Playing creatures

Publication: Dancing Times
Date: December 2009
Author: Zoë Anderson
Page: 19
Language: English
Notes: A reader responds

Zoë Anderson looks at how dance forms the basis for some of science fiction's most memorable monsters

In the UK, fantasy drama is smiling. After the hugely successful relaunch of "Doctor Who", television schedules were suddenly open to programmes with werewolves, trolls, dinosaurs and aliens. In the Saturday teatime slot, "Doctor Who" is joined by programmes such as "Merlin" and "Primeval"; for older audiences, there are "Torchwood", "Being Human", "Apparitions", "Survivors", "Day of the Triffids". There hasn't been this much sci-fi around in the UK since the early. 1980s

Things have changed since then, with bigger budgets and new technology. Some monsters are now computer-generated, with actors learning to react to green screens rather than actual creatures. But many of the most effective creatures are still played by live performers, disguised with costumes, make-up and elaborate prosthetic masks.

To play those creatures, the performers have to express themselves physically, through thick layers of costume and latex. It's no surprise, then, that these specialists should have dance or movement training. Paul Kasey, star creature performer on "Doctor Who", has gone [ruin dancing in the West End to playing the Cybermen, the Ood and the Judoon. When I spoke to him, Kasey was in the middle or hinting the supernatural comedy-drama "Being Human", where he appears as the full-moon version of the werewolf. lie describes his creatures with beaming affection: you can see his excitement at bringing these strange monsters to life.

"If I were offered two jobs, equal in every way, but one was acting and one was a creature, I would choose the creature," he explains. "Because I love it - that's where my heart lies. I want to make that creature as real as I possibly can. The subtlety of a movement, how it is, how it moves. It's not backflipping across a stage and kicking my legs up by my ears, it's not that kind of movement, but it's so challenging to make something look as real as possible."

Kasey started his dance training late, at the age of 15.v"I grew up on a farm, a very horsey farm, so I did a lot of horse riding. Then a dance school opened up nearby, and I started doing classes. My moan said Lo me. 'You need to choose whether you keep the horse riding, or dance,' and I just wanted to dance." From there, he went to Laine Theatre Arts. "I was given everything I would ever need, training-wise. It became very apparent that I swayed more towards the classical side, so I did a lot of ballet, but also jazz, contemporary, open tap and gymnastics. And from your second year onwards, they allowed you to work - summer seasons, pantomimes, Children's Royal Varieties. The whole experience was fantastic."

After leaving Laine, he was offered a place with "a big, well-known ballet company abroad - I can't remember which! But I knew I wanted to do more commercial work - fashion, musicals, 1 wanted to go that way." While he was dancing in Fosse in the West End, he auditioned for the vampire film Mark II. "They were looking for a certain type of physique, but they were looking at a whole range of performers: dancers, gymnasts, stunt men, actors with very good movement skills, mime artists."

Kasey played a vampire who fed on other vampires. "It was four hours of make-up, but I loved it - the acting side of it, but using movement, which is where I'd come from." His next creature role was as one of the bloodthirsty "Infected" in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, he returned for the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, in which he also acted as movement advisor.

By then, Kasey was well-established as a creature performer. In 2004, he was invited to audition Rea new series - at that point 1 didn't know it was 'Doctor Who', because they were keeping it very quiet. I auditioned for Alisa Berk, who is very well known for playing creatures, for creating movement, for creatures." Kasey has performed in every series of the new "Doctor Who", and in its spin-offs, "Torchwood" and "The Sarah Jane Adventures".

What is the process of playing a creature? For Kasey, it starts with fittings - not just for costumes, but for faces, hands and even whole bodies. Millennium FX, who make the 'Doctor Who" creatures, take casts of the performers, to build prosthetic heads and suits. "I would have fittings, so I would see designs, and get an idea of what the creature's going to be like."

So you know if you'll have tentacles, I suggest, or a rhino face. "Yes, exactly. "The people at Millennium have spoken to the director and producers, so they know what the creature's about. I get to hear whether he's nasty or nice. Then I would have the script. Russell T Davies [head writer for the first four series of "Doctor Who"] will describe the creatures within the script. The Ood [the tentacle-faced creatures who have appeared in several episodes] are subservient, they have a gentleness to them."

