than a magic one in that youre turning people to stone, youre killing them. And hes trying to repress the Narnia race which was flourishing to an extent in the first one, there are fewer cute beavery type creatures, Mister Tumnuses and things. You do have Reepicheep but even hes quite viscious. Thats the main difference between the films, and obviously there are other little necessary changes the action really does fuel the drama in this second film, more so film than book but the film is a different type of story: the first was a Christmas fairytale, this one is a summer blockbuster. There are no changes that jar with me as a childhood fan of the books so hopefully they wont jar with too many other people.
Dawntreader
Caspian is old after that hes only young in two, but I will
absolutely be playing him in Dawntreader. That was the other thing about
the age thing, its much easier for an audience to accept a 26-year-old
as a king than and a ruler of a land and a captain of a ship because more
time passes between the second and the third in Narnia than it does it in
the real world, so its much easier to age me than to have some 14-year-old
trying to play a king in the next one. It was easier for me to play younger
in the first one. In Dawntreader Ill be more my own age. Its
gonna be great, but hes still actually, even in Dawntreader, hes
not a confident a character. Hes very cut up by his lack of family
around him and that fact hes been thrown into this leadership role
that hes very uncomfortable with, he doesnt feel he deserves
it, which I think is quite an interesting thing for a hero.
Kids in battle in LW&W
Thats the thing in the story they do come and get given their
weapons by Santa Claus and theyre suddenly wielding them like heroes.
Caspian is much more easy to believe because hes been brought up in
this royal household. Hes been trained by the Captain of the Guards
or whatever, hes a prince so hes been taught to ride and fence
and all this stuff, so from that point of view thats much more believable.
Is there less religious
imagery?
Yes. Not so much in this film
I studied literature as part of my University
course so I revisited this book there and looked at the moral didactism
of childrens literatue through the ages and the relative success of
all of those. I think its important to have decent moral message for
books aimed at children, but having said that I would include His Dark Materials
on that list because I do think they have decent moral messages despite
the fact that Pullmans much more ambivalent about the role of religion
and the church. I think spoonfeeding is very dangerous. Theyre not
as strong in allegory, the Narnia books, as people think they are. The first
one certainly has some overt imagery but having said that if youre
reading them as a child you dont get it. Thats for adults, thats
what Lewis wanted to write. I mean CS Lewis was an atheist himself until
JRR Tolkien convinced him otherwise.
The message is more of a story about faith, but not necessarily religious faith. Its about having faith in yourself, faith in the people around you, faith in the world that you live in. The language of those stories was much stronger when they were written in terms of if the trees came to save you that represents nature, which is why Tolkien and Lewis both had in the Two Towers and Caspian, the trees save the day in the battle and I think people now might watch and go Oh, hes just copied Lord of the Rings. But its simply that was not how it worked. But it has a message of belief, belief in your self. At the very end, Aslan tells the Kings and Queens of Narnia to rise and the four Pevensys get up and I stay on my knee and says you as well and I say well, I dont think Im ready for this. Its about self belief, trust, faith and all that. Oh and killing all bad people. Thats what its really about.
The book is Caspians
is this his film?
Not as much as the poster would lead you to believe! (laughs) Obviously
people who loved the first film will be keen to see what happened to those
characters first and foremost. So we show exactly whats happened and
then theres an exciting introduction to the new characters and hopefully
it will all mix together well. But I was in LA last week and saw the billboard
of just me and I thought how there was a thousand people whove made
this film and its so ridiculous that its just me on that poster.
Its both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Its awesome
in the traditional sense of the word, not the LA sense of the word. It makes
me full of awe.
Has it been good having
Easy Virtue immediately after
?
I didnt when I was doing Caspian. I got back and Stephan Eliot saw
Stardust and liked my character in that, which was actually quite a complement.
But its so useful to be doing something different, because people
always ask Whaddaya doin next? and its great to
be able to say anything and even better to be able to say something different.
A Noel Coward comedy is pretty different. And Ive been so lucky in
terms of working on projects by great British authors Alan Bennett,
CS Lewis, Noel Coward. Long may it continue.
And working with Jessica
Biel as a side point
A side point but a very important one, I feel. Shes a wonder, Ive
got to admit that.
What do you want people
to take away from Caspian?
I think that the effects and the action will be mind blowing regardless
because theyve proven that in the first one. I hope that this one,
from my point of view, they come away with a sense of really caring about
what happens to the character and the fact that people really feel like
theyve been taken on a journey and convinced to side with Caspian
and aid him in his plight whilst theyre watching it. If they see him
as a kind of everyman then Ive done my job. And now Ive set
myself a challenge that I can only fail. That would be the biggest complement
that someone could give me to say I was really upset when that happened.
I just want him to be someone they could relate to. Obviously not relate
to in terms of being a prince who was chased by own people and had to rally
with fantasy creatures to fight against, but in terms of just being to relate
to him as a human being would just be a great complement.
Taken from Total
film here