Behind the Planet of the Apes Page #4

So I figured I'd be going|to the costume department, right?

No. Went to John Chambers' department.

And I couIdn't beIieve it. What we had|to go through to get aII of that on.

It took about five hours, the first time.

Not onIy in appIiances,|but aII the other stuff that went with it.

The wig. We had fur on our hands.

I had to wear brown naiI poIish.

The onIy thing that was not covered|in some way or another were my eyebaIIs.

We then, you know, did tests|out in front of camera.

PeopIe asked me a Iot ''As an actress, didn't|it bother you that they couIdn't see you?''

WeII, they saw the character I was pIaying.|That's aII I care about.

Julius!

I Ioved the character - Dr Zira.

- l told you what you'd get!|- Julius, don't hurt him!

And I thought the script had much to say.

Julius!

Everybody seems afraid around those|creatures that are different from us.

Natural-born thieves, aren't they?

Zira, as a psychoIogist, of course,|was interested in finding out about them.

Get me a collar and leash.

(Roddy McDowall) Another Ieading|ape roIe was that of CorneIius,...

..Zira's archaeoIogist husband.

What about your theory?

The existence of someone|like Taylor might prove it.

Do you want to get my head chopped off?.

A missing link between|the unevolved primate...

- ..and the ape.|- (Taylor bangs table)

- Touchy, isn't he?|- Hm.

''l am not a missing link.''

Well, if he were a missing link, the sacred|scrolls wouldn't be worth their parchment.

Well, maybe they're not.

(laughs) Oh, no, thank you.|l'm not going to get into that battle.

(Roddy McDowall) Jacobs personaIIy|offered me the part of CorneIius...

..on a pIane fIight back from London.

I accepted immediateIy,|intrigued by the technicaI chaIIenge...

..of acting inside the eIaborate ape makeup.

I remember Roddy McDowaII saying that|the trick for acting behind those makeups...

..was to overact with your face.

Then it wouId bIeed through the makeup.

(Kim Hunter) If we didn't|keep the appIiances moving,...

..they began to Iook Iike masks.

I got very used to|making them move aII the time.

We were doing aII kinds of crazy things with|our face aII the time, to keep them moving.

Roddy and I had to kiss.|And we had no sense of feeIing.

We had to reaIIy work hard to make it Iook|as if we were properIy kissing each other...

..without squishing the appIiances.

Cornelius!

Man has no understanding.

He can be taught a few simple tricks.|Nothing more.

To suggest that we can learn anything|about the simian nature...

..from the study of man is sheer nonsense.

(Roddy McDowall) One of the pivotaI|ape characters in the fiIm was Dr Zaius,...

..the eIder orangutan statesman.

Inheriting the roIe|after Edward G Robinson's departure...

..was the noted Shakespearean stage|and screen actor, Maurice Evans.

(Richard Xanuck) PeopIe said|''Why spend aII the money on the actors?''

''You never see their faces.''

To be convincing,...

..and for the idea to work,|we had to have great actors.

PeopIe weren't expecting|for a science fiction picture...

..to find that kind of taIent.

And I think that was surprising|and impressive to audiences.

And it certainIy Ient|to the credibiIity of the piece.

You hear their voices, and it's their deIivery.|That was the key - unmistakabIe. Voices.

Man is a nuisance.

He eats up his food supplies in the forest,...

..then migrates to our green belts|and ravages our crops.

The sooner he is exterminated the better.

The roIe of TayIor...

..was one of the most physicaIIy|demanding of CharIton Heston's career.

In Planet of the Apes he's running around|haIf-naked haIf the time.

He's getting beaten up by goriIIas.

He's burned, he's aImost Iobotomised,|castrated, aImost kiIIed.

CharIton Heston is not having|his best day on Planet of the Apes.

If you Iook at a Iot|of CharIton Heston's earIier fiIms,...

..he's often pIaying|these Iarger-than-Iife characters.

And he's a tremendous hero|and vision of strength.

But in Planet of the Apes,|aII that's out the window,...

and the audience's|point of identification changed.

The CharIton Heston hero,|who used to be counted on to win the day,...

..aII of a sudden is|in a much more precarious position.

(ape screams)

So there's this sense of things aren't as|secure and stabIe as we thought they were.

(gunshot)

Actors shouId be abIe|to accept the circumstances,...

..the premises of|whatever project they're doing.

But it was a very unusuaI|acting chaIIenge. PainfuI.

So I couId run apparentIy barefoot -

they had rubber booties|that were mouIded to be feet -

and that protected me from thorns.

We were doing some stuff|where I'm running through the shrubbery...

..and peopIe are throwing things at me.

And I said to Joe Canutt, who doubIed me,...

..''WouId you mind just doing these Iast|coupIe of run-throughs?'' He says ''No.''

I said ''What do you mean?'' He said ''You've|been working aII afternoon in poison ivy.''

And so I was! He says|''You'II notice it tomorrow.'' And I did!

(Roddy McDowall) Exhausted|by the reIentIess scheduIe...

..and subjected to|extremes in temperature,...

..Heston came down with a bad case of the fIu|just before shooting this scene.

FortunateIy, the actor's hoarse voice|actuaIIy enhanced his performance.

- Taylor! Why did you run away?|- Security police.

l'm in charge of this man.

He is in the custody|of the ministry of science.

Take your stinking paws off me,...

..you damn dirty ape!

No one'll listen to me.

Only you.

You.

Nova.

You... Nova.

No...

Yeah. Me Tarzan, you Jane.

(Roddy McDowall) The roIe of Nova,|TayIor's mate, went to IoveIy Linda Harrison.

Linda, a former beauty queen,...

..had made an appearance|in the originaI Apes test fiIm as Zira.

I was under contract at Fox and...

..I was aIso dating the head of the studio,|Richard Zanuck.

And he said ''I think there might be|a part for you in it.''

So I eventuaIIy got the part of Nova.

Everybody that was invoIved in it,...

..they aII reaIised that I was a neophyte.

I was, Iike, 21 years oId.|So they kind of took me under their wing.

Since I hadn't done acting that much,|I think I went instinctiveIy with her.

I thought about animaI instincts.

The way she wouId move and react|wouId be more Iike an animaI wouId react,...

..more from fear,...

Where are you taking her?

..and wouId seem to be|what the director wanted.

Damn you! You hairy scum!

Shut up, you freak!

- Julius, you...|- l said shut up!

lt's a madhouse!

A madhouse!

(Roddy McDowall)|The Ape City and its surroundings...

..were constructed on the Fox MaIibu ranch.

Urethane foam was just getting started|in the fiIm business...

..and to be abIe to spray this foam|in shapes and carve it.

So we dreamed up a system...

..where we wouId scuIpt the buiIding|out of penciI-rod metaI and weId it aII up.

And then we wouId cover the buiIding with|cardboard and then get inside that structure...

..and spray the foam against the cardboard|and Iet it set up...

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