The Art of Villainy by Bea Nicole Aguilan
“Fine, make me your villain,” he said with a coarse voice, gazing into her eyes. For General Kirigan, he only wanted to save the lives of his kind. But for others, they see him as a villain who wanted to rule over the world. But as the lights dimmed, and the director shouted the word, “Cut!”
The laughter begins, and the General turned back to Ben Barnes.
For the popular book and Netflix series, Shadow & Bone, Ben Barnes, the actor who played the famous villain General Kirigan, otherwise known as the Darkling, has become a fan favorite for many of the series’ fans.
But who is Ben Barnes before he wears the black kefta and became the Darkling? And how did he got the role of becoming the Black General?
For Ben Barnes, Shadow & Bone is not the first fantasy series he has ever been. In fact, 14 years ago, he was given the role of Prince Caspian in the film adaptation series of Chronicles of Narnia. It became his big role in the acting industry, following his movie debut in the 2007 movie, Stardust, also a film adaptation based of Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name.
He had also played many other roles in hit movies like Logan Delos in Westworld, Billy Russo in The Punisher, and Tom Ward in the fantasy film The Seventh Son.
As of recent, his role as the Darkling or General Kirigan in the Netflix series Shadow & Bone, made him switch from a lovable prince to a dark, mysterious villain. And Ben knows he is the perfect person to be cast for the role.
Many of the book series fans of the said series has been fan casting Ben Barnes since 2013. According to Leigh Bardugo herself, the author and executive producer of Shadow & Bone, she is also one of the people who wanted to cast Ben Barnes as the villain of the series.
And Ben, himself, admitted that he knew he was being fan cast to the series. According to an interview with New Your Post, he said, “"There was some chatter even a few years before the show — Leigh Bardugo had supported the idea of me playing that character.”
Although he knew how perfect he is for the role, Ben admitted that he initially turned down the role at first.
According to the interview, he said that he feared he wouldn’t be involved much on the production of the series in Budapest, revealing that he has to be convinced by the series’ showrunners and producers after not being featured in the first episode of the series.
“It’s difficult to uproot your life and go to Eastern Europe or wherever it might be in the world that isn’t your home for half the year, and you don’t know if you’re going to do more series,” he said.
He went on and continued to say, “I think if I’m going to do something like that, then I really want to have something I can get my teeth into and be involved in. So I said, ‘I don’t think this is something I want to be involved in’. And they said, ‘Well, hang on’. And then they sent me a couple more of the episodes.”
In the end, as all knows now, Ben Barnes signed in to the show and became the mysterious yet lovable villain the fans loved.
In preparation for the role, Ben read all the books in the series, finding his role as the Darkling interesting. He also shared his involvement in developing and improving the character. His character, General Kirigan, otherwise known as the Darkling or the Black Heretic, is the commander of the Second Army of Ravka and a shadow summoner.
According to Ben, “Eric [Heisserer, the showrunner], who is an incredibly collaborative, open, wonderful, genius writer, he would sit down with me and ask what I thought of different things, especially with the character, the scenes, and the language. My preoccupation and my passion is words. It always has been. It's important to me to have a say in how we tell a story.”
He has also added in another interview that he is drawn to complicated, complex characters. He explained that the reason why he is drawn to such characters is because he spent years playing many earnest protagonist roles that his friends would sometimes call him a boy with a sword.
He also stated that looking through his roles’ cracks and facades, especially for his new villain role, interests him. Ben enjoys exploring the characters he played, especially those who are mysterious and uncanny. He enjoys putting a taste or a little part of himself through the lines of his character.
When Ben is asked if he sees his role as a villain, he answered, “I see him as the antagonist. I don’t know whether I see him as necessarily the villain.”
He also added, “This is a man who doesn’t see himself as a villain, and I don’t think that any of the best villains really do, but he’s been around long enough to know that other people see him that way and need to make a villain of someone to understand their own place in the world.”
And the line, “Fine, make me your villain,” is a line loved by the people who have read the books. And for Ben, the phrase meant something more. He described it not only how the book described it, but he described it differently in his own way.
It was the turning point where Ben made his character his own villain. Where the words were not only written in the page, but spoken with emotion and feelings. Spoken in the voice of a villain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Barnes_(actor)
https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/08/netflixs-shadow-and-bone-ben-barnes-initially-turned-down-role-14380026/
https://screenrant.com/shadow-bone-ben-barnes-darkling-fan-cast-response/
https://www.cosmo.ph/entertainment/shadow-and-bone-netflix-cast-interview-a3592-20210424-lfrm
https://collider.com/ben-barnes-shadow-and-bone-interview-darkling/
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