Skandar Keynes

Skandar Keynes (/ˈkeɪnz/; born Alexander Amin Casper Keynes; 5 September 1991) is a British actor. He is best known for starring as Edmund Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia film series since 2005.^[3] He has appeared in all three instalments, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and most recently The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was released on 10 December 2010.^[4]

Early life

Keynes was born in London, the son of Zelfa Hourani and author Randal Keynes. He has an older sister, Soumaya Anne Keynes (born August 1989), who has appeared in various productions for BBC Radio 4 and now works as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.^[5]

Ancestry

On his mother's side, Keynes is of Lebanese, Persian and Turkish descent.^[6] (The nickname Skandar is Pashto^[7] for the Greek name "Alexander", Pashto being an Afghan language like Persian, or is short for "Iskander," an Arabic variant.^[8]) Keynes is denied the right to Lebanese citizenship, as Lebanese women are not allowed to pass their nationality on to their children, thus he has no right to the nation's public services, or to legally receive his family inheritance in the country he considers his second home.^[9] His maternal grandparents were Furugh Afnan and Cecil Fadlo Hourani, who was an advisor to the late Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba, as well as an author; Cecil Hourani is also the brother of Albert Hourani, a major historian of the Middle East. Cecil's family were immigrants to Britain from Marjeyoun in southern Lebanon.

On his father's side, Keynes is the grandson of physiologist Richard Keynes, the nephew of two Cambridge professors, the historian Simon Keynes, and the neuroscientist Roger Keynes, the cousin of Catholic writer and apologist Laura Keynes,^[10] and the great-great-nephew of economist John Maynard Keynes.^[11][12] His great-great-great-grandfather was naturalist Charles Darwin. Keynes' great-grandparents were Nobel Prize laureate Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian and Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian.^[13]

Career

Keynes auditioned for the role of Edmund Pevensie in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the same time as he auditioned for the role of Simon Brown in Nanny McPhee, winning the former while losing the latter to Thomas Sangster. His voice changed, due to puberty, during the filming of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,^[14] so the director used his sister Soumaya to voice some of his lines in the movie.^[15]

He reprised his role as Edmund in Prince Caspian, released 16 May 2008. Keynes told an interviewer, who praised him for becoming "an action hero," that he "felt so cheated because one of my very first action scenes was the very beginning of the battle when I run and I jump off a block and get on a horse as it's going by. On one take I missed the horse. I basically didn't manage to land on it but I managed to hold on and I was flung around and almost smacked into one of those stone columns. I slammed on the ground and bruised my heel so badly that I couldn't walk on it and it was throbbing constantly. I had to do the rest of the battle with a bruised heel. Sometimes if you watch my running it looks a bit odd; I wonder if other people notice it or if it's just me noticing! I had to do a lot of that sequence high on pain medication!"^[16] They also discussed his relationships with the other cast and crew members.

He starred again as Edmund in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia film series. Filming began in July 2009, and finished in December of the same year. The film was released on 10 December 2010 in Britain and the US. In preparation for this film, Keynes studied to earn his Professional Association of Diving Instructors license for underwater scenes.^[17]

Personal life

Keynes is an atheist.^[18][19]

Keynes attended the Anna Scher Theatre School from 2000 to 2005, having attended Thornhill Primary School from 1996–2002. He attended the all-boys City of London School from 2005. There he wrote as a film critic for the review section of The Citizen, the City of London School weekly school newspaper. He sat his GCSEs in May and June 2008 and started Sixth Form and his first year of his A-level studies the following September. He studied biology, chemistry, maths, further maths and history at A-level.^[20] In October 2010 he began his degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern History at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

He is a fan of English football club Arsenal.

He and his family have visited Marjeyoun since he was a child. "We've been coming every year to Lebanon and visiting Marjeyoun despite the political situation. I was here in 1996 during Operation Grapes of Wrath. I was four at the time and I had no concept that it was war," Keynes told a reporter. "I remember when the gravity of the situation dawned on me. It was during the 2006 July war, I was 14 then… but it didn't really shake my view of Lebanon as effectively a second home, a place where I come to and I have family."^[9] Keynes explains that he is cognizant of the political situation:

"And I understand that in part the law that a mother cannot pass her nationality to her children is tied up with the Palestinian issue, and sometimes I wonder who I am to complain when there are people who have been born and brought up in Lebanon, who speak Arabic better than I ever will and can't get Lebanese citizenship... I would like to see the law changed and would like to be able to be considered Lebanese by the Lebanese government. When I arrive at the airport, I would like to show a Lebanese passport, I would like to go to my [family's] house without having to get permission, but part of me feels that I have to put my hands up in the air and say, 'Well, what I want is not what I'm going to get,' and I don't know how or to what extent I should resign myself to the fact that I'm not Lebanese as far as they are concerned."^[9]

Filmography

Awards

Wins

Nominations

See also

• Keynes family
• Darwin-Wedgwood family

References

External links

• Official website
• Skandar Keynes at the Internet Movie Database
• Prince Caspian Interview (12 May 2008)
• Prince Caspian On set interview (July 2007)
• Cinema Confidential interview (December 7, 2005)