Ben Barnes is one of the most diverse
and charismatic actors in Hollywood, he also happens to be one of the
nicest guys. Best known for his role as Prince Caspian in the
Chronicles of Narnia franchise, he'll be heating up the small screen
as Samuel Adams on the History Channel's miniseries
Sons of
Liberty. Earlier this week Ben popped in for a conference call to
talk a bit about the series.
I watched all three nights of the
miniseries and enjoyed it all. You're really quite wonderful
in it.
Well, that's three more than me. I
haven't seen a second of it. I was waiting for it to be on the telly.
What was it about the premise of
this miniseries, and about your character in particular that turned
you on and made you want to be apart of it?
Well I think I
wasn't that aware of this particular era of history. I knew somewhat
about the importance of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams from the HBO
series. But I didn't know anything really Sam Adams. And I didn't
realize that all of these figures, all of these famous characters had
all been kind of part of the same fight, the same era, the same
revolution and so I sat down and read all three episodes. It took me
about five hours or something.
You
start with Sam Adams kind of being the protagonist and taking the
journey from a guy that we meet at the beginning drowning his sorrows
in a pint glass but kind of this Robin Hood-esque figure who was
defaulting the taxes on behalf of his community and then six hours
later we see him in the Philadelphia Congress giving a speech about
the nature of freedom, and these kind of very hearty themes so I
thought what a great transition. He wasn't a man I knew very much
about so obviously I could do some research about him but I kind of
had a little bit of liberties to present him how I imagined him in
the reading of this very exciting story about this very integral time
in the founding of the country. And I then I spoke to the director,
Kari Skogland , and she was
very keen that it was a very war-torn, gritty time. It was fun at
this period which kind of put me on board. We've seen adaptations,
there's a lot of storytelling around this era, the era following it,
with the war, but never quite in an action packed, fun way like this.
There's a lot more to these guys
than the powered wigs, and a lot more to your character than just
being a face on the beer bottle.
Yes, exactly. It's
not even him on the beer bottle. Apparently that's Paul Revere on the
beer bottle.
(This is a
common and popular rumor, but I'm told that it is actually Samuel
Adams.)
You filmed this in Romania. What are
your thoughts about making a uniquely American story in Romania?
Well I think
obviously it would have been very hard to film in modern day Boston.
1765 Boston, nothing looks the same and so you need a bit of a blank
canvas. I think Romania is known for great crude set builders and
certainly when I arrived in Romania and there were great wooden
structures that looked like wooden scaffolding. I thought these will
never by the time we need them, to film on this Boston Square set in
six weeks. This is never going to be ready and then we went and shot
on some locations, we actually shot in the field that Vlad the
Impaler impaled his victims and we hung out in Bucharest and shot
some of the war scenes there. By the we got back to the studio on the
back lot we had this big 360 degree set where you could walk down
alley ways, and you could walk into a stable with horses in it or
turn around and actually see ships floating in water. They really,
really did it all and I think it was just a question of money and
really really great set builders that was the reason they decided to
shoot there with a bit of a blank canvas.
You read the scripts, but you also
did research, what did you find out in research that wasn't in the
script? Was there any particular aspect of the character that you
really latched onto?
I think that there
were things that I discovered about him reading biographies of him,
in terms of, well the times lines are slightly stretched or condensed
in various ways. All the events obviously happened, and its as
factually accurate as they could generally make them based on what we
know. But the time lines have been sometimes tweaked in order to tell
the story in the most exciting way. And I think the tax collector
aspect of Sam Adams career was slightly earlier than it seems when
you watch it even though its the first thing you see. But you know,
he was in a big dilemma growing up to enter the priesthood or to
follow a more political role, to follow his heart into politics
essentially. I discovered that he had lost a wife and several
children, and siblings to various diseases and that was something
that wasn't in the script and I wanted to sow in, and they let me add
in the part of losing his wife for a bit of personal back story,
gently sown in there which was fantastic. I wanted to honor the
personal story of Sam Adams as well as what he achieved. But its very
funny, I listened to some books on tape about he period,while we were
filming, and you get into a scene about one of John Hancock's ships
being seized by the British and think oh, we've got a scene where
we're going to film that. Exactly as I imagined it, I don't think
that's how we did the scene in the end, but you know its an exciting
thing when you're doing something that actually took place.
