Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Stars Talk Ape School & Finding Proximus Caesar’s Voice

Many generations after the events of War of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar’s legacy still lingers, but many aspects have been lost to time in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. When Noa, a young chimpanzee and member of the Eagle Clan, loses his family, he sets out on a quest to find the apes that took them. Along the way, he meets a wise orangutan, Raka, who teaches him about Caesar, and an enigmatic human, Mae, with secrets of her own, who each have their own score to settle with the powerful Ape who took Noa’s clan, Proximus Caesar. As Noa learns more about the world, he will be forced to make a decision that could have ramifications for the future of Ape-kind.

Wes Ball captures the feeling of Caesar’s Planet of the Apes trilogy by weaving his legacy into Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes while also incorporating elements foreshadowing the world that the apes will create from the original Planet of the Apes movie. Weta knocks it out of the park once again with visual effects that bring a lush planet to life and apes that perfectly embody the cast’s nuanced emotional performances. Owen Teague leads Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, bringing pathos and depth to the role of Noa. Costar Freya Allan delivers a compelling performance layered with mystery and Peter Macon perfectly embodies the wisdom of a mentor with Raka. Kevin Durand is a true standout, however, delivering a force on screen as the villainous Proximus Caesar.

Screen Rant interviewed Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stars Teague and Durand, as well as movement coordinator Alain Gauthier. Durand explained how he found Proximus’ voice and the intensity that is infused in his movements. Teague discussed how Noa’s physical journey mirrors his emotional growth and why Noa and Proximus could have been on the same side. Gauthier took Screen Rant through the basics of ape school before teaching us how to walk like an orangutan.

How Physicality Informed Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Emotional Journey

Teague explained how he wanted to show how Noa matures and his emotional journey through his physicality. While Noa begins as a more sheltered ape, knowing only what he has learned while living in his village, the world is opened up to him, and the journey he goes on to save his family forces him to ask questions that he hasn’t before. This is the first step to Noa coming into his own as a hero and, potentially, one day, a great leader.

Owen Teague: Cool. Yeah, I wasn’t sure if people would notice. And so the fact that you did is neat. He discovers himself throughout the course of this film, and so at the beginning of the movie, he’s unsure of himself. He feels a lot of pressure from his dad and from his clan. He doesn’t have this kind of confidence that he does at the end of the film. He’s naive and young and doesn’t know what’s out in the world.

Tension was very important in terms of the shoulders and having this kind of, he’s very down in the beginning of the movie also because he’s been raised by chimps. He’s never seen a human, he’s never met an ape who’s emulating a human. So he’s very much just raw chimpanzee. And the pressure from his dad and from Eagle son, who’s always kind of pecking at him and going after him. He’s always on guard.

Then throughout the film, he kind of comes into contact with Raka, the orangutan, who’s much more fluent in his speech than Noa has ever seen, and then eventually Proximus. And he meets this human and kind of finds his strength and becomes more, he still forward. He still leads with his head because he’s very intellectual, but there’s more strength in his stance and in his walk. He feels heavier at the end of the film.

Kevin Durand: The voice changes. That’s so great too. That really jumped out at me.

Owen Teague: He goes through puberty. His voice drops. That’s what it is. It’s a coming of age film.

One of the things I love about Proximus is, like you said, he is emulating a human, but there’s also an aggressiveness to his movement that we don’t really see with other apes. Can you talk about what inspired that element of it and how it reflects the power he holds in his kingdom?

Kevin Durand: He’s really intensely on a mission. He feels like he’s running out of time, so it adds to this intensity as you interpreted aggression. He’s willing to do anything to be able to ensure that Apedom continues to evolve in a way that doesn’t include humans taking over power and putting us back in cages. That’s his mission.

Of course, there’s some narcissism in there as well, but he has studied humanity from the inception of homo sapiens to all the rise and fall, the successes and the failures. And he’s learned from all of that. He loves humans, but he thinks he could do better. And so with it, he probably started more ape-ish, but then as he started to study humans, he started to become more like this and started using his hands in an expressive way.

[in Proximus voice] Listen, you must understand what I’m trying to say. He’s a communicator and by communicating, there’s a lot of power in that. That’s how he influences people with his charisma and his communication.

Noa And Proximus “Actually Would Be On The Same Side” If Not For Proximus’ Methods

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is Noa’s coming-of-age journey as he discovers the truth about the world outside his clan and how he fits into it. Part of this process is not only standing up to Proximus, but learning from him as well. Proximus also learned from Noa as both show raw intelligence and see that in one another.

Kevin Durand: First off, I think what they learned from each other is, Oh, there’s another one. There’s a recognition of that higher consciousness, that higher level of intelligence.

Owen Teague: We’re on the same page in terms of how we think.

Alain Gauthier: Just in a different book.

