Are you getting more of a sense of how big the scale of this thing is now that you're doing the junkets?

Ben Barnes: Yes. I got a real scale shock in LA last week when I saw the first billboard. It was the size of a building, and with just me on it. I mean, it's exciting, and terrifying, and slightly freaky; it leaves you really speechless. It's sort of awesome in the sort of traditional sense of the word "awesome," but also really frightening.

Does it feel like it's going to be this big when you're on set?

BB: Well, we finished shooting in September, so we didn't really get any of that sort of press stuff whilst we were shooting, and the Narnia set really does feel like a different world anyway, because you've got all these people with three hours of makeup, and dwarves, and giants, and you know, it just generally feels like a different planet anyway. So, to come out of that into this, which is a totally different world to me again, is very exciting. I mean, I haven't even seen the film, so I'm just really looking forward to it like any sort of Narnia fan.

Did you watch the BBC show when you were growing up?

BB: Yeah, I did. I found my copy of the book again recently, and I have the book with that cover on it:"now a major BBC TV series." I was eight when that came out, and I watched it with my dad, and loved every second of it, and thought it was magic. I watched a little bit of it again recently, and I had to switch it off because it was just ruining my memory of it. It's just a puppet. There's no cool CGI, it's just a puppet.

And Warwick Davis, who plays Nikabrik in this film was Reepicheep in the TV show and he was just a dwarf in a mouse costume. Like, a little nose on the end, but no attempt to even vaguely make him mouse-like.

At the time, brilliant, amazing. It had that little Harry Pottery music, and it panned over the map at the beginning of it, and those loveable but irritating kids. I mean, Lucy, oh my god. I thought it was brilliant, I was a fan.



So was that your first introduction to Narnia, or did you read the books?

BB: I read them when I was eight, and then I watched the TV series. This was all at the same time, I think. With these films they do a lot of book campaigning, to get people to read it before you see it, I think that kind of stuff doesn't really change.

It's always been like that though, if there's a film coming out that's some kind of adaptation, I'll try and read that book quickly if I can, because I like to read it first if possible.

How did you first hear about the project?

BB: I didn't know it was happening until I got called for an audition. I was doing The History Boys in the West End, and one of the casting directors saw me in that, and asked if I'd like to come in for an audition, which I duly did. Then I did a screen test, and a week later, I had the part. I mean, it was very quick from start to finish, because they were about to start making the film, and they didn't have a Caspian, so it was great for me.

Slightly worrying to leave it that late, is it not?

BB: Well, they were looking for a year, they just hadn't found the right person, so either I was the right person, or they were running so late, they were like "right, whoever walks in next, we'll give them the part". It was one of those two things.

So from the moment you first heard about the project, to the moment you were on the set, how long was that, roughly?

BB: About five weeks? Six weeks. Let's say five or six weeks.



They threw you in at the deep end, then?

BB: Well, once I got onto set, I had a week or two of horses and swords, whilst they were filming some of the Pevensie stuff that's at the beginning.

Overwhelming is probably the right word. My very first shot, there's an opening chase sequence where I get knocked off the horse and dragged along by the horse for a bit, and my opening shot was that drag. So I literally had to lie down on the floor, and some stuntmen attached a piece of rope to my leg and pulled me into frame. So I was literally dragged into the movie.

How well did you get on with Andrew?

BB: He's fantastic. He has this extraordinary ability, because he comes from this sort of animation background, and he's got this eye for pre-visualisation and detail and all that, but he's also got the bigger picture in mind all the time. There's a very useful talent; that he is able to focus on minute details, and also the vastness that is a Narnia story at the same time.

And so it's amazing to have someone like that on the set, who just understands every single facet of what's going on, because everyone else is pretty confused most of the time.

And they have a great AD team. That first day when I walked on set, the first AD went, "this is Ben Barnes, he's playing Caspian, do not look him directly in the eye, do not come within five feet of him without permission, okay?" and literally for the next few days there were still a few people who were a bit wary, they thought he was serious.