With his easy manner and disaffected attitude towards his good looks it comes as no surprise that 26 year-old actor English actor Ben Barnes was tapped to star as the lead of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian." Having had a small part in Neil Gaiman's "Stardust," his career path didn't immediately suggest he was a likely candidate to play this heroic yet flawed character in the mythic Narnia saga (written by the late British author C. S. Lewis).

At the time of his auditioned for this film, Barnes was set to tour with the National Theatre's production of "The History Boys." Narnia director Andrew Adamson did not expect to cast a British actor as Caspian, but he noted that the young Londoner fit well into the surrogate family of Adamson and the four actors who played the Pevensies in the 2005's “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." In the series debut, set in 1940, the four Pevensie siblings - eldest brother Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and the youngest Lucy (Georgie Henley) – are evacuated to the country home of Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent) avoid the devastating Nazi blitz of London. In the house they come upon an old wardrobe.

Stepping inside, they wardrobe is a portal into the world of Narnia, a land inhabited by mythic creatures such as minotaurs, fauns and talking animals, a land cursed by the White Witch ( Tilda Swinton), who has turned it into a frozen tundra for a century. Through a series of mishaps and missteps, the children join forces with the enormous talking lion Aslan and defeat the Witch, bring life to Narnia and earning their place as kings and queens of the land. Having grown up older in Narnia, they one day rediscover the wardrobe and return to war-torn England. Home, they find that time has barely passed.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," is set a year later, 1941. Prince Caspian sums the four Pevensies children back to Narnia when he blows a magical horn. Thirteen hundred years have passed and the world they ruled is in ruins. Caspian was due to take over the Telmarine throne but his power-hungry uncle drives him out and attempts to kill him. Upon meeting the former Narnian royalty, they join forces to resurrect the land of Narnia, find the long gone Aslan and defeat the usurping uncle.

Barnes may have burned a bridge since he left England without telling the National Theatre. However, his excellent performance in playing the Spanish accented King-to-be has set his reprisal of the role (as King Caspian) in the third film in the Narnia series, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

FEARS: Was it surreal to see yourself on billboards as Prince Caspian?

BEN BARNES: Los Angeles is a really dangerous place to be this week if you're me. I just don't drive down Sunset Boulevard because it's dangerous.

They just leave me completely breathless. You get this slight tingle of nerves. You're not quite sure why because it's this eight-story man on a building looking down at you. You know it's you and a character you've played, but there's a part of you that refuses to acknowledge that, and you think, 'Who's that guy?'

It's a very difficult emotion to explain. It's almost quite confusing to see yourself on those things and then you rationalize and think it's a marketing campaign, it makes sense. They put on hair extensions and they look good. It's a tan; it's not really me.

A few weeks ago I met a journalist and he said, hi, and he slammed an action figure in front of me, and said, "What do you think?" Someone says there's going to be an action figure [of me] and you think, "Aw, amazing." I played with T-man from "Transformers," and you realize what you did with your T-man from "Transformers," which is smash them against each other and chew their arms off [laughs]. You think it's cool to have an action figure, if it's a collectible in a box. However, when they're there for people to smash up it becomes kind of weird again.

FEARS: Did the Narnia kids welcome you?

BEN BARNES: Completely. When I got the part, I got the DVD [of the first film] and watched all the DVD extras. I listened to Georgie sit there and go "William [Moseley] is like my brother. And Andrew [Adamson] is like the dad when the dad's not there, and it's all nice," and I'm like, "Get me a bucket. I don't believe you."

Then I walked into the production office on the first day and they were playing table tennis with each other and were sitting on each other's laps and sharing ice cream. It was something out of a Disney film. It really was a family atmosphere on set.

They were all very welcoming and Anna and Will were a little emotional last night knowing [this film] was their last one. What people don't realize is that Anna is now 19 and Will is 21, and they were 13 and 15 when they first auditioned for these movies. It's a big part of your childhood to give up to a project of this size. I think it's 100% worth it. They've got something really to show for it. It's emotional for them. It's hard for him to give me the sword at the end of the movie. You can see.

FEARS: Were you pleased with your performance especially when you saw yourself on screen?

BEN BARNES: It is difficult to watch yourself, to suspend your disbelief that far to not see yourself in the character you're playing. My heartbeat rate was heightened every time I was on screen, which is about the ego, isn't it. I was nervous I hadn't done myself justice because it seems like such a long time ago and such a different world.

FEARS: Did your favorite scene remain intact?

BEN BARNES: I'm not sure any scene remained intact. Most of the dialogue had changed from what I could remember because [with] the animated characters you can change stuff up until the last minute. [The animated sword wielding, talking mouse] Reepicheep's dialogue was nothing like what it was in the script, but it was brilliant. Eddie Izzard {whose plays him] is one of my favorite heroes. I've seen him countless times on stage so to have done scenes with him that he wasn't even there for is a great treat.

FEARS: How did you do scenes with Reepicheep?

BEN BARNES: It was somebody reading from the script over there, a really long pole over there with a wire, when he jumps on me. That's the scene I'm talking about. You're a mouse but you're talking to a wire with a little orange dot on the top, which was very hard. And we shot that in the beginning.

I found that quite hard to get used to. As Andrew said before they showed the film yesterday it's about trust, we've got to trust that he's going to make it look awesome. And I think he delivered.

FEARS: Aside from talking to tennis balls playing the animated characters, where there other effects that threw you while you were acting?