Kevin Durand: Yeah. I think for me, [Proximus is] just so, We need to do this now. If we don’t do this now, it’s over.

Owen Teague: And I’m not sure yet. I don’t know what the truth is at all. Proximus is the one who introduces me to the idea of cages and human supremacy and all that kind of stuff. I’ve never heard of this in my life. I thought that humans and apes live together. Raka is telling me this thing about Caesar. I think that Noa and Proximus actually would be on the same side except for Proximus’ methods. We would go about it different ways. The thing that’s keeping us from being at least-

Kevin Durand: Allies.

Owen Teague: Yeah, or from at least having a conversation that’s not, I want to kill you, is you have taken my people. You have enslaved my people and killed my father. So that is the fundamental thing for Noa of no matter what this guy is saying, he’s taken my family and our identity. He’s destroyed Eagle clan. And that’s what matters to Noa is his family. But in terms of what Proximus is saying, Noa doesn’t think it’s wrong. He just doesn’t know what the truth is.

Alain Gauthier On The Basics Of Becoming An Ape: “It Starts With Movement”

Gauthier shared the basics of ape school, which the cast went through in order to stand, move, and speak like apes. He broke down how he helped them to fully find themselves in their bodies, their movement capabilities, and their coordination. Gauthier and Durand also revealed how Durand found his voice as Proximus Caesar, which is how he fully discovered the character.

Alain Gauthier: It starts with movement because they’re playing apes. I really took them on a journey to discover first their bodies and have a lot of awareness, a lot of movement capabilities, and coordination. From observing, from studying the differences between apes and men, and differences between different apes and their proportions and all that was to start teaching them to emulate apes first. We started early with the characters because they were so quick at catching on, but it was still a process where, let’s get into the ape first and see.

Because when the body discovers the character, it starts having a life of its own, and that speaks to the mind. Suddenly magical things started happening, and they learned to listen to that. We did a lot of improvisation, obviously. Once they’re in that physicality, then it’s magic that one feeds the other. The mind recognizes things and the body feeds things to the mind. Ultimately magic happens suddenly.

[Kevin], that’s always a funny one, you surprised me so much. So we’re doing a one-on-one, because he came late in the production, so I had him a few hours a day, and it was intense. Me and him, go. And I was just pushing, pushing, pushing and one day. I said, so how would he express himself? And this guy just out of nowhere-

Kevin Durand: I was in the body at the time and I had never spoken as him. I had only spoken as myself going, okay, well, is this his voice? That’s what I auditioned with. And then through all of this body and the understanding of the anatomical differences, all this physical stuff started to happen. But then I realized I had to fight to get sand out. And so he goes, he asked me a question, I went,

[In Proximus voice] Yes, I don’t understand why I feel so angry. I need to make things happen quickly.

And it just came out and he started filming and sent it to Wes. And then that was really for me, where the character was really born when the voice came out.

Alain Gauthier: And it really came naturally. It was

Kevin Durand: Just organic.

Alain Gauthier: He was ready. It came out. And it comes out of the body

Kevin Durand: Only through learning through the body would I have been able to come to that.

Alain Gauthier: Especially in a creature. It’s important to get there to give a chance to the creature in you to start finding its way.

What are some of the fundamental differences between a chimpanzee, a bonobo, a gorilla, and an orangutan?

Alain Gauthier: Mainly body proportions. Pace, obviously. Yeah, physically, it’s body proportions because they all have the same impediment of hips being too close to the ribs, and so they have no torsion, really. This is why they’re, or if they’re moving forward, the hips don’t move. Right? Sometimes they do that.

Owen Teague: Watching a chimp move on two quickly is hilarious. It’s really funny.

Alain Gauthier: When they run too, both arms up there.

Owen Teague: They’re almost, they kind of glide.

Alain Gauthier: But really the difference is the orangutans hands are about here because he has short legs, and on top of which is you get a long upper body, long arms, and then you get to the rhythm. They’re very slow and deliberate. They have that. They’re really with you. I know in the first trilogy, the actor that played Maurice made a point of being very deliberate and slow, which is a characteristic of orangutans. It was beautifully done.

And the gorillas, obviously, they’re difficult to play because they have such small legs. You’d have to be like this [squatting close to the ground] to look like a gorilla. And then you got the long arms. To emulate them, you have to be really stiff and head high and shoulders and low.

And then the chimpanzees are what we had mostly, which are just naturally smaller and have shorter hands of all the great apes. And the bonobo has longer hands than the chimpanzee, but is roughly the same proportions. They’re smaller than chimpanzees,

Kevin Durand: Which [Proximus is] just a freak just like I am.

Owen Teague: Yeah. Proximus is huge. It’s terrifying.

Alain Gauthier: He was a genetic exception.

Kevin Durand: And Kevin is kind of huge.

Owen Teague: You’re also a genetic exception.

About Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

Source: Screen Rant Plus