Freya Allan had a unique experience filming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes as one of the few human characters.
The new Planet of the Apes movie sees Allan play Mae, a feral human who meets young ape Noa (Owen Teague) on a journey that will change everything about what they thought they knew of history.
As with the previous trilogy, the actors playing the apes were in motion-capture suits on set, and in a group interview with co-stars Teague and Kevin Durand (who plays main villain Proximus Caesar), Allan joked to Digital Spy about how they really looked.
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"Yes, the suits were ridiculous and yes, you all looked like numpties. But they transformed so well that I didn't have to [imagine them as apes] because I actually did feel like I was speaking to apes because you guys were so brilliant at it, which was amazing," she recalled.
"My favourite was the days were, when the apes were ever touching me, they had to wear the blue suits and they literally looked like blueberries or Smurfs. I would always be very entertained when I'd see you guys have to walk on set with the blue ones."
Teague admitted that the filming experience did leave them looking "ridiculous", even if it's worth it in the end.
"We'd have to put them on over our grey suits so we had the markers and everything, so we were sweating and also lumpy because we had all the wires and packs and everything just protruding from these blue mesh suits," he explained.
To prepare for filming, the actors attended 'Ape School' to learn how to act as apes. Even though she was playing a human, Allan also enjoyed this unique preparation for filming.
"I had just come off another set and people were asking, 'What do you want next?' and I was like, 'I feel like doing something normal, grounded, sat around a table chatting'," she noted.
"Cut to me out in Australia walking into this sort of basement to find a bunch of humans running around as chimpanzees. I think I always felt like the odd one out, which was great for the role, but there were some bits and bobs we did of me crawling around, eating fruit."
Based on the rave first reactions for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, it seems that this unique filming experience was worthwhile.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released in UK cinemas on May 9 and in US cinemas on May 10.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
