Meet Ben Barnes

It’s been quite the hectic year for young Ben. After swashbuckling his way through Prince Caspian and becoming a Russian con man for Bigga Than Ben, he’s now, in his own words, "a wet blanket aristocrat" in Stephan ‘Priscilla’ Elliott’s eccentric update of Noel Coward’s classic play Easy Virtue. Neil Davey had a chat… Ben Barnes is hot. That’s as in property, with the release of his third film this year. However, according to the gaggle of giggling schoolgirls waiting for Ben outside, he’s also just hot. "Really?" asks Ben. "Outside?" He laughs. "Luckily I got here before them. You have to get up very, very early to catch me…" As mentioned above, Ben is avoiding the admiring hoardes to discuss his role as John Whittaker in Stephan Elliott’s frankly bizarre reimagining of Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue. It’s the tale of a wealthy family thrown into disarray when their eldest, Ben’s character, comes home married to Lorita who – heaven’s above – is an American, played by Jessica Biel. How then did Ben come to be involved? "I got an email from the director," reveals Ben. He puts on an Australian accent. 'I’ve seen you in Stardust. It was good. Do this film…' It was very to the point," he laughs, "But I wasn’t entirely convinced by the script initially. I thought it was fun but I thought what this needs is someone to mess with it and turn it on its head and make it into something different. "Then I met Stephan and I re-watched Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and realised he was exactly the man for the job! And then he said Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas will play your mum and dad and then he said Jessica Biel will be your wife and I said ‘OK’! It’s not a difficult decision to make." Even though the character is, as Ben points out, a "wet blanket", it’s a vital role, as Ben explains. "What I’m doing is serving the war of wits between the women. It’s nice not to be front and centre, it’s nice to be serving the story, but John is an interesting character, he realises the importance of his family and legacy, and he realises that maybe love isn’t enough. One of the main reasons I was attracted to the story was that it’s almost the opposite of a romantic comedy. It starts at the end: it’s got kisses and champagne and sunset and a marriage at the beginning, and goes downhill from there." It also has music, from the very odd use of contemporary songs such as Sex Bomb sung in a 1920’s style, to many of the cast having a warble. Ben, no stranger to singing on screen (he almost represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest with a band called Hyrise, should you fancy a YouTube), took it in his stride. "In the original script, John sings to charm Lorita and to get out of trouble with his mother and just keeps singing throughout the piece which becomes more and more irritating!" Ben grins. "That’s something I have in my own life, my friends get very annoyed with me as I’ll be humming along the street. "Anyway, the constant singing was annoying to do that so we cut out some and made it more about the soundtrack, making these contemporary songs sound vintage and I think that gives the film a real sizzling pace. "And," he adds, "Jessica sings the opening song and Colin shouts loudly at the end so we all got involved." Easy Virtue is on general release now.