Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes may dawn a new era for the science fiction franchise with the thrilling adventures of a teen ape named Noa, but the actor behind the leading character of the prior trilogy continues to cast a massive shadow. After mo-cap king Andy Serkis famously played Caesar in the previous three Apes films, the actor had a huge behind-the-scenes role in Kingdom and even imparted some big advice for its star, Owen Teague.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Teague, who plays the main protagonist in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, he shared the key advice Andy Serkis gave to him ahead of him stepping in his own mo-cap role. As Teague said to us:
There was a ton of advice, like, he was so wonderful in talking to me and the rest of the [ape actors]. He's got such a unique way of looking at the craft, which explains why he's one of the greatest actors, period. One thing he said was like, ‘Where does this character carry their attention?’ And that was really helpful for me in just creating a physical character. But I think a good kind of overarching rule that he gave me was like ‘Don't focus too hard on the physicality.’ Obviously that's super important, but you gotta do all the stuff that you do normally, as well.
While one would think Andy Serkis might have a ton of technical tips and tricks for Owen Teague to make the best use of his time playing a motion capture character, his advice was much different than that. As Teague continued:
It's just acting. You're still just acting, and the physical character is a costume that you're putting on. And that's how you think about it. You're not impersonating an ape or pretending to be a chimpanzee. It's just, here's a character, this is how they move, this is how they speak. It becomes part of that person. And it was funny because by the time we actually got around to shooting and I was playing Noa every day, I wasn't even really thinking of Noa as a chimp, even though at the same time I was. He is a person to me. Of course then at the end of the production I started dreaming as a chimpanzee. So that's weird. But, that was, that was kind of Andy's best [piece of advice]. The biggest thing he gave me was ‘it's just acting’.
It sounds like Serkis’ words of wisdom helped Teague a lot – even if he did end up dreaming as a chimpanzee! The 25-year-old actor grew up on the Planet of the Apes movies and views Andy Serkis as an acting hero. When it came down to it, Serkis helped him not overthink how to play and ape and focus in on the emotional journey of Noa.
While Caesar’s reign has certainly come to an end in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes considering the movie takes place 300 years after the last movie, director Wes Ball approached Serkis early in the development process. Ball shared that he even considered Serkis for a role in Kingdom, but decided against it when he read from the script and all Ball could hear was Caesar.
Even so, Andy Serkis was also shown the script early on and brought in to speak with the actors playing apes about his expertise, even though he’s not part of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes cast. Prior to Teague opening up about his experience with Serkis, the actor has spoken about how he thinks Kingdom is going to “blow people’s minds” when it comes out.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is among big 2024 movies hitting theaters this summer. You can look forward to the film coming out on May 10.
