The Darriel Roy Show - Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes actor, Peter Macon

Our host Darriel Roy interviews Peter Macon who plays Raka in the 2024 movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello and welcome. Thank you somuch for watching. This shows all about
giving you insights and showcasing brands thathelp you to live your best life and
give you confidence. As always,I want to kick out your morning with
some motivational advice to help you tofeel inspired and energized to start your day
today. I want look about theimportance of getting comfortable stepping into the unknown.

(00:22):
Every day, we have the choiceto make the same old decisions that
are familiar and comfortable, or tochange things up and try something new that
we've never done before. Sure,initially making a decision to choose to do
something unfamiliar might feel uncomfortable or scaryat first. Well, one thing is
for sure that experience will push youout of your comfort zone. The reality

(00:43):
is it's rare to experience or learnsomething new when we can predict what will
happen. On the contrary, it'sonly when we make the bold decision to
try something new that we can trulyevolve and grow. Though it may feel
initially uncomfortable when we go outside ourcomfort zone, it's the ft ask this
way to supercharge our growth and learnsomething new about ourselves. It's only when

(01:04):
we push ourselves out of our comfortzone, that we learn how capable we
really are. Make your missus stateto make a decision to do one thing
that you've always wanted to do,but we're putting it off because it felt
unfamiliar. As Alan Rufus quotes,Unless we take that first step into the
unknown, we will never know ourown potential. This week on the show,

(01:25):
we have Peter Nacon, who playsRatka in the twenty twenty four movie
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Peter, thank you so much for
being on the show today. Howare you doing really good? Thank you
for having me. Thank you somuch for being here. I'm excited to
talk to you. We have alot to talk about before we get into
the success of Planet of the Apes. I want to talk about your journey

(01:46):
in the industry. Why didn't yourealize your passion for acting. I think
it was about fifteen. I mean, you know, I've been doing school
plays and stuff, second and thirdand sixth grade and stuff, but I
didn't really know that we could bea professional actor until I was about fifteen
and I went to go see ashow, a production of The rain Maker

(02:07):
at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis whereI went to high school, and the
actors came out after the play andwe had a question and answer session and
I was like, wait a minute, you can do this for a living.
You can hate to do this,and you can. And it was
so it was actually in that exacttheater that I fell in love with becoming

(02:28):
an actor. And then I thinkabout ten, ten, twelve years later,
fifteen years later, I was inthat same theater playing the lead role
in a production of Oedipus and Iwas like, and I went found the
seat. I was like, thisis that seat that I sat in being
an actor. So it's been ayou know, decades of the love of

(02:52):
the craft. Yeah, and Iknow that you went to the Yale School
of Drama, which not a lotof actors can say they have their masters.
How do you think that experience shapesyou into the actor you are today?
It was really amazing because I workedprofessionally for about thirteen years and then
I moved to New York and wasreally struggling finding anything to work on that

(03:16):
was you know, that that hadany quality to it. And I was
getting really frustrated and burnt out ontrying to survive uh being you know,
an actor. So a friend ofmine was in the program, and he
said, you should audition for theschool. You probably get in, And
I did, and I got inand it was great. And so for
three years all I got, allI did was studying, you know,

(03:38):
So all I did was, youknow, it did like crazy plays.
We did a three person hamlet,who did again. At one point it
was doing five different plays at onetime. And it was just a rigorous,
you know, two years of clownclown class, which was you know,
the most difficult and humiliating and rewardingclass have ever. So, you

(04:00):
know, so I could just trainand just work in that worry about like
how I'm gonna you know, uhpay the rent, and I could just
just submerge myself in studying all kindsof different theater and all kinds of different
play rights, and all kinds ofdifferent styles of and methodologies of of actings.

(04:20):
So so when I got out,you know, it was like you
to do it. You can doanything, you know what I mean.
You could you know, dialects orwhatever you need to do, You could
do it. I love that.I love that you were a student the
industry before getting into it. Ithink that's that's amazing and that's what makes
you such a great actor. Andbefore Kingdom of the Planet Apes, I

(04:42):
know you were in a lot ofdifferent shows. You were in Law and
Order, Dexter. For you,what's been the most memorable role you had
so far? You know, thisone's really fresh with me right now,
like yet of the age, andlike I think it was one of the
most difficult things that I've ever theopportunity to do. And in terms of
you know, talking orangutan is atall I can imagine, yeah, because

