COVER 19_Layout 1 31/01/2017 07:07 Page 1 Issue 19 of the Planet's No1 POTA Fanzine! Movie Apes! TV Apes! Comic Strip Apes! Animated Apes WHENWHEN WORLDSWORLDS COLLIDE!COLLIDE! contents_co 07/02/2017 10:50 Page 1 SIMIAN SCROLLS Issue 19 CONTENTS Cover: Russell M. Hossain - 3: Love on the Rocks 7: Balancing Franchises - 10: Virdon: POTA revisited 12: Fernando Dagnino - 15: John Garwood 17: The Savage Planet of the Apes - 29: Knowing the Score 33: The Leader of the Gang - 35: Always a Stuntman 37: Flashback 1975 - 38: Keeping it in the Family 41: Making a splash - Back Cover: Jeff Aclin Simian Scrolls is entirely not for profit and is purely a tribute to and review of all things Planet of the Apes. Simian Scrolls has no connection whatsoever with 20th Century Fox Corporation, APJAC Productions, CBS, Titan, BOOM Entertainment Inc, Dark Horse Comics Inc., Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., Marvel Worldwide Inc, Marvel Entertainment LLC, IDW Publishing nor any successor entities thereof and does not assert any connection therewith. Images are reproduced solely for review purposes and the rights of individual copyright owners for images are expressly recognised. All Copyright and Trademarks are acknowledged and respected by this publication and no ownership/rights thereover are claimed by this publication. Original art and writing is copyright of the individual artists and writers. Simian Scrolls is edited by Dave Ballard Dean Preston and John Roche and is designed by a team of poorly paid monkeys. Simian Scrolls is published and distributed by John Roche. Email: [email protected] Planet of the Apes copyright 1967-2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All rights reserved JA_Layout 1 31/01/2017 06:33 Page 1 Simian Scrolls ISSUE 19 P.3 Love on the rocks: Jane Actman How did you get into acting? How was the make-up experience for you? I was born into the theater, my father was a Broad- The first two days or so were unnerving, I wasn't way musical director and my mom was a dancer. I was claustrophobic but I lost all sense of where anything always backstage so there was never any other choice was on my face. When you spoke your voice came for me. from very far away, there wasn't one visible place on your body that was familiar, it was like there was hair How did you initially get the part in the ‘Planet of everywhere! the Apes’ TV Episode, "The Deception”? What special challenges did it set for an actor? Apes was just another audition for me, Marvin Paige Walking was a whole new experience because the the casting director was there as well as the feet were so big that it was easy to trip! I had a few producers and Don McDougall, the director. There was scenes walking on cliffs and I couldn't look down a discussion about the colour of my eyes because because I was blind, so that was challenging. they're green, not brown and they always wanted brown eyes for the apes but because I was blind they How did you feel seeing yourself fully made up and thought it would be okay, it would set me apart from in costume for the first time ? the others. All I can say is, it was really strange not to look like Was the APES franchise something you were already yourself. You always want to create a character that is familiar with? different from how you might look, in terms of costumes and hair, etc - unless it's just contemporary I had seen the movies, of course, but I thought this and that isn't part of the approach - but you always story was beautiful, it reminded me of A Patch of Blue, look like a human! This was a little traumatic to begin where the blind white girl fell in love with a black man. with and it changed my interactions with everyone, well, with the humans anyway. I think I was pretty Were the producers looking for a specific ‘look’ for amazed when I first saw Fauna but I didn't ‘feel’ her your character ? right away, I was in a kind of shock! All of us who actually wore appliances instead of How long were you given to get used to the make up masks brought our own individual looks to our apes, before you went in front of the camera ? the appliances were shaped to our bone structure so no one really looked alike. My stunt double was I had no time at all before I shot my first scene, dressed exactly like me but side by side we looked which I believe was walking along the cliffs... all the completely different. beach locations were in the first few days. JA_Layout 1 31/01/2017 06:33 Page 2 Simian Scrolls ISSUE 19 P.4 Were you given any instruction/guidance on how to ‘be’ an ape ? I was curious when I read your Beverly Garland interview when she said she had chimp school? (Issue 12) I had no school, any help I got was on set from the regular cast and crew. The crew were incredible, so supportive and they did everything they could to make it more comfortable for you... even at lunch, which we really couldn't eat because of the appliances, they would carefully spoon some soup down your throat so you'd have something with a little substance. You share some important scenes with Roddy McDowall. What was he like to work with? Roddy... I could write forever about him! One story will show you what he was like as a person. It was in his contract that he finished at 4pm everyday, he was exhausted being on a tv schedule and all the apes calls were 4am if you were in the first scenes. It was a Friday, I was scheduled to finish around five or six that day, which mattered because I was going to an Elton John concert - this was the 70's, Image courtesy of Rob Reading and Mark Talbot-Butler so that was huge! - I had one short scene left for the day, it was in the same set we were already shooting How about James Naughton...You had some intense in, so it was all going to work out. Then someone told scenes with him. Did you get to rehearse kissing him me, no, we have to break down that set, go to without make-up? :0) another and shoot a long scene of Roddy's so that they could get him out on time. This meant I'd be Jim Naughton was also a kind and giving actor, I there at least another couple of hours, so no concert. loved our scenes together but no, I didn't get to kiss him as a human... which is very sad! Someone told him and he went to the AD and insisted they finish my scene first, he said, “she shouldn't have to miss Elton because of me”. I was so surprised and so grateful! That's what Roddy was like, warm, giving and a wonderful actor. Did he have any advice to give on the make-up and how to work with it ? You asked how I learned to be a chimp - the answer is, I stalked him - with his permission! I was so stiff the first day, which in a way wound up shaping Fauna's physical being, and I started watching Roddy and how he handled being a chimp, it made me see how much freedom there was in being behind the mask. He talked to me, made me understand how I could create my own movements and how to bring out the emotions. Did you interact with the guys playing gorillas at all? There has always been a tradition in Apes that species kept to themselves! Between shooting we really did tend to hang out with our own kind, chimps with chimps, gorillas with gorillas, etc. I know it sounds a little crazy but that's what it was like. Our stunt coordinator was a gorilla, though, and I really loved him, he taught me a lot also Image courtesy of Rob Reading and Mark Talbot-Butler and I worked with him again a few times and it was so nice to be humans. I remember very strongly shooting the scene where I go to feel Jim's face and Roddy steps in. After we Your uncle in the episode, Sestus, was played by finished there was silence on the set and Jim John Milford and there was a lovely on screen warmth Naughton said, "I just fell in love with a chimp"! Who between your characters. What do you recall of John? wouldn't want to hear that from Jim Naughton! John was really lovely, by the time I had scenes with I think that was the first scene where I felt I'd him I was much more relaxed and we really connected. gotten Fauna right, that I'd found her. JA_Layout 1 31/01/2017 06:33 Page 3 Simian Scrolls ISSUE 19 P.5 You end up near drowned at the climax of the How did it feel filming as a woman amidst a cast episode - was that particularly difficult in make-up ? with so many men ? Oh, the scene in the water... Nothing went as In terms of being a woman on a set, it's usually planned! always that way so that's not something that affected me and I'd say that in all of my work there were only The stunt doubles went in first, the Pacific was very one or two times I was uncomfortable, I always loved calm, they were filmed far out, then they cut and we going to work.