Andy Serkin talks about the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy.
Performance-capture artist balances human-chimp traits
“War for the Planet of the Apes” feels very much like what it is: the end of a trilogy. But it’s not only defined by plot points — the establishment of a society of articulate simians that will one day supplant the dominant humans — but the personal journey of chimpanzee protagonist Caesar, as portrayed by performance-capture artist Andy Serkis.
“His speech has become more articulate, so I removed the mouth guard I used in ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ to slow my formulation of words,” says Serkis by phone.
He and director Matt Reeves “worked on that very closely, so we didn’t tip the balance, and he becomes a guy in an ape suit: (Serkis takes on a rough Bronx accent) ‘Hey, yo, whaddaya doin’?’ Just trying to keep the ape in him but to sail quite close to the edge. There’s a very high level of humanity in Caesar.”
But although Serkis is known for the physicality and vocalizations of his portrayals (including Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” movies and the titular monster in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”), his craftsmanship begins well beneath the (computer-generated) skin. He says that in “Dawn,” he used “egalitarian leaders” as models for Caesar.
“Mandela was very much in the forefront of my mind, actually,” he says. “But in ‘War,’ Caesar goes on a very personal journey. Events in the beginning of the movie cause him great loss and turn him on his head.
“It’s a ‘War for the Planet of the Apes,’ but it’s also a war for Caesar’s soul. For that, I was looking less into leaders and more into myself,” he says.
Serkis refers to the rough, cold, wet Canadian winter and the very dark emotional places of the film, calling it a rough shoot.
“In fact, I was suffering my own personal loss during the shooting of the movie,” he admits, sharing that his mother died during production.
“Everything that’s around you, everything that’s affecting you, you can’t filter it out.”
The result is perhaps the most complex and nuanced work yet in the medium of performance capture — the art and technology in which actors deliver full portrayals while wearing bodysuits that enable computers to map their movements. Their work is later transferred to whatever creature the film calls for; in this case, an increasingly intelligent ape.
In “War,” the technology employed by New Zealand visual effects house Weta continues to develop; Serkis says more and more fine points of human expression are being conveyed.
“What it serves to do is honor the actors’ performance in a much more truthful, seamless way,” he says with obvious admiration. “That is the great artistry they have. They’re now able to replicate the emotion portrayed by the actor.
“Plus, the artists there have studied my face now for 17 years (dating back to the ‘Lord of the Rings’ films). They know every single muscle in my face, every expression it’s capable of.”
Amid the “Apes” movies and joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as eventual Black Panther antagonist Ulysses Klaw, Serkis found time to direct a motion-capture version of “The Jungle Book” with Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris. And when that process took a very long time, he also directed a live-action feature with Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, “Breathe” (due this October).
“‘Jungle Book,’ we’re in postproduction,” he says. “Ours is a much more PG-13, closer tonally to Rudyard Kipling’s book (than the recent Disney version). The design of our creatures, you can really read the actors in them. We’re right at the moment where we’re starting to see visual-effects shots come through, and it’s thrilling.”
Serkis says he didn’t have to do much to adjust his veteran cast to performance-capture work.
“They all wanted to know, ‘What’s the secret?’ because they all found it fascinating. And the biggest secret was, there’s no secret. Yes, you do the research into playing the animal, you bring in characteristics. But actually, you’re creating a character, and that’s what we do. It’s ‘Who is this? What are they feeling or thinking?’
“You look at ‘Apes’ and you see the power of the close-up. In ‘War,’ a lot of information is conveyed when not much else is going on, just feeling and thinking.”
Serkis says that, for him, switching from performance-capture work and its Lycra bodysuits to a Marvel supervillain is no great adjustment.
“It’s just a different costume,” he says, then adds, “It’s nice to wear a pair of pants.”