(05:09):
it's not it was that easy todo. And we had really wonderful training
with Ape School with Alengotier, whowas actually Canadian. He was he live
in Montreal, but he like hewas uh the assistic director for sile At
for a long time and he wasour movement director. So we had six
weeks of ape school, which wasyou know, unpacking the physio anatomy of

(05:30):
apes and the differences between like theskeletal structures of apes and human beings and
learning how to you know, inhabitan apes body with arm extensions because armed
apes have much longer arms, youknow. So that was you know that
that was. It's pretty fresh withme, and I'm still I've seen the
movie like six or seven times,and you know, still amazed. But

(05:50):
you know, there's you know,there's also that and then that you know,
I did, I did. Iplayed uh Macbeth Iniam Shakespeare's The Tragedy
of Macbeth for about ten months,and that was pretty amazing in that you
know, you live in the character, like the skin of a character for

(06:12):
that long, everything becomes like secondnature. We had some amazing fights.
I mean, it was really beautifuland tragic in it. And so but
getting to do that for that long, that that's up there too. You
know, played a fellow like fourtimes and I don't know that I ever
want to do that again. Butyeah, so yeah, that miss and

(06:33):
there's some memorable ones, you know. And then that's one of the greatest
things about being an actor is thatwe get to inhabit other people's skins.
I mean, we need to getinside the psychology and the psychosis of and
it really you know, here's alot of information about the human condition.
So like I have a lot ofcompassion for lots of different walks of life

(06:57):
because of how to inhabit those spaceswithout judgment, you know, so playing
uh, sociopath, you know,like the sociopath doesn't think that he's a
social path. So I mean Ijust developed a lot of compassion for for
the for the human experience through thework. So that's that's been like the
most rewarding aspect of it. Andso now I feel like I have all

(07:20):
this compassion for orangutans. And fastforward, let's talk about it. Let's
talk about your role as Raka inKingdom at the Planet Apes. Tell us
about your character and his influence inthe movie. You know, Raka serves
as the sort of bridge of history. So the first the last three films,

(07:45):
uh, you know, centered aroundCaesar and his growth and like his
his sort of journey and the apescoming coming into consciousness, like the expansion
of their of their consciousness and growing. Meanwhile, the human beings are sort
of on the de send and Rakain this new you know, sort of
era three hundred years later or so, like many generations passed Caesar's death,

(08:09):
Like Raka represents that legacy of Caesarthat you know, apes shall not kill
Apes, Apes together strong and apesand humans live side by side. And
so he's he's he's a bit ofa you know, like the not a
pacifist, per se I means moreof like an archaeologist, I think because
the world is splintering now, likeapes have different clans all over the place,

(08:35):
and a lot of apes don't knowanything about Caesar, who was the
first Elder as they called him.And you know, so Raka represents like
this voice of reason when we whenwhen we meet Rocca. When Noah meets
Rocca, he literally you know,falls from the sky and he meets him
at a time actually they both meet, you know, when they meet,

(08:58):
you know, like the asks,you know, the proximate Caesar camp.
They destroyed Noah's village, and they'vealso destroyed you know, my my apprentice
of my like my they killed myyou know, I say he was my
he was my village. And soI'm alone and Noah is alone. Rocca

(09:20):
and Noah are alone. So theymeet each other at this's really you know,
significant time, and decide to topair up and go on this journey
together. So I think that bythe time Noah meets Rocca, he really
needs this guidance and eat on.And Raka explains to Noah that the world
is much bigger and much more diversethan you than you than you know that
you realize because the Eagle clan thatwhere Noah comes from his character like they're

(09:43):
very myopic in their worldview and thatyou know, the sort of libertarian in
the sense of like they just likethey stay to themselves. And you know,
so when the two of them meet, uh, Noah is learning a
lot about the world and and Rakais more than happy to teach him because
that's what he loves to do.He loves to you know, he loves

(10:05):
he's curious about human beings and thatwe call them the herds and the herds
of human because humans are feral atthis point. And he's just you know,
in habits like this airport, andhe you know, he's just trying
to unlock the mystery of like thehuman existence. And now ironically he can
talk, but he can't read,right, So and I think that,

(10:28):
you know, like in life thatwe see it now, myths and fables
tend to outlast or they outlast thetruth, or the truth gets sort of
reshape and reshaped to whatever narrative thatfits our story at the time. And
so the irony behind Raka's quest tounderstand human beings is that he didn't he

