“Planet of the Apes” actor studied Elon Musk to play bonobo villain

“I get Elon Musk all the time actually,” Kevin Durand said.

Audiences will be introduced to the villainous bonobo Proximus Caesar when Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters Friday — and if he reminds you of Elon Musk, it’s not a coincidence.

In an interview with the Inside Total Film podcast, actor Kevin Durand discussed his character’s connection to the tech titan after the interviewers compared Proximus to Musk.

“That’s awesome! I mean even with the bonobo face, they compare me to Elon Musk,” he said. “I get Elon Musk all the time actually, it’s very funny. People approach me with a look in their eye where I realize they are not meeting an actor that they like, it’s something bigger. But the fact that it comes through even when I’m an ape is fantastic!”

Related: The lavish Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes introduces a new primate protagonist

Durand, who has also starred in projects like Lost and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, said that Musk was one of his inspirations as he prepared his simian villain.

"I did look at really charismatic speakers — I watched [life coach] Tony Robbins quite a bit, Elon, Arnold Schwarzenegger doing like his governor speeches,” he explained. “Just these humans who without trying, you just have to watch them as they hold so much power and charisma."

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Like Musk, Proximus Caesar is also a disruptor in the electricity space — in an era when electrical power has fallen away with human society, Durand’s character rediscovers it and uses it to assert dominance over his fellow apes. “

To apes that forgot about all these things, that’s like a magic power,” director Wes Ball told Entertainment Weekly in December. “So they’re experimenting with it. I don’t even think you can call him a villain. I would call him an adversary. You understand him, you can relate to him in a way. It's an interesting character who isn’t just a mustache-twirling cutout."

Related: Planet of the Apes director sets the stage for Kingdom and 'a lot more story to be told'

https://ew.com/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-sequels-wes-ball-8414548

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place 300 years after the Andy Serkis–starring reboot trilogy, and stars Owen Teague as new chimp protagonist Noa.

"We meet Noa when he's just entering adulthood, and he and his friends are about to have their coming-of-age ceremony, it’s their ape bar mitzvah, really,” Teague told EW in February. “Then Noa gets thrust into this crazy, unexplored world that he’s been sheltered from his entire life. He has to go on this journey to get his people out of some trouble, but in the process learns a lot about what’s really out there. The kind of driving thing for him was curiosity and this wonder that he feels for all this stuff he's learning."

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes swings into theaters Friday.

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