'Narnia' actor portrays childhood hero

By Bob Strauss | Los Angeles Daily News

May 21, 2008

Who is Prince Caspian?

Well, in the second "Chronicles of Narnia" movie (which opened Friday), he is Ben Barnes, a 26-year-old English stage actor who was a fan of C.S. Lewis' fantasy books as a kid and, later, made them part of his children's literature major at London's Kingston University.

So, what great intellectual depth informed his portrayal of Prince Caspian, a rebellious young nobleman out to save the mythical world of talking animals and strange creatures from evil conquerors?

"I do buckle my swash a little bit," Barnes says. "But I think the poster suggests I do a little bit more than I actually do."

Caspian is actually a little more ambivalent.

He's always unsure about what the next best plan of action is.

Not the case with Barnes. He's been doing music theater since his teens, started his own drama troupe in college and toured Britain as one of "The History Boys." Asked if playing a childhood hero was a dream come true, he didn't hesitate to explain why.

"Getting a job where I get to go to work and jump on a horse and swing a sword and not sit in an office, that's a childhood dream come true for sure," he notes. "That's actually my childhood playtime made into another reality."

More of a reality than most moviegoers might suspect. Otherworldly as Prince Caspian may look, most if it was actually filmed practically on fantastic—but actual—New Zealand locations.

"Everyone assumes that you must have shot the Narnia production in a green room; surely, you didn't even have costumes!" Barnes says.

"But no. They built the castles and we went to the rivers with the snowcapped mountains in the background. It was extraordinary and breathtaking. The only thing you can't really do practically is, obviously, Aslan the lion and this new talking-mouse character. So you end up talking to a big stuffed lion head or a little piece of wire with this orange dot on the top, which definitely takes some getting used to."