By about page 30, I was jumping around in the trailer, pretending my sword was a guitar and doing a dodgy Irish accent and pretending to be this clown. I want to be in it already, and I haven’t even turned over the title page yet.” And then, I read it in my trailer in Australia while I was dressed in armor and I had a sword. I thought, “It’s called Killing Bono and it’s written by the guys who wrote The Commitments. It was written by the writers of The Commitments, which had been one of my favorite films growing up ‘cause it was a white boy singing soul, and I wanted to be Stevie Wonder. And then, it got pushed for enough time that it would be filming after I’d finished, so it came around again. How did you get involved in this project? Did you pursue this role, or did they approach you about it?īARNES: I heard about the script being funny, but knew that I was not available for it ‘cause I was tied up, doing the Narnia films. He’s an unbelievably ambitious and passionate and enthusiastic man, who maybe doesn’t have the talent to back up any of that enthusiasm, and who can never quite reach the goals that he’s aiming at because he goes about everything in entirely the wrong way. It was the antithesis of the Hollywood dream of rags to riches. There are many more Neil McCormicks in the world than there are Bonos. But, their story is absolutely much more common than the alternative. Then, we follow these other two idiots, for the next 10 years, and just watch them fall down. Question: What was the appeal of this story and character, for you?īEN BARNES: The idea was to start off with a biopic of a great rock ‘n’ roll band, seen through the eyes of someone who just happened to be in the room. Check out what he had to say after the jump: He also talked about his next role as the apprentice of Jeff Bridges’ witch hunter in the fantasy film The Seventh Son. No matter how hard they try, Neil and his brother Ivan ( Robert Sheehan) never reach the fame and stardom of U2, instead destined to forever live in their shadow.ĭuring a recent phoner to promote Killing Bono, adapted from Neil McCormick’s book I Was Bono’s Doppleganger: A Life in the Shadows of Superstardom, actor Ben Barnes talked to Collider for this exclusive interview about the appeal of a biopic seen through the eyes of someone who just happened to be in the room, getting to live out his own rock star fantasy with this role, how he watched all of the great frontmen and stole the most ridiculous moves from each for his stage persona, the challenge of playing a sympathetic anti-hero, and working with Pete Postlethwaite in what became his last performance. While Neil always dreamed of life as a rock star, Bono became one of the most famous rock stars on the planet. We’ve all gone to school with friends who have become more successful than ourselves, but Neil McCormick (played by Ben Barnes) had to watch while his friend Paul ( Martin McCann) became Bono.

Killing bono book