(10:50):
doesn't really understand, uh that humansand caged tapes and like he's just trying
to figure out, like how thesehumans build all these amazing things, but
yet they're fair and they can't talk. So he doesn't really understand what happened
with the virus because there's so muchtimes that's passed. So you know,
there's a little bit of irony mixedinto his character too, and then he's

(11:11):
a little bit naive, but he'svery much a you know, he's very
curious, and he's he's like asort of nutty professor of that crazy old
science uncle that you have, scientist, scientific uncle uncle scientists. So yeah,
I mean, and you know,he he he is, as said,
coming back to what I originally said, he's with this this bridge that

(11:33):
that that spans this new world andthe world that was of Caesar, which
is you know, started this wholesaga off in the first place. And
then a lot of people think,Okay, well, maybe if you know,
because you know, the original sixtyeight movie took place in like three
thousand and twenty something, so maybelike this is like you know, Raka

(11:54):
is like Doctor Zias's ancestors, evenif you really want to nerd out Apes
franchise. But you know, he'sa unique it's a unique character in all
four films, Like I mean,in all of the films like this is
like you know, of course youhave Maurice from the original films that,
like, you know, it wasvery compassionate and heroic and helped, you
know, save a lot of theapes. But Racca is like that's what

(12:18):
he's like. He's like Maurice twopoint zero. You know, he's you
know, so yeah, and it'slike, you know, it brings a
little bit of humor uh into thefilm at a time where I feel like
the film needs we we need alaugh at that point. You know.
So it was a joy to getto know him. He kind of reminds
me of my father in law.It's like, you know, like this

(12:41):
like this, like these like thesage. So yeah, that's that's sort
of Raka in a nut show.I know that motion capture was used to
obviously, you know, get theessence of the character and merge it with
the actor. How did you kindof bring your own personality to Raka?
Well, as I said, asI said, we have i'd like the
six weeks of ape School, whichwas enormously helpful, and then we had

(13:05):
to then layer on speaking, right, so you know, apes have different
anatomy, and I imagined over theyears, like you know, a lot
of imagination work first of all,but like sometimes we had to I had
to edit my, my, my, my text because I thought, like,
this sounds too too colloquial to human. This is you know, he's

(13:31):
not been speaking forever, so justand also to just Man to make it
more ape like. And you know, then of course, once we got
onto set. You know, normallywhen you do a film or television,
you can go back to the videovillage and look at the playback and sort

(13:52):
of adjust your performances accordingly. Andwe can do that with this because we
hadn't been rendered as apes. Wego back to look at the playback and
it'says, use yourself in a performancecapture suit. So ultimately, like that
was a bit of a struggle,and it was a bit frustrating trying to
figure out how I can you know, continue to shape and mold my performance.

(14:13):
But at the end of the day, it took me back to the
stage. It took me back tothe theater when in that we just got
to let it go and forget thatwe were wearing all of this year and
be in the scene with your scenepartner. And and because you can't go
back on when you see a play, you can't oh wait, stop,
let's let's do the departmentgain. Youcan't do that going forward. So it

(14:35):
took me back to that place,which then once I realized that it was,
it was things got this really easybecause I just like, well,
I'm just I'm on the stage.You know, I'm doing what I what
I when I know how to dobest and not worry about the you know,
like not worry about what my performancelooks like. Just just and get
out of my head and get awayfrom my own vanity, not because it's

(14:58):
vanity, but like you just youknow, like you can get insecure.
You don't know if you're doing it. You don't know if you're doing a
good job or not. So youjust ultimately have to trust, uh the
director was ball, and you know, trust the technicians around you that they're
getting what they need. And youjust you know, like some wise actor
asked me once, it's like,how do you know if you've had a
good show, And I said,I don't know, and he said,

(15:20):
you ask your scene partner if they'reif it was good for them, and
if they had a good time,if they got what they needed, that
means that you were doing what youneeded to do. So ultimately, you
know, you just you just didthat and it was it just felt like
it was in a play, youknow. So yeah, you had to
ignore all of this equipment that youhave on your body and fans and things

(15:41):
like that, and it's extremely hot, and you know, but it was
a lot of fun, a lotof fun. So there that sounds amazing.
And you know, Planet up Eightsis such a big franchise, so
many diehard fans. What's it beenlike being part of this franchise? Straight?
Really straight like wonderful because it's it'snot something that I was thinking about

(16:04):
while we were doing it. Iwas just concerned about making the character as
three dimensional as possible. And thenyou know, at the premiere there are
people like, you know, youknow, it's like, but yes,
this is a huge I think it'sone of those things that it's going to
take a while to sink in.And I think when my boys are old

