Ben Barnes (actor)

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Ben Barnes
Barnes at the UK premiere of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, June 2008
Born	Benjamin Thomas Barnes 20 August 1981 (1981-08-20) (age 28) London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present

Benjamin "Ben" Thomas Barnes^[1] (born 20 August 1981) is an English actor. He has appeared in the television series Doctors and Split Decision, and in the films Stardust, Bigga Than Ben, Prince Caspian, Dorian Gray and Easy Virtue. He lives in London with his brother Jack.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Filmography 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Barnes was born in London, England to Tricia, a secretary, and Thomas Barnes, a professor of psychiatry.^[2][3] He has a younger brother, Jack, and is an alumnus of both Homefield Preparatory School and King's College School, where he was a contemporary of film actor Khalid Abdalla and comedian Tom Basden. He studied Drama and English literature at Kingston University.

[edit] Career

Barnes was a singer in the boyband Hyrise, which was in the running to represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.^[4] Barnes began working in television in 2006. He later starred in Suzie Halewood's Bigga Than Ben, which was released in October 2008 in the United Kingdom.

In February 2007, it was announced Barnes would play the role of Caspian in the film adaption of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, directed by Andrew Adamson.^[5] Adamson said "Caspian is a coming of age and, to some degree, a loss of innocence story, with Caspian starting out quite naïve, then craving revenge and finally letting go of the vengeance."^[6] While many readers interpret Caspian as a child, a passage in the novel mentions his age to be near that of Peter's, so an older actor was sought to match William Moseley. Barnes had read the novel as a child, and was cast in two-and-a-half weeks after meeting with the filmmakers. He spent two months in New Zealand horse riding and stunt training to prepare for shooting.^[7] Barnes modelled his Spanish accent on Mandy Patinkin's performance as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.^[8] Adamson did not expect to cast a British actor as Caspian, and said Barnes fit well into the surrogate family of Adamson and the four actors playing the Pevensies.^[9] When cast, Barnes was appearing in the National Theatre's West End production of The History Boys: producer Mark Johnson joked Barnes "probably isn't the National (Theatre)'s favorite actor right now", although Barnes has stated in interviews that he gave the theatre good notice.^{[citation needed]}

Barnes worked his way around the world in June to promote Prince Caspian. He reprised his role (this time as King Caspian) in the third film in the Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Filming was expected to begin in January 2009^[10] with locations in Rosarito, Mexico, Prague and Australia, with a release date of 7 May 2010. Disney announced that they had dropped The Voyage of the Dawn Treader because of budgetary concerns and it was picked up by 20th Century Fox (teaming with Walden Media). The new expected release will be December 10, 2010, as filming locations have changed.^{[citation needed]}

A rose called Prince Caspian was launched by Barnes in June 2008 at BBC Gardener’s World Live in association with The Royal Horticultural Society at NEC Birmingham. The Rosa Prince Caspian was introduced by the rose nursery C&K Jones of Tarvin, Cheshire, and bred by internationally renowned rose breeder Tom Carruth of California. From the sale of each rose plant, a donation (20% of each sale) will go directly to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (Registered Charity no. 235825) as part of Disney’s partnership with the charity, to help raise an invaluable £10 million towards the hospital's much-needed redevelopment appeal.

In spring 2008, he finished filming the role of John Whittaker for Noël Coward's romantic comedy, Easy Virtue opposite Jessica Biel. Written and directed by Australian Stephan Elliott, the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on 8 September 2008.^[11] Barnes has received critical acclaim for his role^{[citation needed]} and the film has screened at the Rio, Rome, Abu Dhabi, London and Adelaide Film Festivals. It also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival prior to its May 22, 2009 release in the US.

Barnes appears in the title role in an adaptation Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray for Ealing Studios directed by Oliver Parker.^[12]

In March 2009, Entertainment Weekly reported that Barnes had been cast to play as Hamlet in Ophelia.^[13] In May he was nominated for MTV Movie Awards' Best Breakthrough Male for his performance in Prince Caspian, which went to Robert Pattinson from Twilight.

[edit] Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2007	Stardust	Young Dunstan
2008	Bigga Than Ben	Cobakka
	The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	Prince Caspian
	Easy Virtue	John Whittaker
2009	Dorian Gray	Dorian Gray
2010	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	King Caspian	filming
	Valediction	Josh	Post Production
	I Was Bono’s Doppelganger [14]	Neil McCormick	Pre-production

[edit] See also

• National Youth Music Theatre

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Ben Barnes at the Internet Movie Database
• Ben Barnes Photo Shoot and Interview at factory-publishing.com
• Ben Barnes Article on Kiwibox.com

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