There’s a changing of the guard in the “The Chronicles of Narnia” movie franchise.
The young actors who were the leads in 2005’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” are making way for the actor playing the title character in the new film opening Friday, “Prince Caspian.”
Ben Barnes, a 26-year-old British stage actor best known for his work in the theater and a few small film roles, plays Prince Caspian, introduced in “Prince Caspian” and the leading figure in the next chronicle, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
Is the franchise in good hands? Variety seems to think so.
“Barnes has the dark, dashing looks that will make teen girls turn out more than they normally would for a battle epic,” Todd McCarthy wrote.
A quick poll of enthusiastic teenage girls leaving a preview screening of Prince Caspian reveals his real appeal.
“His hair.”
Barnes, on the phone from L.A., laughs.
“I can’t take credit for that,” he protests. “It’s not actually my own hair. It’s extensions!”
Barnes is trying to roll with it, this sudden stardom thing. He had read C.S. Lewis’ books as a child and remembered them. He knew the first film made a staggering $745 million worldwide back in 2005-06. He knew what he was getting into when he signed on to Disney’s biggest film franchise — years of commitment, film fame, all beginning with months of training.
“Seven hours a day, every day, on a horse, in New Zealand, for starters,” he says. “We shot almost chronologically; the film begins with a big chase on horseback, so I had to be ready for that. Lots of sword-fighting training too. Dialect coaching so I could do this Mediterranean accent. I felt like I was at Narnia boot camp!”
The blast of attention isn’t as daunting for the young actor as you might think. The son of a psychiatrist dad and therapist mom, Barnes grew up in a house where people “were always asking you, ‘How do you feel?’ ” he says.
“Narnia” is actually Barnes’ second screen fairy tale. He was in last year’s “Stardust.” The trick to acting in such projects is ignoring the subject, not thinking it’s a fairy tale — or a religious allegory — and playing the reality of the moment, he says.
He’s on board for the film for the next “Narnia” chronicle, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” “my favorite of the books, when I was a boy,” Barnes says. “It’s this roving adventure, going to different lands, a book that feels like a journey out of Greek mythology, in a way.”
So he’ll be back, playing a character who is “quite an anxious figure, in this first film,” Barnes says. “I didn’t really remember that from the books, from childhood. But I had time to read the book again, you know, while I was getting my hair extensions put in.”
