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Ten years ago Ben Barnes never would have participated inGlamour’s new columnTell Me Something I Don’t Know.
Getty Images; Design by Channing Smith
Now he’s throwing caution to the wind.
A lot has changed for the 41-year-old actor over the course of nearly two decades in Hollywood.
I didn’t like doing interviews and I was quite cautious, even with my acting choices.
Neal Lett
Like many teenage boys, the London-born actor always wanted to be in a band.
In October 2021 he finally released his first album at 40 years old, an EP titledSongs for You.
That same year Barnes became the face of yet another fantasy thing but not as the roguish young hero.
Ben Barnes inShadow and Boneseason two
As General Kirigan (a.k.a.
By season two the surprise villain is openly embracing what Barnes calls his vengeance era.
You’ll know more snappy Taylor Swift references than I will, he jokes.
Ben Barnes inThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian(2008)
I feel free, Barnes says with a weighted breath of relief.
He adds, It’s sort of like a freedom era.
Just by agreeing to this interview, Ben Barnes proved his own point.
Glamour:Tell me something I dont know about working onShadow and Bone.
Ben Barnes:The thing that nobody knows is that I’m the professor.
[Ben does an impression of his very calming professor voice.]
Nichevoya [nee-sheh-voya].
That’s the kind of stuff that Freddy Carter will say.
Do you ever correct people while on set?
Once youre on set theres a script supervisor and all that stuff.
Ben Barnes inShadow and Boneseason two
Tell me about a role you wanted but didnt get.
I auditioned, I think, 8 or 10 times for this movie.
I hadn’t really done anything, but I just wanted it so badly.
And they flew me to New York for the final chemistry reads and stuff.
It was forAcross the Universe, the Beatles movie by director Julie Taymor.
I know I wasn’t cool and band-y enough and grungy enough.
I think Jim Sturgess, who played that part, was actually in a band.
He was just cool, and I was not, really.
I was so thirsty for it, and he was just like, Whatever.
I remember him saying that…. How much is he really regretting it?
How many times has he been nominated for an Oscar now?
I think hes fine.
But it was very sweet of him to say it the way he did.
Yes, he called you handsome and brilliant and said you did a beautiful job.
He was very gracious about it, and hes a very gracious human being.
I think we’re quite similar in quite a lot of ways, actually.
I’d like to play brothers with him or something.
That would be cool.
Id like to see it.
But he probably had like a private, proper actor audition.
We were these guys trying to wangle their way into Hollywood.
Ben Barnes inThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian(2008)
Tell me about your best date ever.
I always thought from watching movies likeGreasethat it would be great.
You get food in the car and watch a movie, but you’re private.
I loved the thoughtfulness because often the man is expected to curate the date.
Obviously, those times have been entirely tornadoes in the best possible way recently.
Tell me something you need in a relationship.
I need a lot of affection.
I need to be, like, holding socks on the sofa.
I need skin-to-skin at bedtime.
I need physical connection, physical touch.
Tell me something I dont know about your guilty pleasure.
I live my life on a variable rewards-based system.
These people will go and stay in a house and every night secret traitors will come and murder people.
I found myself watching a really disgusting amount of episodes in one evening the other night.
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Tell me something I dont know about writing your albumSongs for You.
My dad does this thing at Christmas where he always writes a poem and reads it at Christmas dinner.
More than one of the songs on that EP, particularly the song Rise Up, started that way.
Life is very weird.
I think most of my things are about that.
I want someone to write me a poem
Ill write you a poem!
Now I fully expect one.
