JASON CLARKE: For man, For Ape in “DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES”
Alpha ape Caesar has found an uneasy human ally in
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” in Malcolm, a former architect who lost his
wife to the virus that wiped out most of humanity. Left on his own to raise his
teenage son, Malcolm is desperate to maintain the hope and stability he and
Alexander have found within a small colony of fellow survivors in San
Francisco.
Caesar and Malcolm must make
choices, compromises and decisions that not everyone respects. Both are fathers
and must protect not just themselves but also their nascent societies. In this respect, the film is the story of two
families – one human, one ape.
Jason
Clarke talks about walking onto set in the middle of a lush rainforest in
British Colombia: “It’s simply amazing –
old-growth forest, 3D cameras, motion cap cameras, wires going everywhere,
smoke machines, fog machines, rain and mud, a crew of hundreds and then there’s
50 actors performing as apes walking around the forest. I always prefer
shooting on location rather than on a soundstage. It just brings so much in
terms of realism to the project. This goes for the actors portraying the human
characters and for the ‘apes actors’ as well. These guys are not just sitting
in a volume. They’ve got to interact
with people and the forest and the mud and everything else and the rocks and
the stones and the rain.”
“My
character Malcolm was a white-collar guy that’s had to toughen up, particularly
to bring himself and his child through this. In the small colony where they
belong, they have managed to get their act together to actually function again,
and then it’s threatened. It’s a Pocahontas story as well: we come again and
we’ve got to deal with people who have a right to be here and belong just as
much as we do. Which is where Caesar and Malcolm find themselves, in their
meeting. It’s not just like, “hey, you’re hungry, have some food.” We both know
the repercussions of everything we enter into, which I think is really
interesting. I’m not worming my way in there, or getting them to do what I need
without a knowledge of how this has gone in the past and how it could possibly
go again, once we get it together. And they know that as well. But then I think
what happens with Malcolm and Caesar is something unique. Malcolm gets to have
a unique experience — as you would when you see an ape talk!” Clarke finally
describes of his character.
“Dawn
of the Planet of the Apes” opens July 9 in more than 200 screens nationwide
from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
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