As you started building the role,
was there anything you were surprised to learn about yourself?
About myself?
Well, I was a little surprised to find how little I knew about this
period. I think maybe that comes from being educated in British
schooling system that wants to gloss over anything that has to do
with the dissolution of the vast British Empire, that existed before
this. I knew a little bit about George Washington, and Benjamin
Franklin, but I had no real idea that they were in the same room at
the same time working towards the same thing. I mean you see them on
dollar bills and you see them and you kind of conjure this history.
But I had no idea how united that this band of characters really
were. I also found out that the British Red Coat uniforms fit me
perfectly. (
laughs) There's a
scene where we hide in the gun powder silo and we dress up as the
British officers, and that was the only costume I didn't need a
fitting for. It fit perfectly snug. And I enjoyed strutting around
that day on set for the Americans playing the fallen foes going “I
don't know about you all, but I think that red is just my color. This
fits perfectly.”
Is
there ever a different approach for you plotting a historical
character versus a fictional one?
I
think you have to treat it a little bit as fiction, unless its
someone obviously that people know, unless you're doing an impression
of someone people know then obviously you have to be a bit more
careful since its more of an impressionistic element to it. But I
think with this, I wanted to honor the script that had been written,
and the story that was trying to be told, but also as I said when you
see those little details, the priesthood or his losing a wife early
on and children, you want to sow in elements where you can so it
feels seamless. It can still get in the way of the story but it can
add something to the plight and add to the story telling, so I think
you feel that duty. I've played a couple of characters, that are real
people, but they aren't living so that's kind of a different thing. I
haven't yet come up to the challenge of playing someone that people
know well, know what they sound like, how they walk, that would be a
very different challenge. Something like what Eddie Redmayne just did
in The Theory of Everything,
which was obviously astounding. I've never had a challenge like that.
It would be an exciting challenge for me, but at the same time I had
to pick and choose which part of the real Sam Adams to try to put
out.
If
you could live during this time period are these guys you would have
wanted to be friends with? Is there any one of them that stands out
as the guy you could picture yourself going out for a beer with?
I
think they're probably guys I would have found quite intimidating.
They're all quite sort of headstrong, with really big ideas about how
they wanted their futures to pan out, the future of their country and
the future of their communities. They were all approaching it in
different ways. There was this realist debate about how they would go
about achieving it, what they wanted to achieve even though it was
the same goals. I don't know if I'm bold enough to compete with that,
but I'm certainly would have found a way. You know, I did the History
Channel quiz online, you could do it where you answer a bunch of
multiple choice questions with pictures. It was quite a fun quiz The
first time I did it I wound up with Joseph Warren even though I was
trying to answer the questions as Sam Adams. I wanted to get myself,
obviously, but at the end of the quiz, I didn't. Probably because
Joseph Warren maybe more of a romantic or whatever. I have no idea
how I ended up getting that character.
I
think Benjamin Franklin would have been the most fun one to have a
beer with. He was a bit of a scoundrel, so I think he would have some
really good stories.
Can
you talk a little bit about the costumes, obviously its a totally
different feel when you're in another era and you have all these
costumes. How was that like for you as an actor to go into that
process?
Donna Zakowska,
our costume designer had a lot of experience working in this era and
she was very thoughtful. She helped me choose kind of a signature
color for the character. In the beginning he's wearing all these ugly
greens and browns then he gets this waistcoat as we get to the Boston
Tea Party that's this deep burgundy color and then there's this kind
of action man/Assassin's Creed style coat, which is his action coat
that has this burgundy lining and then by the end there's his
signature three-piece burgundy red suit. The burgundy suit that he's
wearing if you click Wikipedia or look up a picture of Sam Adams. So
it was kind of thought through on that level. But also when you put
those costumes on, my first thought was complete panic because it was
so hot in Romania in the summer when we were shooting. These coats
were two inches thick and I thought all these action sequences were
going to be tough, but we ended up shooting a lot of the action
sequences at night which was amazing, and more bearable. But the
costumes I thought would be just stunning to look at, and you're
right they give you a new gait when you walk and certain confidence
when you have faith in the costumes. You don't have to worry about,
at least the image you're presenting, you can focus on the moments,
and the emotions.
_poster.jpg)