BEN BARNES: The scale of things like the castle. I remember one set Andrew came up to me as I was staring at one of the turrets. My mouth was agape and he came up to me and said, “Shut your mouth,” or something. I just could not get over the scale of it. You built a castle. Thanks. I really appreciate it. He said this would be three times bigger when we're done with it. And it was, you know. It's just huge.

When you're filming against the backdrop of the How [Aslan's huge underground hall built over the Stone Table that was the Narnians home] and you've got a tiny bit of green screen on top of the How and it's always there you kind of ignore it. But then you go back and you see it when we come out and it's three times bigger because they've got that little bracket where they can build anything they want above it.

I thought it was really impressive. It was overwhelming and I feel I need to see it again because I feel like I missed most of it because I was absorbed in it. The memories start flooding back. It's kind of difficult to watch yourself in something anyway. Lots of the scenes that I'd read about but wasn't in, it just kind of clarified it for me.

What I was most pleased about [seeing the movie] was the relationships between myself, and Peter, Susan and Edmund Pevensie. I thought they were a lot subtler than they felt when we were filming and a lot more born out of the situations that they found themselves in rather than just hating each other as characters or having an eye for each other. The kiss at the end felt like, she just kind of looks away from the camera and thinks well, why not, I'm not coming back. It felt like something that a real 16-year-old girl might be thinking. So I was just pleasantly surprised by a lot of things.

FEARS: Your faux Spanish accent was really good.

BEN BARNES: Thank you. It was interesting because they started off saying they wanted a Spanish-sounding Mediterranean accent and they said they would cast all Spanish actors. After one week of filming, they cast an Italian, a Spaniard, a Mexican, a Flemish actor and some Czech actors. I just thought, this is not going to work. We're not all going to sound the same. So we worked on the accent to make it more Mexican and Italian sounding, to smooth it out a bit so it wasn't too intrusive, and I think it worked out OK.

FEARS: Did you have to repeat scenes because of the accent?

BEN BARNES: No. It all stayed pretty much intact. The first scene I shot with dialogue we shot before they cast the Telmarines. I was going to say, I hafto, hafto [in a thick Spanish accent]. They were like, "We don't like the hccck sound," which is more of the Mexican sound.

Damian Alcazar is Mexican. So he sounded more like, "I hafto go." That was kind of tricky but we kind of came to a happy medium in the end. For my ears, certainly, it wasn't incongruous. It seemed like they came from the same background.

FEARS: And you are now a master swordsman and horseman?

BEN BARNES: Hell yeah.

FEARS: What was the training like and how will you use it in the future?

BEN BARNES: Winning the hearts of damsels in distress on the streets. Yo. I did some solid horse training when I got there because I hadn't gotten any experience on a horse even though I might have suggested I did. I was literally on a horse five or six hours a day. I bought some padded cycling shorts to ease the comfort.

I had these great Spanish teachers who went through everything with me and eventually, after a couple of weeks, it clicked into place and as you can see I'm going through rivers and riding with flaming torches up and down ramps and through trees and it was amazing. It's totally exhilarating. It's like a ride at Disneyland. It's fantastic.

FEARS: How are your sword skills?

BEN BARNES: I actually had to do more throughout filming. The battle sequences were at the end so we knew we had time. The sword fighting is as fun as it looks and I can't lose because I'm in the next film.

FEARS: Is there more humor added into the next one?

BEN BARNES: The film was a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be because I wasn't around for a lot of the humorous bits. Skander has throwaway lines. And [there's the bits] by Trumpkin [played Peter Dinklage] and Reepicheep. I wasn't really there for those light bits. And they changed them anyway.

So I found myself laughing [at the screening] quite a lot. I was thinking, "I'm taking this seriously and they've pulled the rug from under my feet." This isn't fair. I was talking to my brother about it last night and he said, "You're parents have been killed and they're chasing you, trying to kill you, why wouldn't you take it seriously..." and I thought, "Good point." So he made me feel better about that.

I think it works. Caspian is an earnest character. That's who he is. In the next film he's not suddenly going to become this macho musing quipping king. I think he's a bit of a lost soul. He hasn't been parented. He's been brought up by someone who essentially doesn't care about him. He is just waiting to have his own heir so he can get rid of him. That's not a very loving environment. The closest thing he has is his professor.

If you read the book, he only had a couple of years with him and before that, a nurse. So it skips those years because the film can only be so long. There's only so young I can play. We're pushing it as it is. He's an interesting character. I'm curious to see how he develops.

FEARS: You're shooting the next movie in October. Do you have time to shoot anything else before then?

BEN BARNES: I shot a film with Colin Firth and Jessica Biel called “Easy Virtue,” a Noel Coward play adaptation. It's a very different British farce, kind of a posh Meet the Parents. It's very different and I hope to be doing something in the summer. I don't know exactly what yet.

FEARS: How many Narnias are you signed on for?

BEN BARNES: We're definitely making "Dawn Treader," but beyond that I don't know.

FEARS: How many more books are Caspian in?

BEN BARNES: He's in "Dawn Treader" and then he's much older, much older in "The Silver Chair." He's like 70. So who knows what they'll do with that.

FEARS: What's your favorite children's book?

BEN BARNES: I guess Roald Dahl. I (studied) a bit of children's literature at university. I read all the Tolkien books and I love Phillip Pullman, writer of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy [the film, "The Golden Compass" was based on them]. I think he's great.

FEARS: Apparently, Pullman hates Narnia.

BEN BARNES: I know he does. I read that article some months ago and I was kind of disappointed about it.

FEARS: By the way, did you know that "caspa" means dandruff in Spanish?

BEN BARNES: Oh no! That's a Head and Shoulders campaign coming my way.

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