Barnes on the stress of leaving History Boys to do Prince Caspian:

"It was a very difficult period for me, actually, much more difficult than I let on at the time. It had always been my dream to work in the National Theater. If you’re British and an actor, and you’re 10 years old and you’re going to the National Theater with your parents, that’s the pinnacle of all acting, really. Then I got this job and I’ve been on tour with them for six months and I was in the West End and it was this amazing play by this British playwright, Alan Bennet. Then it just so happens a few weeks before the end, you get this opportunity to work on C.S. Lewis, another great British [project] in a film context, which you haven’t really done huge - I’ve only done two films before and it was just unfortunate that both of those dreams came true in the same year. It sounds like an awful, conceited thing to say, ‘Oh woe is me. Two of my lifelong dreams have come true in the same year.' But actually, it was a difficult time because I consider myself to be quite a loyal guy and it was tough for me to leave earlier than I wanted to. I had hoped it would work out, but it didn’t quite."

Barnes on the message Prince Caspian conveys:

"What I like about Caspian is that it’s not too spoon feedy. There’s not one particular moral message that comes to the fore, but I think there are good lessons in there. There are moments where he makes mistakes and you learn about his regret of those mistakes and there are moments where he has to trust other people around him and their ideas and learn to kind of concede. Then there is the sort of over-arching message of believing in something greater than yourself and nature is the thing that saves the day in the end. Fifty years ago when these books were written, that was a much more allegorical message. Now it’s something that looks really cool.

"I think it’s there if you choose to see it. I think the Miraz/Telmarine imagery is very strong. I mean, you’ve got all of the eagles, which has a very Nazi-esque look to it, but it’s only there if you really look to see it. This faceless race with this ethnic accent and it’s set in World War II, Sergio would be the first to say he thought Miraz was a sort of Hitlerian figure. Then you look at Caspian and his uncle has murdered his father, thinking vengeance is the best policy - Pop quiz: ‘Which Shakespeare play does this remind you of?.' I think there are a lot of interesting layers and a lot of good and interesting moral messages about humility. And there are a lot of different messages if you choose to see them. If you don’t, then there are cool battle scenes."

Barnes on playing a younger person:

"I honestly didn’t play an age. I think it’s very hard to try and play younger or older. I think you get into a world of trouble when you start trying to play an age. I think you are the age you look and people will believe it or they won’t. I thought it was very important for the story of our version that Peter and Caspian seemed like similar ages, and I think they do."

Ben Barnes on the embarrassing moment on set:

"My very first day on the actual set, I wasn’t shooting, I was doing a costume and makeup test... I had hair extensions in, but they were trying a wig as well because they weren’t quite sure which to go for. So I had hair extensions and the wig and this fake tan and I had the costume on for the first time. I spend two hours - they were trying to get it right for when we start filming because then you can’t change it - and I was standing there waiting for them to come back from set and I could see Andrew’s car coming towards us to check me out and we would discuss it. I was a little nervous. I’d only met him twice before and Will comes up to me as a joke and pretends to throw orange juice in my face. But instead of pretending, he squeezed the thing and it goes all over me and I’m like, ‘You little...’ and he just runs - and Will is really fast, so he’s just gone. Now I’m just standing there surrounded by these poor people who spent ages dressing me up and making me up, doing the hair and they’re all surrounding me mouths agape and Will’s run off. Andrew’s come up and we have to go in and get changed again, so that was kind of embarrassing."