Many popular films today feature animals
or otherworldly creatures as a main character.
Behind these lifelike performances
is a real human actor
bringing an authenticity to these creatures
that CGI can't replicate.
These actors bring a specific physicality to a character
and on set, give a real performance
that other actors can react to in real time.
That performance then becomes the framework
that postproduction builds a fuller character around.
These performances are captured using a green-screen suit,
a motion-capture suit, or a blend of the two,
with practical makeup and costumes.
Here are seven films that use creature performers
in creative ways to elevate the story.
Creature performer Terry Notary wore a mo-cap suit
to capture his physicality as Buck the dog
in "The Call of the Wild."
Having Notary on set giving a committed performance
was said to help elevate the performances
of the actors he shared a screen with.
As a creature actor, Notary was more that just a stand-in.
He often conferred with the director and other actors,
working through shots and scenes with them.
To train for the role,
Notary filmed the movements of his own dogs
and watched the footage in slow motion
to understand how they walk.
Actor Harrison Ford praised Notary's work,
saying it was important to have someone
to participate emotionally with on screen.
For Disney's live-action "Dumbo" remake,
the beloved baby elephant
was made completely in CGI.
But to get believable character movements and emotion,
creature performer Edd Osmond wore a specialized green suit
to capture authentic movements
and interactions with fellow actors.
Osmond spent hours observing how elephants walk
And for certain shots, a stunt performer stepped in.
Osmond spent hours observing how elephants walk
and trained himself to look believable
while hunched over on all fours in stilts.
Osmond also had to consider that this was a baby elephant,
so movements had to be a bit less confident
and more sporadic.
To play the character, Osmond wore multiple different suits.
First, a performance suit that looks like the character
for actors to interact with.
Then there was the bare-bones "ant-man" costume
used when Dumbo was running or walking around.
Since Osmond's head was pointing down,
a camera was mounted on the top of his head
so he could see where he was going.
In some instances, a more well-known actor
will do their own creature performances.
"Fleabag" star Phoebe Waller-Bridge
did her on set performance
as L3-37, wearing a modified robot suit
that was part practical and part green screen suit.
As a uniquely funny performer,
it needed to be Waller-Bridge on set
alongside Donald Glover, who played Lando,
to capture the right chemistry between the two characters.
Her L3-37 performance was modified in postproduction
to look more like a robot, but kept the same physicality
Waller-Bridge performed on set.
Dozens of creature performers,
including Andy Serkis and Terry Notary,
wore modified mo-cap suits when performing as apes
in the "Planet of the Apes" trilogy.
Finding a way to deliver believable ape performances
led production to Weta studios.
Using new technology at the time,
2011's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
became the first production to do motion capture
in a live-action setting.
Then in 2014's "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes",
they set up over 50 motion-capture cameras
throughout the sets, all sending the footage
over WiFi to remote servers
so there was no wires to hide.
Then in "War of the Planet of the Apes" they pushed
even further by shooting
motion capture in the snow.
but creature performers walking on crutches
instead of hands and having different gaits than real apes
meant entire paths and foot print patterns
had to be digitally recreated.
Speaking of actor chemistry, Dan Stevens,
who played the Beast in the Disney live-action remake
of "Beauty and the Beast,"
wore a Beast mo-cap suit to act alongside Emma Watson.
It included stilts to be the proper height
and weighed over 40 pounds.
Stevens noted that the suit was particularly difficult
to act in during the waltzing scene
and said he feels lucky he didn't lose his balance
and fall onto Watson.
Not all creature performers are used as
only a framework for CGI.
In the instance of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,"
creature performers Javier Botet, Troy James,
and Mark Steger all wore practical costumes
that incorporated their specific body types and movements
to bring the iconic monsters to life.
The unique physicality of character actors
was used for the movement
of the on-screen monsters they played.
The costumes were created with painstaking detail
by Spectral Motion specifically to be on camera.
Botet's costume even incorporated
a slight green-suit element
for his character's big toe to be removed in post.
Another instance where the character actor's
performance was almost all practical
is from Doug Jones in "The Shape of Water."
Jones, who's worked with director Guillermo del Toro
on several films, including as Faun in "Pan's Labyrinth,"
played the Amphibian Man in a practical costume
with elements of digital retouching added later,
like blinking and micro gestures.
Even the gills were practical,
mechanically operated by puppeteers.
The glowing bioluminescent aspects of the suit
were also practical, using UV paint.
Del Toro decided to have
the amphibian character be practical
because it was the main character
and the story's emotional center.
Therefore, Jones had to perform
to give it the character's soul.
What are some of your favorite movies
with creature performers?
Let us know down in the comments.