Official Ben Barnes Thread

inkspot

inkspot

Beloved Disciple
Royal Guard
Emeritus
This is the thread where we discuss Ben Barnes as PC, his acting ability and so forth. This is not the Fan Club thread -- if you just want to post about what a hottie Ben is, then his fan club thread is in the fan club forum.

This thread is for general discussion, whether you are a fan or not.

I will say, Ben did better than I thought he would in PC, and he seems to be a fine actor. But I do still think he was too old for this role, and his accent was funky. Also, I don't think he exhibited the humility Caspian has in the book, nor the love for Old Narnia. It seems in the film he just grasped the Old Narnians as a way to get back at Miraz and become king, at first at least.

But this is not Ben's fault as an actor. We can blame bad writing and bad direction. Otherwise, Ben did a fine job in the action scenes, and even managed to look surprised and shaken when Anna kissed him.
 
So, here we go:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7c5c16b2d6b9258e0d65e14826dd9ad4

Ben seems to be playing "Dorian Gray" in "The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Anyone read it? I think I can remember a colleague saying that it was quite weird :D

But I think Ben does fit quite well: Dorian Gray - an extremely handsome young man...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

:D

Also, Bigga than Ben will be shown on the Edinburgh Film Festival on 27. June:

http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films/grid?date=2008-06-27

It will then be released in September in the UK.

You can already get the DVD from the German Amazon http://www.amazon.de/Bigga-than-Ben...ef=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1211271121&sr=8-1

The film is funny and Ben is definitely an amazing actor :)
 
Yeah, it would be good if he could really act in his own accent. But I have to say the accents he has done till now are quite convincing, aren't they? Well, can't say what it's like in Prince Caspian cause I just heard him say a few lines in trailers, but in Bigga than Ben it was brilliant. His Russian accent was quite cute :D
 
I think Ben will be good for Dorian Gray, but I always imagined a more feminine/effete guy for that, like young Johnny Depp...
 
Chrissi said:
Why don't you just tell us something about the book then? :p

I just hope they won't take it too far with their plans of turning it into a "dark horror story.... :mad:
Click to expand...

The book is kind of hard to describe, but it's really worth checking out. I would describe it as a dark story. It is very dark. The story does carry a generally non-Christian theme, so if you are a Christian I would be cautious reading it.
The story is basically about a young, very handsome man who has his portrait painted. Talking with a friend, he makes a wish that he could stay young forever and that the painting would age instead. His wish is granted, and he never grows older. But the painting becomes a portrait of his soul, and with every sin he commits it shows onto the painting.
It definitely is a somewhat "dark horror" story, though, imo. More of a thriller, maybe.

I agree with Inkspot, though, someone more "feminine" would be better. But I think Ben would do good though. He just needs to get a shorter haircut.
And I hope that in this adaption, they do better with the portrait than in the 1945 version.
 
Chrissi said:
Ha ha, me? Christian? Ha ha, I think there are some post in that Forum which show that I'm not a Christian at all :D

No offence to anyone who is Christian!!

I think I will go and read it, think I might also check out Easy Virtue...

Would be interesting to see Ben doing that, but somehow I can't imagine him in that kind of film. Well, we will see...

Especially in combination with that beard...Yum yum :D
Click to expand...
Okay, so you should check out The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is a fantastic book. :D

What's Easy Virtue about?

Ben in Dorian Gray should be interesting. It will give us a chance to see more of his acting skill. It'll be interesting, especially after Prince Caspian, to see him playing an entirely different character. And it'll also be good, so that he won't get type cast as Prince Caspian.
 
That's why I loved to see Bigga than Ben, it's different from Prince Caspian.

As I know Easy Virtue is about this woman played by Jessica Biel who is an American divorce and jets down do France where she meets our wonderful Ben and marries him. Then they go back to England where they meet his parents (Father is played by Collin Firth). I think I will get the book in a few weeks to see what it's like. Hope it's more a comedy than a love story ^^
Oh, and it's set in the 1920's or something...


Will definitely go and buy this Oscar Wilde one. I'm just curious about something:
Producer and director Thompson said Parker is planning to make a visceral, dark horror story and says the themes of stardom are as relevant as ever.

What does that mean? I'm not sure I really understand that. Do they want to make it like a horror hilm or IS the book like that? You say it's dark, but there is a big difference between horror and dark :D
 
LOL
I think it's good to see him get into more movies than just action/fantasy films. :p
It would be a shame to see him end up like Mark Hamill from Star Wars or even Elijah Wood from LOTR.
 
Haha, wow. This thread is ... amusing, I guess I shall say. :rolleyes:

I LOVED his PC accent; I also LOVE his normal English accent. :p

I LOVE his hair the way it is now. Not short. :( Such a small thing, but I think he's way cuter with Caspian or current length hair. That's just me.

And I think he did a FANTASTIC job with Caspian. Perfect. I wasn't overly-fond of the book's Caspian, if you will. I love what Ben did with it, however.

Did anyone here see him when he was on Leno, on the 13th? That was also the soundtrack premier and when Switchfoot played the REAL (and amazing!) version of This is Home on Leno. :D

(The version in the movie is MESSED up. Grrrr. >_< )
 
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I personally thought Ben Barnes did a smashing job of playing Caspian X. I liked his accent too it made him like other telmarines seem seperate even in dialouge from the Pevensies and other Narnians.
 
I loved Ben Barnes as Caspian as well. He did a great job portraying him. His acting really got the emotions across. His eyes just caught the camera. I have to say... I LOVED his accent. It was unique. And some of the things he said in the movie wouldn't have been funny or cute with out it. Overall, I say he was the best actor in the movie. (But I love all of them.)
 
I thought Ben Barnes did an incredible job. I thought his accent in the movie was fine, it just would have been nice if he had been allowed to use his real one, so he could have put a bit more of himself into the role of Caspian. All the horse riding training he had to do must have been a bit tough, I really admire him for all the hard work and training he had to do to be able to succeed as Caspian.
 
At first, I resented Ben a lot because he was not at all how I had imagined Caspian to be. I like him as an actor and all but I wasn't sure if he was right for the part. However, after watching the movie twice, I can finally accept him as Caspian. He really surprised me and was not a disappointment at all. I still have my own image of Caspian but I can accept Ben's version as well. :p
 
About the accent comments on the first page, I was watching an interview with the directors and they were saying that they used a Spanish influence for the Telemarines, so Ben Barnes was using a Spanish accent to create his character.
He made a joke about watching The Princess Bride the night before and 'channeling' Indigo Montoya...
 
i wasn't sure about ben barnes at first because i've always pictured caspian as a "boy-king" type and not such a "hunky" type of guy. but it all worked out, and although the accent did surprise me, it makes sense if you think about it.
 
I thought Ben Barnes was perfect for Caspian. I know Lewis described him as being blonde, but I think being "spanish-like" helped set them apart from other Narnians\humans. Made them unique instead of like everybody else. :D
 
As soon as I heard Ben was playing Dorian Gray, I checked the book out of the library...:rolleyes: Despite picturing him as Dorian, I actually really liked the book, and if he can convincingly pull off that despicable of a character, he'll have me convinced he's a star :)
 
He was in Stardust, Bigga Than Ben, and several other films. Being English, he had to fake the Spanish sounding accent so yeah, it did sound funny at times. He still did well, all things considered.
 
I personally think he did a wonderful job as Prince Caspian, has anyone stopped to think about how hard it actually is to fake an accent decently? I thought it sounded fine :3

But that might just be me.
 
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