| Learning
to be an ape's no monkey business
August 8, 2001
Fancy learning some ape body language that's
all the rage now? We sneak you into the Ape School, where star coach
Terry Notary conducted a crash course last week.
By Elisa Chia
(Click on pictures for larger image)
Making an epic is no monkey business.
This is especially true in the case of
Planet of the Ape, where amid all other challenges, the human cast
has to be transformed into ape form.
 No,
the simulations of ape behaviour did not rest on the magic of make-up
alone.
Besides reshaping, they have to be retrained
to behave like a chimpanzee, gorilla or orang-utan -- fast.
An Ape School has to be started, commanded
director Tim Burton who later found Terry Notary to be just the
man for the job.
But Terry ain't no "ape coach to the stars",
really.
The 32-year-old was a former gymnast,
performer with the Canada-based Cirque du Soleil circus and Hollywood
stunt double.
 "So,
I went to spend months at the (Los Angeles) zoo and watch chimps.
I just pretended that they are humans in ape costume," said Terry
when he was in Singapore last week to promote the film.
"You soon find yourself realising how
similar apes are to humans. We developed a series of basic movements
and some that were species-specific.
 "But
we still have to loosen up the actors to approximate real ape body
language. Everything had to be relearned -- walking, eating, handling
things."
Of hundreds who turn up for the audition
daily, only 30% made it. This is evident of the level of difficulty.
 Even
elegant actress Helena Bonham Carter who plays Ari, the female chimp
who has a soft spot for Captain Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg), flunked
the test initially.
But thanks to Terry, she finally "found
her inner ape" after a 6-week course.
  Terry
also performed many of the stunts (as 4 different ape characters)
and was the stunt double for Tim Roth's character Thade.
Keen to be a master of the ape body language
too? Check out the basic movements demonstrated by the ape coach
here!
Planet
of the Apes official website
You'll be bowled over by the endless galleries of pictures on the
cast. This is definitely your answer if you're dying to know about
the conceptualisation all those amazing sets and costumes!
More
entertainment stories here
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