If you can think of another job that you could also be doing, then acting is the wrong one

Well I sort of started doing it around 15. I was in a company called the National Youth Theatre, which Jude Law and Jamie Bell were also in. I did that during the school summer holidays, doing musicals and stuff. That’s where I got the bug, so a couple of years after that I started considering it seriously. So I guess it wasn’t until around 17 that I really thought ‘oh, this is really a possibility’.

Did you say you did musicals? Does that mean you’re a bit of a singer too?!

Yeah, I’ve always done lots of different types of stuff, lots of which I’m very proud of and some of which I’m not at all. All the way from choir boy to being in a function band doing Stevie Wonder, I’ve done lots of different types of stuff - I love it. It’s one of my passions.

Was your family very supportive when you decided to work on your acting?

No, not initially. They said go to university first and then you can do whatever you want. So immediately I rebelled and said, ‘I don’t want to go to university, everyone else goes to university and it’s really boring!’ So I went off for a couple of years and did TV presenting and some music projects – jazz projects and things like that – and then, as soon as everyone stopped telling me to go to university, I decided I wanted to go! So I went for three years and did English literature and Drama.

Was that in London?

Yeah, in Kingston. It was great, because I formed a theatre company there, and took stuff up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

You formed your own company?

Yeah, just at the university, it’s now the university company, but because we were the first year to do drama, we sort of started the company. And it was great. We did the plays I’d always wanted to put on, and we were free from critical eyes. It was a combination of that and my six years of NYT that I consider to be my training, I felt quite ready to jump into it once I finished.

So what’s been your highlight so far?

I’ve been really lucky in that I’ve been afforded the opportunity to do lots of different stuff, which is really what drives me. My ambition is to be that guy who can do lots of different types of things. I’ve worked in lots of different accents and things like that – that’s the thing that I find really fascinating, being varied. I learned so much doing The History Boys at the National Theatre and made some really great friends. But obviously, Caspian has got horses and swords in it, which is cool – it’s like every little boy’s dream. I never thought in a million years I’d be able to do that. And I just finished this Noel Coward comedy – my first comedy film – with Jessica Biel, which was just brilliant. I’ve never been happy to just go to work, you know, everyday. We had so much fun, it was just so silly. So lots of different highlights, I don’t have one in particular! Everything I’ve done has been great. I’m stupidly lucky now that I think about it!

Is there anything bad about being an actor?

Um … I don’t know. I guess it’s quite hard answering the same questions a lot. Because you always really want to be enthusiastic, but if you’re answering that particular question for the 25th time that day, it’s hard to be as enthusiastic – it’s hard to mean it as much. I mean not like ‘Oh, woe is me’ – it’s not a bad thing at all. But I honestly haven’t been exposed to the negative things that you hear come with the fame or notoriety or whatever you want to call it. I haven’t been exposed to any bad things yet, it’s only been the exciting things for me… the billboards and the premieres and whatever, so at the moment I’m still quite naïve and exhilarated by it all.

What advice would you give to somebody who wanted to get into acting?

I’m not really anybody to give advice, because we’re all sort of a little bit blind, I think. But I think if you can think of another job that you could also be doing, then acting is the wrong one. I think that so much of it is about being yourself. The only reason you ever get a part, I think, is that the people who are auditioning you see something in you that they think you can bring to the character, so the reason you really get a part is because you’re you – so just be yourself and don’t try to be anything else. You know, obviously acting is about trying to be someone else, but always make sure you bring enough of yourself to what you’re doing, because that’s what’s special about all of us.

Catch Ben in action when The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian hits cinemas in July