Andrew Garfield has been in the news lately, mainly for his involvement (and its past denial) in Spider-Man: No Way Home but also for his starring role in Netflix’s Tick, Tick... Boom!. Garfield’s portrayal of the late Jonathan Larson, creator of the long-running Broadway musical Rent, has won him praise worldwide. Garfield recently won the Golden Globe Award for his performance and has also earned a nomination at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards, sealing his spot as an Oscar frontrunner.In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, while discussing his days of struggle and desperation as an actor, Andrew Garfield revealed that he lost the titular role in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian to Ben Barnes because he was deemed "not handsome enough."
"I auditioned for Prince Caspian, The Chronicles of Narnia, and I thought, 'This could be it, this could be it’. And that handsome, brilliant actor, Ben Barnes ended up getting the role. I think it was down to me and him and I remember like, I was obsessed, I was obsessed, I was like, 'Why not, why not me, why not me?' And I was saying to my agent, 'Just tell me, tell me straight, tell me straight,' and she was like protecting me and doing all of this stuff and she eventually just broke under my incessant nagging. She was like, 'It was because they don't think you're handsome enough, Andrew.'"
But Garfield isn’t too torn up about the missed opportunity. "And Ben Barnes is a very handsome, talented man. So, in retrospect, I’m not unhappy with the decision. I think he did a beautiful job," Garfield said. The reason may sound quite strange, but actors losing roles due to their looks is not unheard of. Henry Cavill was called "too young and chubby" to play James Bond in Casino Royale.
Andrew Garfield Is No Stranger To Big Franchises
Ever since his breakthrough role in David Fincher’s The Social Network, Andrew Garfield has cemented himself as one of the best actors of this generation. But he rose to mainstream fame playing the titular web-slinger in Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Interestingly, one of the criticisms of Garfield’s Spider-Man portrayal was that he was too charismatic and good-looking to play a young, dorky Peter Parker.
Garfield returned to play the iconic superhero once again in Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home, alongside fellow Spider-Men, Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire. However, things could have been very different for Garfield had he nabbed the part of Prince Caspian in 2008’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Maybe we’ll see him in the rumored Narnia TV series currently under development at Netflix. Ben Barnes, on the other hand, has also done quite well since playing Prince Caspian, having made a name for himself on the small screen. Barnes has starred in HBO’s Westworld, Shadow and Bone, and BBC’s Gold Digger. He also played the antagonist Billy Russo/Jigsaw in Netflix’s The Punisher, a role he could potentially reprise in the future.
Although this year’s Oscar race is extremely competitive, Garfield stands a real chance at bagging the prestigious Best Actor Award judging by his recent wins and the Spider-Man: No Way Home momentum. Be sure to check out Garfield’s stunning performance in Tick, Tick... Boom!, exclusively streaming on Netflix.