Oliver James

Oliver was born in Ottershaw, Surrey. His father is involved in car racing, and James had originally wanted to pursue a career as a professional race car driver. He played the drums in a band while in secondary school, where he also participated in racing and motorcrossing.

Oliver graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in Surrey, where he majored in drama, and subsequently appeared in stage productions and commercials. At the age of nineteen, he adapted his middle name as his professional surname, in order to avoid confusion with actor Oliver Hudson.

Oliver's first screen appearance was a supporting role in the 2002 made-for-television short film,School's Out; he next appeared in a 2003 episode of the BBC series, The Afternoon Play, and joined a boy band produced by Simon Fuller. He left the band as soon as he was cast opposite actress Amanda Bynes in the American romantic comedy,What a Girl Wants; for his role in the film, he learned to play the guitar and co-wrote and sang the songs Long Time Coming and Greatest Story Ever Told, which were on the film's soundtrack.

Oliver's next role was opposite Hilary Duff in the teen film Raise Your Voice, which was released in October of 2004 and grossed $10 million domestically.

He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, having moved there in 2003, to pursue an acting career.

William Moseley

The opening scene of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, has a particular personal resonance for the actor William Moseley, who this month reprises the role of Peter in the latest film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s beloved literary classics. In the new film, released here next week, Peter’s punch-up follows his struggle to adjust normality after a taste of the high life as King of Narnia. Not so long ago, Moseley found himself in a similar spat, coming to blows with fellow pupils after returning to school straight from the film set of one of the most successful film franchises of all time.

Moseley looks sheepish as he recalls the incident. "I didn’t have the easiest time at school," he shrugs. "People didn’t like the fact that I was away a lot auditioning for and then playing the part - they thought I was arrogant and up myself for believing that I might just get it. Every time I went back to school, it got worse.

 

"It all exploded at my leavers ball when I ended up getting into a huge fight with another boy, and I really punched him. Everyone was uptight about me coming back, and I had a lot of energy in me and it was just unleashed. I knew I couldn’t leave school without doing something stupid, but I wished I’d been more controlled. I didn’t behave like a gentleman at all, I behaved like a savage."

Like the character he plays in the Narnia films, Moseley, 21, has done much of his growing up on screen. Cast for the role of Peter Pevensie at 15, he was very much a young boy in the first film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but appears on the brink of manhood as a 17-year-old Peter in Prince Caspian.

It is a transition Moseley is aware of: "When Peter steps through the wardrobe, he’s a boy. But when he steps back out of the wardrobe, as the story finishes, he’s a man," says Moseley, who is still both the boy who keeps a toy badger on his bed, but a gentleman who insists on paying for lunch. "I like to think I also became a man throughout the making of this film."

Source theguardian.co.uk