and I wanted to ask you often actors
tell us that makeup age them in
inhabiting their characters you don't
use any makeup yet you have created some
of the best digital or non-human
characters on the screen without any
makeup I mean I saw you on set wearing
this latex suit how do you do that it is
a very pure form of acting in the sense
that you don't get that assistance you
you have to use your imagination and you
embody the character and trust the great
artist that you're going to be working
with further down the line and that's
and that's also comes from the great
understanding of the director if I were
to now put on prosthetic makeup and do
and play this character people would
have a much easier time understanding
how it was achieved and I could play the
emotions of a character in exactly the
same way except I would be fighting with
it with a layer of makeup and you know
covering my face so I don't think the
intention and the and the truth of the
performance would come through as much
as it does using this technology which
is very subtle very nuanced and also the
team the artistic team is not painting
or makeup before the artistic team is
painting on makeup if you like
afterwards because because the director
sits with the cut of the movie with the
actors performance purely just the
actors performance for nearly a year
before they start to see the visual
effects shots coming in whilst whilst
the CG artists are very carefully taking
the acting performance and creating the
look of the character and translating
the human physiognomy onto a Nate's face
so so it's it's a it's in terms of the
actual acting of it there isn't that
there is no difference and so it always
is a mystery to me why people don't
understand it now after all these years
but I think I do actually think people
are you know a young certainly the
younger generation our understanding of
it now when you look at the characters
you play we we end up empathizing with
all your characters
of course it's the empathy is
subconscious is it because you give them
human emotions
what do you exude or we just it's the
story that brings us in I think that's a
really good question I mean at the
anthropomorphize ation of characters has
been going for many years in cartoons in
you know all sorts of you know abstract
forms but this this way of working where
you can see the eyes that the human
physiognomy or that the soul of the
character coming through you know it's a
relatively new technology performance
capture really is only been around for
18 years or so meaningfully but but it
but I think it's that and for me as an
actor what what I what I love working in
this medium is because you can't be vain
you can't want to see your face up on
the screen but that's not why I became
an actor I became an actor to portray
characters fully and to lose myself and
bury myself in a character and even when
I started off as a theatre actor that
was what I did so and you know through
physicality through through emotion
through through embodying the character
so I think and I think that's again one
of the great things about this
technology is that there's a purity
about it that allows you to go to those
places and and it's the tension between
the digital mask and the underlying
performance that makes it that makes it
powerful well evidently you're a big fan
of it and you're promoting it but you
fell into it your traditional actor yeah
and now you kind of you're creating a
new kind of filmmaking with your
production Imaginarium are you making
movies only with motion capture or are
you just shifting now from traditional
acting to this new form of acting and
what do you gain out of it more than
traditional acting and I mean actually
in actual fact with The Imaginarium
where we're looking at all different
sources storytelling with the idea
what will happen in 20 years time how
will stories be received by audiences
it's all down to the script you know we
have a production company on a
performance capture facility and they
work together and so for instance you
know jungle book that I'm working on or
in the future we're going to be making
Animal Farm it's it's finding the right
material and the right story and the
right characters that you know we don't
just want to make performance capture
movies but if the story dictates then of
course we will but the industry is still
struggling to accept it and in spite of
the campaign the Academy still refuses
to accept it as a form of art like
acting what is your take on it I think
it's really old-fashioned I think it's
really outdated and I think they you
know they need to really examine what's
going on because I mean this film
clearly demonstrates you know there is a
version of this film which is purely the
performance and there are cuts of Jungle
Book where that are you know directed
where you're just seeing the actors
performance is just that and you're
totally carried by that and the same you
know that so it's obviously it's an
incredible marriage of the land and then
the way it's presented the characters
are presented finely and manifested
on-screen is a wonderful team of artists
doing that but as I was saying earlier
that would not exist it's it's a very
different process to an animation
process where a committee of animators
are taking responsibility for authoring
the role the authorship of the role
purely lies with the actor in the case
of these these films and other films
like this I'll ask you something about
your background your father is an Iraqi
or meaning how much does your background
his background effects or seeps into
your art it's a really great question
well my father he's passed now sadly but
he was and you know he was a doctor and
he he lived in Iraq and and he very much
he created the hospital in Baghdad and
so I was always full of admiration for
the fact that he was he was setting up a
hospital for the people who couldn't
afford to get to go to hospital for the
people of Baghdad with before
so he was and and what he did was he had
to spend a lot of time away from his
family to do that so I so I respect that
and I know that when I worked when I've
spent a long period of time on the other
side of the world away from my family
and it's a very difficult thing to do
but when you're passionate about what
you do and you have the people around
you you believe in you then you know
your partner your family you know then
then then it then you know like my
father he was a real inspiration to me
and hopefully I will be to my children
so it certainly rubbed off me in that
way on meat in that way do you speak any
Arabic just rice right and they no need
kitchen area I was taught I was taught a
little bit really so I can counter
tainment
oh that's pretty good one what's years
minute