What Koba From Planet Of The Apes Looks Like In Real Life
The "Planet of the Apes" timeline has a wild collection of characters. Besides revolutionary leader Caesar (Andy Serkis), one character that defines the ape revolution for better or worse is human-hating ape Koba, who transforms from a devoted follower to a treacherous enemy of Caesar in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes." You can't blame him. Koba's horrific routine run-ins with humanity are as clear as the scars on his face. What's incredible, however, is how different the actor that brought him to life, Toby Kebbell, looked under all that CGI skin.
Kebbell starred as the agitated ape in both "Dawn" and briefly in "War of the Planet of the Apes" as a reminder of one of Caesar's darkest moments. For Kebbell, haunting a hero isn't much of a stretch, given that his breakout role was in Shane Meadows' "Dead Man Shoes" in 2004, which saw him play a mentally challenged boy who is abused by a gang in his hometown, only for his older brother (Paddy Considine) to return and seek his own kind of justice. From there, Kebbell appeared in projects such as "RocknRolla," "War Horse," "Wrath of the Titans," and the massive comic book movie misstep that was "Fantastic Four," one of the worst superhero movies ever made. Besides his time as Koba, Kebbell also took what he learned in the "Apes" franchise and applied it to another ape, albeit one that was just a smidgen larger.
Toby Kebbell went from Koba to Kong in the MonsterVerse
After getting killed off as Koba in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," Toby Kebbell continued to thump his chest as Skull Island's biggest inhabitant, King Kong, in the Jordan Vogt-Roberts film, "Kong: Skull Island." Besides starring as one of the unfortunate soldiers sent to the mysterious island, Kebbell applied the skills he'd gained at ape school on a monstrous level and breathed life into the character in a beautiful fashion by way of facial expressions.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kebbell cleared up that the majority of the performance was from his former "Apes" co-star, Terry Notary, who played Rocket in the franchise. "I gave some facial reference — certain subtleties, certain looks," revealed Kebbell. "Terry and I worked on stuff together and created what Kong needed." The star made sure to send the praise in Notary's direction, adding, "It's a real honor to be asked by someone who's a great performer to come and help support their performance. It becomes a symbiotic thing, and it's more like buddies asking each other to help ... If we were mechanics and he was having a problem with his sprocket set, it's more like he borrowed my sprocket set than me playing King Kong."
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