Since 1968, the Planet of the Apes franchise has been a staple in pop culture. From the famous twist ending, to the legendary rivalry between Caesar and Koba, and even the Tim Burton one we all like to forget, the franchiseis always making headlines and innovating. 7 years after the last entry War, the franchise is back in business and it’s never been better. Kingdom, the subtitle for the reboot’s fourth entry, follows apes Noa and Proximus Caesar on opposing sides, 400 years after the first Caeser’s death. Today, we have Noa and Proximus Caeser themselves, Owen Teague and Kevin Durand, joining us for a conversation about Apes, hockey, and so much more!

OTN: So I just want to say, congrats on this movie. I saw it yesterday, and it’s incredible. It just holds up so well with all the other past movies. So I’m very curious for you guys. Acting is a hard job, but acting in mo-cap is even harder. You’re just acting with a camera literally in front of your face. You just got to do a lot of facial expressions, and especially with plenty of acting very rigidly with your body. So I’m curious, what was your biggest worry going into this process, and what surprised you the most about it?

O.T: Well, I mean, it’s actually, you know, it’s not that different. And I don’t know that the technology or the fact that there’s a camera here makes it harder. It actually, I think what surprised me was that I found it more freeing and in many times more fun than I’ve had before. I was worried about The Volume days, but they ended up being some of my favorite times on set because it’s just this connection. Everything else, you just imagine.

K.D: That freedom he’s talking about, from my point of view, you’re not worried about how you, you know, we all wake up in the morning, you look at yourself in the mirror, some days you’re like, “how you doin?”. And then some days you’re like, “Oh my God!”. And so when you’re acting, that doesn’t go away. So like, when you’re playing an ape and they’re not concerned about how you look, all you have to do is just lean in and play the truth, the telling truth, and get lost in the moment and know it’s beautiful. And you get to disappear, you know, when people watch the movie, they don’t see you, they see the character. And that’s kind of what I think both of us really are always chasing, is to just vanish. How do we disappear into those characters?

OTN: I think you do that effortlessly, but also, like through your performances, I feel like you can still connect with the characters, which I think is very hard to do, especially when you don’t see faces, but you both managed to do it excellently. Something I love about Proximus Caesar and Noah is they both believe in Caesar’s words, however, very differently. With Proximus, he twists them in a much more negative way for power and gain through the name, but also the beliefs. And Noah, who’s just learning about Caesar, is learning what he really was like and how he just wanted to benefit everybody. They’re on very much opposite sides of the coin through these beliefs. So I’m curious for you, is there a scene in particular for each of you that you think exemplifies their beliefs the best?

K.D: I mean, you know, what you said, like, everything is like tipped in the favor in which the narrative is rolling downhill, right? So, Proximus, you could just look at him as this giant, scary villain with this crazy voice, but he truly believes with all his heart and soul that if he doesn’t get a hold of the information he’s trying to get a hold of within a certain amount of time, that we’re all going to end up back in cages, we’re going to end up being experimented on in labs. So who’s the bad guy? Who’s like, who’s, are the humans the bad guy? You know, who’s been messing up the earth since they, you know, like, yeah. It forces you to really take a look at yourself.

O.T: I don’t know that there is, there is like one scene that, that sort of isn’t a more objective view of what Caesar was actually trying to teach. I think both Raca’s perspective and Proximus’s perspective are twisted views of Caesar, just twisted in the opposite directions, which is what we do with our historical figures. We take them and we use them how we want.

K.D: Peter [Macon] and I had this discussion when we were doing press last week. He would always say, “well, Caesar taught us about how apes and humans live together”. I was like, “yeah, but what you don’t understand about that is that the apes were in cages. Yeah, they lived together, but maybe Caesar had a great time in rise, but then it didn’t take very long before he was in a cage, right?” So it’s like, it’s, so there’s distortions in both directions.

OTN: Something I love about these movies is where they take place. So the very original ones from the 60s, they’re outside of New York City, or were believed to be outside of New York City, and these new ones are in the California, San Francisco area. I’m curious, if you guys could pick one location for the next Planet of the Apes movie to take place anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be?

O.T: Well, I mean, I really want to see a western with Apes. I want to see like a Western.

K.D: What? That is so cool!

O.T: I want to see like us go out and explore, you know, because we’re in California, so if we like start traveling, I don’t know. I don’t know, but I think that’d be cool.

K.D: Migrating. Yeah. Wow.

O.T: Wait, what do you want to see?

K.D: In Thunder Bay.

OTN: Thunder Bay, Ontario!

K.D: It’s going to be a hockey movie with apes, you know? Come on, pass the puck, eh? Pass the puck.

O.T: That would be the most terrifying game of hockey. Imagining the fights.

OTN: If Proximus was the enforcer. I want him on my team.

K.D: Did you look at Noa the wrong way? No. There’s no dropping the gloves. It’s just literally [fighting noises]

OTN: So does that mean the linesmen are also going to be Apes as well? That’s going to be brutal.

K.D: Yeah, let’s do it. Are you in?

OTN: Oh yeah, I’m in.

K.D: Yeah, what are you going to play?

OTN: I love hockey. I don’t play it, but I’d be a goalie.

K.D: So you’re going to be a goaltender? Yeah. Are you a baboon? Are you a orangutan?

O.T: Long arms.

K.D: Oh, wow.

OTN: I don’t even need a stick. Just use an arm.

K.D: You don’t. There you go. Never score on you. I love it.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out in theatres now! Check out our thoughts on the film here!