Ben Barnes Got His Start As A Prince In Narnia, But Is Only Cast As Villains Now
Ben Barnes not too long ago wrapped up taking part in the manipulative character of General Kirigan on Netflix's Shadow and Bone. And before that, he played villainous roles in Westworld and The Punisher in a streak.
So how did Ben Barnes go from enjoying the shining Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia to only selecting “extra evil” roles?
According to the actor, he helps to keep asking his agents for rom-coms but ends up with psychopath roles as a substitute.
Does Ben Barnes Like Playing Villains Over Heroes?
It's now not like Ben Barnes has now not played any hero/good personality roles after starring in The Chronicles of Narnia. He was once in the rom-coms Easy Virtue, The Big Wedding, and Jackie and Ryan, to name a few.
But one have a look at Barnes' IMDB web page reveals that his occupation hasn't been a one-genre rodeo with a sudden alternate to villainy.
It looks as if Barnes did not want to get typecast as a rom-com pretty boy and so stored his performing credit a mixture of genre-bending roles since the beginning. And making an allowance for how many actors never land any serious roles after they get typecast in romantic comedies, that was most probably a good move on his part.
In an interview with Polygon, Ben Barnes revealed that he tries to find depth in every character he plays, and stated that the villains he has played percentage a lot of similarities.
"Who you are as a person will always seep through in the tiniest ways. [The villains he played] are all very broken in their own ways,” Barnes said.
“None of the characters I've played have very good relationships with their parents. Even though it's a fantastical universe with magic and nonsense, you can really kind of dig down and try to believe in the broken truth of any character, even if they're the antagonist. Even if they're not the one you're rooting for."
In another interview with People about playing General Kirigan in Shadow and Bone, Ben Barnes mentioned:
"We're not pretending this man is the hero; we're not pretending that his abuses of power are forgivable or condonable. But you're presenting a character that, hopefully, you want to see more of on the screen and want to see his conflicts, and also want to give room for there to be a kernel of hope for redemption. I think we have to believe there's a kernel of hope for redemption for everybody."
And bearing in mind Barnes' appearing credits, it seems like he prefers enjoying these tortured, manipulative characters more than simple all-smiles great guys in a cardigan.
Nevertheless, after finishing Westworld and The Punisher, Barnes didn't wish to take on any other villain function. But he changed his mind after he read Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone, which the series is based on.
Why Did Ben Barnes Choose To Be In Netflix's Shadow And Bone?
"I sort of thought I'd had enough of playing sort of manipulative, problematic, antagonist characters over the last four or five years,” Ben Barnes told People.
“But I just found this world so appealing when I was reading the book, and I haven't played a character that was sort of so high in status in terms of the hierarchy of the world."
But now that General Kirigan is useless and his time in Shadow and Bone is over, he wants to change issues up once more and take on roles that “people are rooting for”.
Barnes had prior to now acted in BBC One's six-part miniseries Gold Digger which weirdly married each worlds.
Nevertheless, fanatics have been disenchanted that regardless of positioning Barnes' personality as a nefarious gold digger during the first 5 episodes, the creators of the display grew to become it into an anti-climactic happy-ever-after finishing of a “misunderstood excellent boy who takes the autumn to save lots of his older brother.”
“I think everyone needs to think of themselves as that non-judgmental person,” Barnes stated.
“And taking part in [Benjamin Greene in Gold Digger] used to be interesting for me as a result of you need to play the whole lot as if you're anyone with an ulterior reason, any individual who has an schedule and is after a family's cash, but you also need to play every scene as if — for the reason that only other rationalization for a way he behaves is that — he is in fact that man. He's in fact just that little bit much less judgmental than the remainder of us. And he is simply open-hearted and open-minded and simply needs to like and be liked in return. We're almost so cynical a society that we will be able to't believe any individual like that will exist."
Ben Barnes Wants To Do A Rom-Com Badly
On the matter of Ben Barnes' continuous streak of playing villainous characters, he told Polygon that he keeps asking his agents for rom-com roles but gets psychopaths instead.
“I keep asking my agents, I just want to do a rom-com. And then they’re like, 'Haven’t got a rom-com, but found this psychopath who’s killing a lot of young people!'”
So he's determined to not get typecast as a villain now.
Or as Barnes places it: he simply wants “a great rom-com in a nice cardie!”
Maybe fanatics will see him in one in the close to long run.
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