Just like the rest of us, Ben Barnes can't resist a little TIFF star gazing.
"Oh wow. It's Viggo," says the "Dorian Gray" star. The observation was understated -- no hoots, hollers or autograph mania here. But the surprise was unmistakable as a publicist escorted the handsome British star down a corridor at Toronto's Intercontinental Hotel.
"You sound impressed," the woman comments, hurrying the 28-year-old actor off to another interview.
"Sure I'm impressed," Barnes smiles broadly. "That's Viggo Mortensen!"
Ironically, that kind of fame is nothing new to Barnes.
Films like "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" and "Easy Virtue" have turned the one-time student of Drama and English literature at London's Kingston University into a hot hire in Hollywood these days.
Yet as Barnes will tell you, looks alone just wouldn't cut it to remake Oscar Wilde's 19th-century classic for 21st-century audiences.
"Was I nervous about taking on such an iconic role?" Barnes laughs. "Yes -- and everyone told me that I should be."
In Wilde's tale, an innocent London aristocrat makes an unknowing pact with demonic forces to stay young and beautiful forever. As all his friends and foes age around him, Dorian's beauty remains unchanged. Only a mysterious portrait bears the true sins of Dorian's enchanted, immoral life.
"I was very nervous about the descent of the journey and making it interesting," says Barnes. "In many ways Dorian is really unfilmable. I mean he's an interesting character to read about but you can't really empathize with him."
Darker and more complex than the 1945 Hollywood classic, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Barnes says, "We wanted to make this about the man -- a man who has no soul. And you can't play him too soulfully."
Barnes and "Easy Virtue" co-star Colin Firth reunited to do just that, this time playing out a relationship "that was much closer to their real-life friendship" says Barnes.
"We're very close friends. But Colin's really quite a devilish mentor figure," Barnes grins. "I'll ring him up for advice and he'll says, 'Oh, do what you like. I don't know.' He loves to toy with me in that way."
As Barnes says, "I think Wilde's story is still extremely relevant. It really proves how little we've learned I think. We put so much emphasis on aesthetics and the power of staying young and all this Botox crap. It's nonsense. But it's very flattering to know that anyone out there would think I could pull off what Oscar Wilde had in mind."
