“I was so desperate”: the role Andrew Garfield wasn’t good-looking enough to play
There isn’t much that we can all agree on these days, but I think I speak for the entire human race when I say that Andrew Garfield is one good-looking lad.
With a strong mix of action hero ruggedness and boyish charm, he’s got a little bit of something for everyone, with perhaps his most impressive physical trait being that while he could easily pass for someone in his mid-to-late 20s, he was actually born in 1983, making him 42 years old at the time of writing.
His deceptive visage means that he’s been around for much longer than you might expect, and British viewers might remember him battling with the Daleks in a two-part episode of Doctor Who in 2007, the same year he made his movie debut in Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs and was set to appear in Justin Chadwick’s The Other Boleyn Girl, but he had his scenes cut.
This historical drama wasn’t the only big movie that Garfield was denied around this time period, though, and speaking to Variety, the British icon recalled a role he went up for as a young man that he thought would change his entire career.
“I remember I was so desperate,” he said, “I auditioned for Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia, and I thought, ‘This could be it, this could be it’,” he said, “And that handsome, brilliant actor Ben Barnes ended up getting the role. I think it was down to me and him, and I remember I was obsessed.”
Released in 2008, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the second instalment in Walden Media’s series of adaptations of CS Lewis’ classic children’s book series, picking up where things left off in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, introducing the four Pevensie siblings to the titular dashing young warrior prince fighiting to overthrow his corrupt uncle, portrayed by Sergio Castellitto.
Ben Barnes hadn’t been in much prior to landing this role, cropping up in minor bits on film and the odd episode of a British soap opera, and it’s unclear if he or the character will feature in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia film. Regardless, Garfield wasn’t the only big-name star to miss out on playing Narnia’s dreamiest noble, as Nicholas Hoult had also auditioned and was turned down after giving, in his own words, his all-time worst performance.
In a bid to decipher where he went wrong, Garfield pestered and pestered his agent for answers. “She eventually just broke under my incessant nagging,” he revealed, “She was like, ‘It’s because they don’t think you’re handsome enough, Andrew’.” Ouch.
I think we can all agree that Garfield, Hoult, and Barnes were all very handsome young men who could have easily swept young Susan Penvensie off her feet, but it all worked out in the end, as the two jilted performers went on to become huge stars in their own right, while ironically, Barnes’ profile is now the lowest of the three. Funny how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?
