If you’ve watched my review of Ex Machina, you’ll know what a big fan I am of this
superlative sci-fi film starring Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson.
Let’s take a look at 5 things you probably didn’t know about Ex Machina!
One of the biggest challenges of Ex Machina was designing the film’s android, Ava, so
that she didn’t just look like the robots we’ve seen on screen before.
Writer and director Alex Garland worked on the design with British comic book artist
Jock, who he’d previously worked with on the sci-fi action movie Dredd.
The breakthrough in making Ava’s design feel fresh was covering her form in mesh,
which means we can see straight through her to her skeleton structure and inner workings.
However, in certain lighting conditions, the mesh catches the light and so her body takes
on a more human form.
It took 6 weeks to film Ex Machina, but the post-production process took 6 months.
The visual effects team spent hours matching their animation to the movements of actress
Alicia Vikander, who plays Ava, and they translated as much as possible of Vikander’s on-set
performance into their CG model.
And as visual effects supervisor Andrew Whitehurst wanted his team to approach Ava’s design
with fresh eyes, he banned them from looking at pictures of robots!
Instead, they took inspiration from sculptures by Brâncuși, modernist Bauhaus sculptures,
Formula One suspension, and high-end concept bicycles!
And, to make sure they got Ava’s movements right, they also researched human anatomy.
Ex Machina is set in Alaska at the home-come-research facility of Nathan, the billionaire genius
who created Ava.
But what appears in the movie to be one location in Alaska, in reality is two different locations
in Norway!
Many of the interior and exterior shots in Ex Machina are from a private residence and
the Juvet Landscape Hotel, both of which are located in the Norwegian Fjords outside a
town called Valldal.
Both the house and hotel were designed by Norwegian architects Jensen & Skodvin.
When combined, the two buildings’ features, including glass walls and spectacular views
over the Norwegian wilderness, gave Ex Machina’s filmmakers a place that looked like the kind
of beautiful, private world in which the super-rich would live.
Filming also took place at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
A number of interior sets, including Ava’s observation room, were built at Pinewood to
match the design features of the Norwegian locations, and blue-screen was used to add
in the landscape through the windows.
If you’ve read Alex Garland’s novel The Beach, you’ll know that he’s a fan of
Francis Ford Coppola’s critically acclaimed war movie Apocalypse Now.
And Garland sees definite similarities between Ex Machina’s reclusive billionaire boss
Nathan, played by Oscar Isaac, and Apocalypse Now’s rogue US Army Special Forces operative,
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando.
For instance, like Kurtz, Nathan has isolated himself geographically and psychologically.
For Nathan this has meant holing himself up in his super-remote location to work on his
latest project.
and like Kurtz, Nathan sees himself as a sort of god.
Plus, as Garland’s said, Nathan’s “spent too much time up the river and has gone a
bit crazy.
At the point we meet him, he’s already tipped over the edge.”
Both Alicia Vikander, who stars as Ava, and Sonoya Mizuno, who plays Nathan’s mysterious
silent assistant Kyoko, have backgrounds in ballet.
Vikander attended the Royal Swedish Ballet School for nine years until she landed a part
in a Swedish TV series in her mid-teens.
And Mizuno trained with the Royal Ballet School in London before going on to join the National
Ballet of Ireland and Scottish Ballet.
According to director Alex Garland, the many years both actresses spent training as ballerinas
was invaluable to their performances in Ex Machina as it meant they had such discipline
and control of their bodies that they could express a great deal about their characters
with just slight movements.
Well, there you have it, 5 things you probably didn't know about Ex Machina!
Now, tell me, who’s your favourite robot character in the movies?
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!