The new fantasy blockbuster Warcraft stars Travis Fimmel and Toby Kebbell in the lead roles as a human and an orc trying to find peace as a huge battle looms.
But while Fimmel is there on screen, Kebbell is digitally augmented as the 900-pound orc chieftan Durotan. After making his name as an actor in acclaimed films like Control and RocknRolla, Kebbell discovered that he had a gift for motion-capture performance when he played Koba opposite Andy Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
He laughs when he recalls approaching the role: "Stupidly, I figured anyone could do a monkey. I was like, 'Oh yeah, ooga-booga!' A little scratch under the armpit, I'm good. Little did I know that by week two of working with my motion coach Terry Notary I would be barely able to walk after crouching for 10 hours a day. And working with Andy Serkis is like working with a grand master. I had an apprenticeship."
Kebbell admits that this kind of acting requires a total loss of vanity. "Yeah, every day your pride disappears because you're in grey PJs," he laughs. "A weird thing happens when you walk on set and everyone is in their cool armour being cool, and somebody goes, 'Don't laugh!' You kind of have this presence on set, where you're the one in the stupidest outfit. You're in pyjamas. People can tell what your religion is, it's so skintight. You're really capable of being the buffoon, so you get the buffoonery out of the way.
"But once the laughing and giggling is all gone, and you're still giving the performance of Durotan, they race to catch up to what you're offering in the performance. That's arrogant of me to say, but you can feel very relaxed about being in cool armour and a cool costume. This is about acting. You're here to perform."
One of the things that annoys Kebbel is when people say he "did the voice" for Koba or Durotan. "They don't realise it's a full performance," he says. "It's just a performance with the best costume! Everything Durotan does, I did. When Koba runs on all fours, that's me running on all fours, to the point that I broke my arm doing that. It will come around in time. Andy will hopefully still be alive by the time people catch on to what motion-capture has meant to film and he gets the awards he deserves."
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