(16:25):
enough to to see it, well, we all to watch it together and
like maybe look at some of theold films and stuff like that, and
it's it will just be you know, ten to fifteen, twenty years from
now, you know, to goand look back on it. To be
part of like this legacy. It'san honor, you know, it's just
to be a part of film history. I mean, like this will this
will be I mean, like thetalking of Ring a Tang will be around

(16:48):
forever. So a little daunting,but uh, you know, it's it's
pretty cool to have something, youknow, like you just I just want
to I just want to be usefulin the world, right and and and
it's it's it's it's nice to feelthat, you know, I'm part of
you know, like you know,I'm a huge science fiction uh nerd.
And it's nice to be a partof something that inspired me when I was

(17:15):
really young. Like when I sawthis movie, the sixty eight version,
I swore that age could talk.And I would go to the zoo and
I would sit there all day waitingfor them to like just give me one
little word, just one something,anything, you know, And you know,
so I remember that as a sixyear old kid now, and I'm
like, wow, this is reallycool to be a part of that.

(17:36):
I wonder what my six year oldkid himself would say about rock up so
that it's it's, it's it's it'sreally fun, fun to think about it
in in those terms, and Ican't wait to share it with my with
my own sons. But yeah,it's it's really cool to be part of
part of this and getting to talkto you. And yeah, I mean

(18:00):
life came full circle. You thoughtApeskit talk and then you play Talking eight.
It doesn't get any more ironic thanthat, right, You can't write
that, right? Yeah, exactly. And you know, Peter, I
created my platform to inspire, touplift and really to be a beacon of
lights in the world so that anyonewatching will be inspired. So I want
to ask you, you know,what are some challenges that you face when

(18:23):
getting into the industry and how didyou face them? You know, I
say, first and foremost, Iabsolutely love and have love being an actor
or inhabiting different psyches or just beinga creative like I'm a painter and playing
music. But you know, Ilove it, and it's because I love

(18:48):
it that I'm able to withstand thedips and rises, because it is it
can be incredibly frustrating. You reallyhave to sort of have a spiritual or
some sort of roundedness, you know, like seeing like a perspective. You
know. It's it's it's hard,you know sometimes going for stretches of time

(19:11):
and not work, and I absolutelyneed to do it otherwise I kind of
start to break down or feel uselessbecause you know, I can't really do
anything else. Uh So, youknow, I mean, and as I
said, because I love it.You know, those times when you do

(19:33):
find work that that is and thatthat's challenging and that's you know, inspirational
and figurating, it sort of erasesall of the the bad times, you
know what I mean, And solike and just understanding that it ebbs and
it flows, and it has beendoing that my entire career. Every time
I work, I swear I'm nevergoing to work again, and then I

(19:56):
guess. So I'm sort of inthat phase like way for the next yeah,
you know, but I mean,I'm also creating my own work too,
So that's that's something that I've learnedthrough this, is to not let
myself get too I don't know internalizingthe you know, like the there's so

(20:17):
many moving parts to this industry andit's always changing. It's always you know,
you know, like rules are alwayschanging, unions are always changing,
like the relationships with the studios arealways changing. The economy is always changing,
politics are always changing. So it'salways it's it's it's it's never a
fixed thing anyway. But and sobecause I love the work and there was

(20:38):
no work, my phone wasn't bringingI'm I'm working on my own the uh
you know series actually two different projects, so you know, because I love
it and I have to do it. So I mean, you know,
and that's what I say to anybodywho endeavors to to to be a filmmaker

(21:02):
or an actor or any kind ofartist. You have to love it.
You have to love it, andyou have to need to do it.
And if you don't, you know, that's okay, find something else to
do, because the frustration is notworth it, you know. So I
love and I actually love, asmuch as I hate saying this, I
love the frustration because the frustration createslike problem equals opportunity to me, and

(21:30):
the frustration is something that keeps mebalanced and going. But even when really
great things happen, I think that'sgreat, and when bad things happen,
I'm like, okay, you know, so I just try to keep myself
in the middle, like on thependulum, because you know, it's and
it's a marathon, you know.Like I have my father in law.

