Thanks to the successes of Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the franchise once thought to be doomed has made a huge comeback in recent years and given audiences some of the best summer blockbusters of their respective years. What makes the prominence of the franchise in the sci-fi community feel even sweeter is knowing how doomed the franchise was following the critical flop of the Tim Burton-directed remake in 2001 starring Mark Wahlberg. The actor recently explained some of his experiences on the set of that film while making a talk show appearance alongside Woody Harrelson, who stars in the upcoming War for the Planet of the Apes.
While a guest on The Graham Norton Show, Wahlberg explained, “It was an amazing experience working with Tim [Burton]. I think we kinda set the franchise back a little bit.”
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The actor then turned to address Andy Serkis, who performed the motion capture effects for the main ape Caeser in the two recent films, praising, “You and [director] Rupert [Wyatt] had to revive it again, which is great, because obviously it’s a big intellectual property.”
Norton then went on to ask Wahlberg what his experience was like working with real chimps for his version of the film, which relied far more on practical effects than the CGI seen in the recent sequels.
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“The monkeys, no, they were the worst. Helena Bonham Carter and I had this relationship [in the film], so I had to work with the monkeys as the astronaut,” Wahlberg confessed. “They wanted us to get acclimated with the chimp and anytime I would go near her, the chimps would start attacking me.”
He added, “They’d start like trying to punch me in the nuts, like my 5-year-old-son. Like really bad, like nonstop…the chimps were constantly trying to attack me.”
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Wahlberg didn’t have to wear much makeup himself, but some of his co-stars in the film had to spend much more time in the makeup chair, as the actor described the chimps weren’t the only ones sometimes hostile.
The Transformers stars claimed he had “never seen Tim Roth so upset after sitting in makeup for five hours and I stroll in and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on guys?’ and put my little astronaut suit on.”
You can watch the full interview fromThe Graham Norton Show below.
Despite poor critical reception, earning a 45% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned a B- CinemaScore and earned over $360 million worldwide on a reported $100 million production budget.
The War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 14.
