It’s easily the greatest role yet in a booming career, yet Owen Teague doesn’t mind at all that starring in “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” means no one will see his face.
He acted the role of the ape Noa while Weta special effects transformed the man into ape.
That anonymity, Teague, 25, said in a phone interview, “was actually something that I liked — and still like about performance capture as a whole. With this film I can maintain total anonymity.
“Nobody’s thinking that it’s me onscreen. They’re just seeing Noa, which I love, because I want it to be about the story and the person that I’m playing.”
That person is, as the title notes, an ape who in this epic reboot of the series finds himself struggling to stay alive and free as a rival ape clan seizes power and enslaves its captives. Humans, we see, hover in the background.
A Florida native, Teague, best known for the Stephen King adaptations “The Stand,” “It” and “It Chapter Two,” “grew up fascinated with great apes and watching (performance capture pioneer) Andy Serkis’ performances.
“That was a really big part of my childhood and a big part of why I’m an actor at all. So performance capture had always been something I wanted to do
“And,” he added, “I’d always wanted to play a chimpanzee or whatever. I just had an instinctual draw towards this element of the craft of acting.”
The proof came when director Wes Ball “saw my audition for this character and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s Noa. There he is.’”
Curiosity, Teague decided, defines Noa. “He’s driven by this desire to discover what’s out in the world. And the other thing was a lot of his power and strength comes from his determination to get what he’s trying to get. Which in his case is the return of his family.
“That was key in thinking about how his brain works. All of these apes are obviously very intelligent and evolved. But Noa’s on another level, because he’s always thinking about how things work.
“So one of the earliest things I settled on was, most apes are present tense. They’re very in the moment. And Noa’s thinking about the future and coming up with ideas.
“There’s a kind of creative force within Noa that, actually I realized this at the end of filming, is very much an extension of our director Wes, this very visionary, creative guy.
“He’s always thinking about ideas and stories and how to make something — and that’s what Noa does! That’s where Noa comes from.”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” opens May 10
