Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman on Starring in THE INSTITUTE
I had the opportunity to have a quick chat with Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman over Zoom about the show and how they approached their roles in this MGM+ adaptation.
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This interview has been edited for clarity. The Stephen King World
Monita Roy Mohan: So, for both of you, what attracted you to the show?
Ben Barnes: I think, for me, the idea of being part of a Stephen King adaptation. I was such a huge fan of so many of his films, from Shawshank [Redemption] to Stand by Me to The Running Man . He's just a master of tension, and he has such thoughtful characters. And then when I started to read this book and seeing this kind of interesting, stoic, complicated, quiet man who cares about the world and has a real moral compass—having played bad guys for a few years in a row—the idea of playing a good guy in the Stephen King world was a real lure for me.
Joe Freeman: I just auditioned.
BB: You got it, though, didn't you?
JF: Yeah, it was just another tape. Send it off, we'll see, you know? But I love the show. It's great.
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MRM: Joe, Luke goes through so much in this show. Can you share what you found most challenging about this role? But also, on the flip side, what was most rewarding about this role?
JF: Yeah, I think challenging… Because I'm very new to all of this, it was keeping 100 percent focused at all times on set. You realize very quickly that you cannot drop the ball at all, at any point. There were just some things I had to endure, like the water, the swimming, in the very cold, Canadian, 1 a.m. November river—which I was not anticipating was going to happen. But I'm glad I did it.
BB: Builds character, mate.
JF [joking]: Yeah, that was probably one of the most rewarding parts.
BB [laughing]: You're a man now.
JF: Yeah, yeah. Everyone needs to do it. But I would say the rewarding part was seeing the show. Just seeing what we'd created.
BB: What we'd made, yeah.
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JF: Because we're all there to do the same exact job and it was just amazing to get to know all of these people and then to see all of their work, no matter what it was, if it was makeup or hair or the photography, it was just all there on the screen and that was very special to watch it back.
BB: I remember seeing the first film I ever was in properly and thinking, 'This isn't real. This is magical.' Ben Barnes on Playing a Good Guy in The Institute Ben Barnes as Tim Jamieson in Amazon MGM Studios' The Institute. Image courtesy Amazon MGM Studios
MRM: Ben, from your side, you've already mentioned it. Tim is so complicated and mysterious, but so kind. How did you bring all these layers of him to life?
BB: I think I started my career playing these sort of young hero types. And then I sidetracked into more, sort of, thoughtful, philosophical characters; and then I had a few years of playing bad guys, psychopaths, untrustworthy guys, douchebags, all of it. It was so brilliant to be able to kind of spread my wings in that way and be offered different kinds of roles, to play different kinds of men.
But I was really feeling that pull—I think, particularly after the pandemic—that pull to play a good man and someone who cares about being a good man in the world. Like, you know, which is something he has in common with me, and that felt important. So, when I read this, I felt connective tissue with that character.
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But being a good man doesn't mean you have to be a boring man. And I think that we, all of us, have duplicity in us. All of us have so many different sides. That self-awareness in the character, that he actually sometimes gets involved in things when he knows it might not be the best thing for him. He knows he shouldn't. Having that awareness about himself is something I found curious and interesting about him as a character. But someone who wants to be on the right side of history and fight for what's right was kind of the driving force.
MRM: Thank you so much.
The Institute premieres with two episodes on MGM+ starting Sunday, July 13.
THE BONDSMAN's Kathrine Barnes on Death, Demons and Dual Roles Monita has been championing diversity, inclusivity, and representation in entertainment media through her work for over a decade. She is a contributor at Bam Smack Pow, and her bylines have appeared on 3-time Eisner Award-winning publication Women Write About Comics, Geek Girl Authority, HuffPost, Reactormag.com (formerly tor.com), Soundsphere/Screensphere, FanSided's Show Snob, and Vocal. She was also a TV/Movies features writer at Collider.com. Alongside her twin, Monita co-hosts the pop culture podcast Stereo Geeks.
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