Ben Barnes plays Benjamin Greene
Taking on the role of Benjamin Greene in Gold Digger, Ben Barnes reveals he faced one of his biggest challenges: filming naked scenes in the depths of winter...
Published: 5 November 2019
You quickly get drawn in. You want to find out if this relationship is authentic, to know if this character cares about Julia’s heart or is after her money.
"There are certainly scenes in this drama that I refer to as my ‘be brave for 60 seconds’ scenes, like the one where I spontaneously decide to strip off and dive into a swimming pool despite it being the height of winter. That can be fun if you do it once, but when you are filming you have to do things over and over again...
The crew were wearing thermals and duck-feather coats and they were shivering, and I was very much naked having to jump into a swimming pool. It may have been freezing but it was an exhilarating and freeing experience."
Ben shares some of his many reasons for taking on this role.
"I started reading the scripts on a plane and I found myself finished with episode four by the time I landed. I was inhaling these tiny intimate stories about this relationship, and I found it to be an incredible page turner. It is not too often that those types of familial stories are told in such a way that you are desperate to move forward and see how the characters are going to react to the changing circumstances.
"The second thing which drew me to this drama was having an older female protagonist. I don’t think there are enough stories told about women in their 60s and this show is very much a story about a woman, Julia Day, a mother and grandmother, meeting someone new after her divorce. The person she meets happens to be in his 30s, which obviously leads to judgements being cast from every which way, and we watch how they, as a couple, deal with that anger and judgement, and with the aspersions levelled at them. It's about how they try to move forwards. You quickly get drawn in and want to find out if this relationship is authentic, to know if this character cares about Julia’s heart or is after her money.
"It's about placing the audience in the position of judge, and asking people if they share the same prejudices as some of the characters, and how those prejudices affect their reactions to the scenes and the characters involved. As an actor you want to be involved in scenes which are really well written and Marnie Dickens’ writing is wonderful."
Ben explains how he thinks the audience might react to his mysterious and charming character.
"People are going to be torn by Benjamin, because you will be rooting for Julia and her happiness, and as you get to know them as a couple you will hopefully be rooting for them.
"But when you get to know Julia’s children you will be wary of Benjamin, as you will be seeing the story through their lens. As you slalom between different characters your sympathies are torn, as is the way you judge this couple. I hope viewers will be willing for them to be happy, but also willing for the children to get to the bottom of why it is this woman and man have found each other.
"We know who Julia Day is quite early on, but Benjamin is much more of an enigma. We see flashes of a darker side to him and unexplained behaviour and gradually we find out more about him and his motivations."
Ben discusses working alongside Julia Ormond and the ways they bonded during filming that included racing each other to the pub and going on adventures.
"An actor who would be willing to take on the role of Benjamin and an actress willing to take on the role of Julia Day are keen to be telling the same types of stories as each other, so we already had something particular in common. This is a very real and intimate portrayal of a relationship and a mystery as to the motivations behind the people who are in this relationship. It involves some difficult scenes to film and that could make someone feel extremely vulnerable, so I think we were always likely to get on in that we both wanted to be involved in telling this intimate story.
"Julia and I went on a few little adventures together. I would race her down narrow country lanes to the pub for dinner and we would chat about life and relationships. That forced intimacy of getting to know each other in order to build a bond between us helped, as I felt like I trusted her very quickly. I actually used some of the roles Julia has played previously as inspiration for my role in Gold Digger.
"In many of Julia's films there are moments where she has this wonderfully simple but dramatic quality of cutting to the truth, which I wanted to emulate in some of the scenes in this drama. Julia is the most authentic acting partner I have ever had."
