Caspian Loses His Accent for VDT
BenBarnesFan was sent a scan yesterday of an interview between Kingston University’s student magazine, ‘Mouth’ and Ben Barnes.
Mouth Magazine: How did it feel reprising your role as (the now) King Caspian?
Ben Barnes: It was a great experience reprising the role. It’s a different take on the character with a new director and new studio invovled. We decided that Caspian and the Telmarines will no longer have European accents, as they felt CS Lewis is a quintessentially an English writer. The story is my favourite of the seven books and it has a feel of a roving, mythical, adventure tale.
The Telmarine accent in Prince Caspian got a lot of mixed reviews from fans and critics alike. As the accent has now been removed for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it should be interesting to see how everybody reacts.
Thanks to ‘Cass’, ‘Sir Jack’, and ‘bkey’ for the information!
Sounds cool; It will be fun to see what he sounds like.
Seriously? Wow… Actually I'm kind of glad. I expected most of the other 'Telmarine' characters to lose their accents, but I thought Caspian would still have it, at least a little bit. That's interesting.
wow! I want the accent! but oh well…..
I was confused in the second movie , the movie just didn't seem to flow right and the story line was not clear . I was not fond of the accent of the telmarines , but removing it is inconsistent and confusing .
So in the space of three years an entire country losses its accent. Interesting. Well I never thought Caspian had the best accents so I don't really mind. But looking at the series it will be kind of interesting. Keep the story of Aslan alive!!!
W00T!
Hmmmm… I didn't mind some of the accents in PC, it's just that they were inconsistent with Italian, Mexican and some Spanish. I guess I'm happy overall.
One could argue that since the Telmarines have been in Narnia for many generations that it is possible for the accent o change and become a little muttled.
the accent didn't bother me, nor did I love it. I will definitely be interesting to see how he sounds now. Hopefully it's for the better- and I hope it's not a distraction. Keeping positive though. =)
Not sure how I feel about this. I have a thick accent very much along the lines of what the Telmarines are represented as in the PC movie.
Interesting. I thought the accent was a little weird.
Although the concept was not executed perfectly, i felt the addition of the accent in Prince Caspian was a brilliant idea and one which really added a lot of depth and subtext to the tale of conflict in Prince Caspian. I would of loved to have seen them keep it for VDT, as i think they could of developed it to add an interesting dynamic to the mixed Narnian and Telmarine of the ship – but i can see the logic in what Ben Barnes says there, and it might ultimately prove to be for the best.
No! His accent was hilariously enjoyable, I was looking forward to hearing it again.
So they all lose their accent in 8 year? Oh well.. It's not a loss, the accent was ridiculous..
YES! I am so happy, lol.
What!!!??? Make's no sense. The accent Ben did for PC was perfect for the role IMO. Everyone I know who saw the film were impressed when I told them that he don't actually speak like that.
I didn't mind the accent in Prince Caspian, but this is totally inconsistent! VDT had better turn out okay…
Score! 🙂
I have to say I'm happy about this. I didn't mind the accent too much in PC, and I would tolerate it in VDT for consistency, but I like Ben Barnes' English voice better, and I think I'll be able to concentrate on his character more instead of his fake accent. 😉 I think it will make him seem more real to me, for some reason. It will also be interesting to hear the Telmerines without Spanish accents. I think I'll be able to understand them better the first time.
So I'm pretty positive about this. Wheee! I can't wait for the movie! 😀
Yeah. While I would have been perfectly fine with a decision to maintain Englishness earlier on, the lack of continuity is a problem.
Well, I'll tell you what, after one week of staying in a bunk room that contained three Americans, I had definately started picking up their accent (lol). I think it's perfectly acceptable to believe that when you live amongst people with a stronger accent than you, you will start picking it up. So if the "Narnian" accent is supposed to be stronger than the "Telmarine" accent, it is quite likely that the Telmarines would start to speak with less Spanish inflection and more British inflection.
Uh-oh, not good… lack of continuity, plus I sort of got attached of it… bash me all you like, but I liked the accent, it gave a nice finishing touch 🙂
Well… maybe they will blame it on Caspian mingling mostly with Narnians and losing the accent thusly, though still I don't like the lack of continuity, a bit illogical…
But what matters most to me, is that most likely I'll enjoy the film immensely anyway, as it's looking better and better 🙂
I'm glad. The accent was rather inconsistent/awkward anyways, and it makes sense that he would lose it after a while.
They really don't seemed to be too worried about continuity for this film, do they? I actually quite liked the accent, but ho hum. This certainly more lewis-esque, so is a good direction for the film.
As long as they are consistent from now on, I don't think it will matter. They probably found that a lot of non-Narnia fans didn't like the accents or were confusing.
Anyway, it will be interesting when they get to those stories with a siginificant Calormene presence. But even in VDT there are a few… 😀
I like that they got rid of the accent, but won't people other than me notice. (I won't notice, unless it obvious and even sometimes I won't notice, I probably won't notice that Reepicheep's voice even changed.)
YAY!!!!
I love the Spanish accent! He won't sound as cool without it, I'm sure. Especially since he has a beard now. Who knows?
Sad to hear… I actually thought that it was a very creative idea in Prince Caspian because it helped to establish that the Telmarines were a different "race." I don't know that it's an essential element to the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I feel like it makes the series lose a bit of consistency. Perhaps it won't be that bad, as long as they have kept some of the other things (like costumes and armor) consistent…
It is interesting though that their reasoning is because C. S. Lewis was a British author… I think he would have been creative enough to be okay with one race of his characters having a different accent. Sorry, I guess for me, the accent just made Prince Caspian a little more "real."
