Ben Barnes “Fought” to Keep Caspian’s Telmarine Accent

Yesterday, during an Instagram livestream, NarniaWeb asked Ben Barnes (Caspian) about the “telmarine accent” he used in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He explained the inspiration for it and why he switched back to his English accent in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

After the second film, a new director [Michael Apted] took over and said “I don’t think the telmarines need to speak with that accent, so maybe just use you own accent.” So, in the third film, I just had to go back to using my own accent. Let it be known for the record that I did fight tooth and nail to keep the accent because I said, “Well we’ve started with it, so we can’t just drop it now. It’s about the character.”

Ben Barnes

Watch his full response below. (As you can see, the quality of the stream was occasionally low)

Did you like Caspian's accent in "Prince Caspian"?
Vote

Earlier in the livestream, Ben was joined by a friend in the medical profession who described what the hospital environment is like in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

14 Responses

  1. Fireberry says:

    Ugh. Ben Barnes is a decent actor & seems a decent chap, but everything about Caspian in those 2 films was wrong, including the casting … Anyway, nice to see you Ben, & best wishes in future work.

  2. Courtenay says:

    I just remember, when the film of Prince Caspian was first released, one reviewer remarking that with that bizarre accent, one kept expecting Caspian to come out with “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

  3. Reepicheep775 says:

    I think I like Caspian’s English accent better than the Spanish-Italian hybrid, but I thought it was odd when they randomly switched between films. It’s one of the many things about VDT that make it feel like there was a sense of apathy surrounding the production.

    It’s amazing that Ben Barnes can still do Caspian’s accent just like that!

  4. Keeper of Lantern Waste says:

    Oh my gosh yes XD he coulda told Miraz that lol

  5. Keeper of Lantern Waste says:

    I didn’t really care for the accent… It didn’t sound bad but it seemed a bit out of character?? But I think they should’ve stuck with it or “softened” it in Dawn Treader, not just completely changed it

  6. Impending Doom says:

    While I wasn’t a huge fan of the accent, I can appreciate that Ben Barnes wanted to remain true to the character he helped create.

  7. Yerdif says:

    Hey guys. What happened to the April Fools joke? 🙂

  8. JFG II says:

    I don’t think Andrew Adamson gave Caspian and the Telmarines a Shakespearean-ish Italian accent just out of creativity. I think it was because they wanted to set up the Arabian Nights-ish Calormens by giving the Narnia movies something the books did not really have; Sympathetic adults of non-English ancestry. Think about it: Give the PC movie Telmarines a ‘foreign-sounding yet sympathetic’ edge not found on the book, it makes the creating of an evil eastern-ish government in HHB more palatable to modern audiences, if only because they trust the filmmakers to be ‘virtuous’.

  9. Keeper of Lantern Waste says:

    Maybe the joke is not giving us a joke? Like, to mess with us

  10. Just Queen, not High Queen says:

    To be fair, this isn’t the first time that a character has lost their accent over several films so him loosing the accent isn’t that unusual. I kind of don’t mind the accent lost, the same way I didn’t mind Reepicheep being voiced by a different actor.

  11. AslanNarnia says:

    I just watch the BBC version. I have not watched the Voyage of the Dawn Treader film since 2010.

  12. Thank YOU for posting that it could be just the thing to give inspiration to someone who needs it! Keep up the great work!

  13. I so agree! But I was kind of glad they dropped the accent in VDT.

  14. Narnia Fangirl says:

    LOL