(21:52):
I met him, I think hewas like in seventy seventy five. This
is before he introduced me to hisdaughter. So I mean I knew him
for a year and he didn't sayanything. I was thinking I'm being sized
up. But my point is thatyou know, he he now always retired

(22:15):
and he's eighty something, so youknow, it's and I've been getting paid
to be an actress since I waseighteen years old and I was admitting wounds
ago, so I guess like it'sjust it's I just love it so much
that it's I can take the lumps, you know, I can take the
And it's not easy, don't getme wrong. Like I mean, I

(22:36):
get a little grumpy, and butyou know it's about finding you know,
having you know, other things,or doing your own work, or you're
not taking himself so seriously and studying, you know, like it always I
would have a time to read andanalyze films and study films and pretty different
plays and stuff like that. Soyou know, I stay in it.

(22:57):
You've got to stay ready to don'thave to get ready. But so yeah,
like I appreciate that you created thisto have like this discourse because it's
so sometimes like I will, I'llsee something like this, and that will
help me get through my day.You know, when I'm really struggling.
Right when I'm really struggling, whenI feel like I'm useless, I washed

(23:18):
up, I'm never gonna work againor whatever, or I'm just feeling like
insecure or whatever. Needs of inspiration. Is so helpful to hear other people
talk about their process. Yeah,you know, it's it's it's all we're
all kind of you know, doingthe same you know, the same thing.
You know, like for the samereason I think and like inspirational content

(23:41):
is I can't I don't really watchanything else for that. Yeah, so
just like about what's happening in theworld that I don't have the bandwidth for
for uh, I just need tobe I just need to stand an inspiration
diet, you know what I mean. So that's that's helping me out right
now because it's like things that arebeyond my control. I feel, you

(24:06):
know, I feel things very deeplyand it and it can get a little
nutty to to just be feeling allthat stuff. So I'm just putting myself
on an inspiration diet diet to beon right, the inspiration diet. And
I love that you said it's beenyour passion that's really fueled you. I
think that's for anybody that does goeson to do anything great. It's it's

(24:29):
the passion, right. It helpsyou. When you have passion, you
can endure a lot because you seethe you see you have tunnel vision,
right, you see the goal,and it doesn't matter what's happening around you.
You know that you're going to reachthat goal no matter what because you
have that determination, right and passion. And I love that you said that
you also created your own opportunities.I think that's so amazing for people to
hear as successful as you've been,you've also created your own opportunities. I

(24:55):
think that's that's really amazing. Yeah, I mean, and it's it's it's
a whole lot. And you know, learning, as someone said, the
only way you're gonna learn how tomake a film or a series or whatever
is to do it. And I'mlearning. I'm learning so much and it's
I'm so excited about it, youknow. And like just side note quest

(25:15):
love from the roots, he said, he said, be absolutely stubborn about
your dreams, but be flexible abouthow you attain them. And yeah,
so that's you know, like,and that's the thing of like, well,
you have to pivot, Like ifit's not working here, you've got
to try this. You're not workingthere, You're going to try this and
just keep because if it is Ineed to do this, I have to

(25:37):
do this, I will do this, and I won't not do it.
Then things get done, you knowwhat I mean. And if you work
really hard and you just stay dedicatedand focused and discipline, which you know
discipline mean that's that's one of thehardest aspects of the whole thing, is
showing up every day and when youdon't feel like you have it in you
to do it, but you haveto do it. So you know,

(26:02):
hey, man, sister Peter,what else are you currently working on?
I know you said you have someother projects going on right now, So
what else are you working on?Well, I'll tell you. I have
a clothing line that I'm that I'mthat I'm working on. I have a
series that I'm going to start shooting. My first installment in July, like

(26:27):
in about a month is today,but something like the sixteenth or something like
that. Today's thirteenth. So yeah, on July sixteenth, at about a
month, we'll start working on that. And then I have like this another
animation that I'm writing with the scientistfriend of mine. So you know,
it's all stay tuned. It's alllike and it's all in the stove,

(26:48):
you know what I mean. It'snothing like you know, I'm not I
haven't trying to pitch or sell anyof it to anyone yet. I'm just
creating it and we'll see from there. But it is. I think it's
going to be pretty pretty both boththe series, the live action series and
the animation series. I think they'regoing to be pretty pretty groundbreaking, you

(27:11):
know. I'm sure it will be. I'm sure it will be. Peter,
thank you so much for being onthe show. Congratulations with all your
success. It's amazing and I can'twait to see what else is in sore
for you. So great chatting withyou, Thank you very much. Hy
Dariel Rousche is available on Roku,Amazon, fire Tv, iHeartRadio and Apple Podcast