E-Junkies: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes actors share survival strategies if they were stranded in forest

Set in a distant future where humans are no longer the dominant species of apes on the planet, the new movie Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes follows a clan of chimpanzees.

They live in a lush green forest in harmony with nature, hunting alongside eagles that they take from nests as eggs.

If they found themselves transported to such a setting, how would actors Owen Teague — who plays the chimp Noa — and Freya Allan — who plays the human Mae — fare?

AsiaOne asked them in a recent interview what their survival strategy would be, and Freya, 22, humorously responded: "Climb a tree. I'm such a good tree-climber.

"That used to be my thing. That was my forte as a child, being a dog and climbing trees."

This had Owen saying: "We definitely have to put you in a motion capture suit for the next one. You gotta be a background chimp."

This had Freya wondering if she should have been the chimp, and while Owen wasn't about to give up his role, he agreed that they were both "kind of feral".

The 25-year-old actor picked the more sensible survival strategy of "figuring out a way to stay warm and get fresh water" but conceded that climbing up a tree may be a good way to avoid predators.

"That's why chimps nest in the tree," he added.

Speaking of motion capture suits, AsiaOne asked the actors if it was difficult to get into the role when they weren't actually face-to-face with chimps or eagles, and Freya disagreed.

"For me, I feel that these guys did such a great job at being these apes that I didn't have to imagine anything," she said.

The times she did have to "imagine everything" was when she had to shoot a scene twice without the other actors in front of her.

"But when they were in front of me, I didn't really need to think about anything else because they embodied these characters and then also the physicality so well."

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Owen agreed: "After a very short period of time, a couple of days, it actually becomes very normal. Personally, you start feeling more comfortable as an ape than as a human.

"So it's not like you have to imagine very much in terms of like, 'Oh, I'm being an ape'. It's really not about that. It's about finding the truth of the character, and how you move and how you speak is a reflection of that.

"It's just a costume that you're putting on."

While the apes were all played by human actors, the eagles were computer-generated and Owen agreed that envisioning them required some imagination.

"There's obviously nothing there, so when Noa has his arm out and has his eagle on his arm, I had to really be like, 'Okay, where's the eagle's head - there, he's looking at me, here, and this is what it feels like for him to take off'.

"That was actually tough, just getting that to look and feel believable."

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in cinemas now.

Watch our latest episode of E-Junkies for the full interview, including how Owen and Freya believe the themes of the movie apply to current society.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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