Interesting point… it does seem to be a bit of a stretch, but I know someone who moved to a region where the accent was different and picked up the new accent fairly quickly. Perhaps, since Narnia has a much more "Narnian" (British English) influence following Prince Caspian, Caspian himself will have started to adapt. I'm still not crazy about the idea, but this might work…
His accent may be gone, but it's still his voice.
I prefer to simply pretend the accent never happened. It really did not work at all. Some pulled it off better than others. Course, I still have to get used to the beard…
Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about this…I mean, I love his English accent, and I am aware of the fact that accents can change over a period of time, but to change from a Spanish accent to a full blown English accent in a span of only three years seems like a bit of a stretch…well, I'm sure if wont make the movie any better or worse!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I LOVED THE ACCENT. TO ME LEWIS JUST MADE EVERY KINGDOM (EXCEPT CALORMEN) BRITISH!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS A NICE CHANGE. IT'S GOING TO BE WEIRD FOR ME NOT TO HEAR THE TELMARINES WITH SPANISH ACCENTS
I didn't think the accent worked very well in the first place. Although it did give the telmarines their own dialect, which was great and all, but it just won't work for VDT. 🙂
Actually, I'm kind of glad. In PC it was a little distracting and it seemed to "come and go" quite a bit.
Hmmm….didn't see that one coming. But okay, to tell you the truth, I sort of like him better without the accent. It'll show how the Telmarines have sort of become Narnian.
I have to agree with you Silver The Wanderer, it will be strange. 🙂
I'm a little bit 'in the middle' here.
I did enjoy Caspian's accent, it was pretty sweet!
But also, I know he has an awsome voice, so go for it!
This is beginning to look suspicious…nautical theme, dark hair and beard, and now an English accent? Sounds like Will Turner to me, not King Caspian!
Yes! I anticipate sitting in the movie theater and hearing Ben Barnes' real voice!
So begins the continuity errors.
So much for all that Telmarines descented from Spanish pirates deal in the last movie. I kind of liked it… It added some depth to a flat story.
Hey Ranger Girl that's exactly what I was thinking! Please people! Lets have Narnia not POTC!
I agree with you a 100%
I wonder if the Calormen will have an British accent based on this reasoning.
I didn't like the accent either, but the inconsistency bothers me more. *sigh*
Yes, this is wonderful news! His accent was very distracting in Prince Caspian.
I think I'm glad he's losing the accent but isn't it a bit weird that somebody's voice could totally change over just 3 years…?
Hurray! I always liked Ben Barnes' real accent much better! I wonder if they will use his or go for something more generic. I think the Spanish accents caused PC to loose some of the English charm that C.S. Lewis always included
ha ha ha ha…I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't laugh, but the fact that everybody (including myself, so don't freak on me) here is so starved for movie-details that we can rant and aruge back and forth about accents is hysterical. Anywho, I'm conflicted, after seeing the PC movie, I've always imagined, even when re-reading the books, Caspian with a spanish accent-I've even written fanfics where a lot of his speech patterns and stuff are based on the idea of his 'thick accent', but oh wells, so long as they're not trying to turn him into Will Tunner and they aren't going to do a Lucy/Caspian thing (Susan/Caspian was trouble enough, do we really need Lucian? stick with RD!) I guess I'm still happy. Sail on vdt! But one last thing, while his characters were most certianly british (the Pevensies, Eustace, Jill, etc..) I thought C.S. Lewis wasn't. I thought he was from belfast irland…
HURRAHHHHHH!!! YAYAH!!!
I seriously shouted with joy when I read this. Like, seriously seriously. Suddenly the hair and beard mattereth very little. I am content. Let's hope this is true. 😉
ROLL ON DAWN TREADER!!!!
Hm. Interesting decision. I didn't mind his accent, I thought he did it rather well, and I always end up wanting to imitate him. But I know a lot of others didn't like it. I really don't mind either way on this one.
While this film could end up being a continuity disaster, that may well be what is needed after the canon disaster of Prince Caspian.
awww… but i loved the mediterrranean accent! he sounded so cool! and besides, wont that be kind of wierd to have the same character suddenly change the way they talk. that'll sure be strange. darn, i really loved the accent. oh well, Ben still sounds really cool with his british accent, but still….*sigh*
I think I would like him to keep the Spanish accent if he did a better job on it. But I'm not going to freak out about it either.
nope. he was british. i have a question though as to why would you imagine them doing a lucy/caspian thing? ewww! Lucy's like, 10 years younger than Caspian! now thats just crazy! sorry, but that the first i've seen someone wonder about that, and it just really bothered me. besides, Caspian has his romance with the Star's daughter, as it is in the book. (if they dont do that in the movie im gonna be mad)
ditto!
Interesting, to say the least…
totally agree. Adamson had said that in the PC book Aslan had said himself that the telmarines had descended from pirates, which is where the spanish influence came from. i thought it was very clever, and yes gave the story much more depth, by having the telmarines have a spanish influence. with the accent and dark skin, it gave the telmarines a uniqueness, and it seperated them from the rest of the narnians, making them their own kind of people with their own ways and style. im going to really miss all that now. who said the characters FROM Narnia had to be british? the kids are british because they're from Britain, but Lewis didnt specify that the Narnians were british. now i just think making them all british will just make the story more flat with no color. having all the characters sound the same and act the same will make it boring. i do wish they would keep some difference in the characters, then it would make every character more orginal!
Aww too bad. I liked the accent!
yay!!!! the stupid accent is GONE!!!! 😀 (no offecnce)