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 27) London, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present

Benjamin Thomas "Ben" 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 and Prince Caspian.

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

Early life

Barnes was born in London, England to Tricia, a psychotherapist, 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.

Career

It was revealed in the June/July 2008 issue of CosmoGIRL! magazine that he was a singer in the boyband Hyrise, who were in the running to represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. 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 UK.

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.^[4] 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."^[5] 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.^[6] Barnes modelled his Spanish accent on Mandy Patinkin's performance as Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.^[7] Adamson did not expect to cast a British actor as Caspian, and said Barnes fitted well into the surrogate family of Adamson and the four actors playing the Pevensies.^[8] 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.

Barnes worked his way around the world in June to promote Prince Caspian. He is set to reprise 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^[9] with locations in Rosarito, Mexico, Prague & Australia, with a release date of 7 May 2010. However, Disney announced that they were dropping The Voyage of the Dawn Treader because of budgetary concerns. It was then picked up by 20th Century Fox (teaming with Walden Media). The new expected release will be December 10, 2010, as the filming locations have changed (due to recent murders and kidnappings in Baja, Mexico).

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.^[10] Barnes has received critical acclaim for his role^[11] 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.

As of October 2008, Barnes has just finished filming the title role in the latest version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray for Ealing Studios directed by Oliver Parker.^[12]

In March 2009, Entertainment Weekly reports that Barnes has 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 but lost to Robert Pattinson from Twilight.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
2006	Doctors	Craig Unwin	TV series
2006	Split Decision	Chris Wilbur	TV series
2007	Stardust	Young Dunstan
2008	Bigga Than Ben	Cobakka
2008	The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	Prince Caspian
2008	Easy Virtue	John Whittaker
2009	Dorian Gray	Dorian Gray	Post Production
2010	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	King Caspian	Pre-Production