Andrew Garfield Says He Was Desperate for a Role in the Narnia Franchise, But Was Told He Wasn't Handsome Enough

Andrew Garfield has had a pretty good year. 2021 saw him starring in The Eyes of Tammy Faye alongside Jessica Chastain, tick, tick… Boom!, for which he just won the Golden Globe for best actor, and the highly acclaimed Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which he reprised his Spider-Man role. He also got a shout out from the cast of his favorite series, Cobra Kai, which he was ecstatic to receive.

But Garfield hasn’t always had such a great time getting the roles of his dreams. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the actor talked about trying out for the role of Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia, saying:

"I remember I was so desperate. I auditioned for Prince Caspian in 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 I was obsessed."

The character appears in the second film in the series, 2008's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and again in the final movie in the trilogy, 2010's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. When Garfield heard he didn't get the role, he went to his agent and asked why.  

"She eventually just broke under my incessant nagging and she was like, 'It’s because they don’t think you’re handsome enough, Andrew.' Ben Barnes is a very handsome, talented man. So in retrospect, I’m not unhappy with the decision and I think he did a beautiful job."

That’s a terrible thing to be told! I’m glad that Garfield didn’t let that get him down. He went on to star in The Social Network, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, before going on to play Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man movies. It also took less than a decade for him to receive an Oscar nomination for his performance in Hacksaw Ridge, so to say his career recovered would be an understatement.