Reflecting on those roles that slipped between his fingers, Andrew Garfield has revealed that he lucked out of a part in the Chronicles of Narnia because he “wasn’t handsome enough.”
Word comes by way of Entertainment Tonight, who spoke to Garfield in anticipation of the Oscar-tipped Silence. It was here that the British actor admitted to missing out of the coveted Prince Caspian role back in 2008, which ultimately fell to Ben Barnes. Two years later, Barnes reprised the part for Voyage of the Dawn Treader, before the Narnia franchise was placed on an indefinite hiatus – at least, until the moment when TriStar landed rights for a potential remake.
Here’s what Garfield told ET:
“Ben Barnes ultimately got it. Ben Barnes, I’ll get ya! No, I really just wanted that part… I think the feedback was ‘he’s not handsome enough.’ What can you do? Hey, I’m not handsome enough for Prince Caspian.”
This isn’t the first time that the actor has spoke candidly about previous roles. When quizzed about The Amazing Spider-Man series, for instance, Garfield claimed that, in his experience, “story and character were actually not top of the priority list.”
Silence begins screening in select US theatres today, December 23, ahead of a nationwide release in January. Our review deemed Scorsese’s latest to be a sombre, if problematic portrayal of devotion and faith, while Hacksaw Ridge, arguably the more compelling of the two Garfield films out this year, blew our socks off with a ferocious account of the Battle of Okinawa. It debuted on November 4 for those in the States.