"Doctor Who" scripts are specific about monsters, with key words to make sure designers, directors, choreographer and performer have the same goal in mind. Specific words evoke each creature's movement style. The Judoon (who are intergalactic police) "march" or "yomp". The animated scarecrows "lollop". Ailsa Berk, the choreographer on "Doctor Who", creates these different movements, and rehearses her creature performers. Like Kasey, many of these are now "Doctor Who" regulars. Most are around six feet tall, which helps when it comes to armies of creatures. The Cybermen are supposed to be uniform, all individuality lost. Berk's Cybermen stomp along, their steel legs working like pistons - much more robotic than many older era Cybermen, who ambled in softer suits.

On set, the director may ask for particular effects in a scene. "For me, it's not just wearing a suit," Kasey explains. "Where creatures are concerned, you pick up the characteristics, the mannerisms, you rehearse, but then I do become it. So if something does come up on set, I naturally do it in that way. Which is much more fun! If I'm playing the Judoon, they're very grumpy. And inside, I'm pulling all these faces and grunting away."

The costumes are often big and heavy, restricting movement and vision. Kasey tends to play the "hero" creatures, the principal Ood or Judoon. Because he wears more detailed masks, he is almost blindfold. "Obviously, because they film close sip, you can't have big holes for the eyes. They have to be very small, so your vision is narrower. I'd walk on set and try to map it out, so I know where everything is, how many steps there are. You're counting steps, because you can't always see the floor in front of you. You can see it further away, but not close to, but with all the dance routines I've done - running up and down stairs, sometimes routines on stairs... With dance training, you gets literal sense of spatial awareness. So I'm very aware of where I am, who's next to me, where I'm going, the marks to hit. Everything I've done, my training and all the dance work, has come in handy when playing creatures."

The "close-up" masks often have animatronics, giving the creatures detailed facial movements: blinking, speaking, wrinkling noses or twitching ears. The motors that power those movements are built inside the masks. "They're not loud to people on the outside, but because it's very close to you, and you're encased, it is loud. And you're trying to listen as well, to hear the dialogue. So it is challenging."

The other challenge is moving naturally. "If the director says, 'I want this kind of movement,' I interpret how I would do that to look right through the suit. The movement I do on the inside isn't always how it looks on the outside. In some of the suits that I've worn, the creature's bead looks straight out, but my own head is tilted down to the floor. I work out how to move my head, to make it look right for the camera."

The elaborate costumes affect other performers, too. "The funniest thing is that they know I'm on the inside, but it's very hard not to talk to the creature," Kasey explains. "For example, the Slitheen have heads much higher than ours - we look out through the creature's neck. But everyone will talk to the face of the Slitheen. I'm always on the inside, so I'm not sure what it's like. On 28 Weeks Later, you can imagine, everyone was caked in blood. It's not a pretty sight. So when it came to having lunch, they had separate buses. The performers wearing it, and the effects people who put the makeup on, are very used to it. But if you have someone from costume or crew, do they really want to eat, sitting next to someone with blood pouring out of every orifice? Because the effects look so real.

"People do become a little bit wary, even people who are used to working with creatures. When we first started filming the Cybermen, people would say 'I just can't come over to you, because they scare me.' Even when you're just waiting to film, people can be wary, because they have memories of those characters from their childhoods. They will make a different journey around you. Sometimes, when I've played creatures, people forget there's a person inside, because what they see on the outside is the creature. For me, that's brilliant. If people tend to back away from you, that means you're scary! And monsters are scary. It means I'm doing my job."

Of course, not all Kasey's creatures are frightening. One behind-the-scenes documentary showed David Tennant and Billie Piper, playing the Doctor and his companion Rose, stroking Ood heads between scenes. "With the Ood, the first impression of an Ood is - eurgh! That look, with the tentacles, they are a little bit slimy. But the Ood are so loveable. A lot of people, even when filming, were saying, 'I want one! I want an Ood! 'You know, as a pet. They're not the most attractive-looking things, but they're lovely."

So how does Kasey himself react, when he sees his creatures on screen? "I do get surprised. I played the Minotaur in the film Inkheart, but when I got to watch it, they'd added steam coming out of his mouth, his mouth and nose were drooling. It adds that bit more to the creature, those effects, it's exciting. And there have been times when I've jumped out of the sofa! There's one 'Doctor Who' episode with clockwork druids and Madame de Pompadour. She sits on the bed, and the Doctor looks under it. I sat there watching it, knowing that I'm under the bed and what I'm going to do - but when it actually happened, when any clockwork droid reached out to grab the Doctor, I still jumped!

"Doctor Who" returns to BBC1 on Christmas Day. "Being Human" will be shown in the New Year.

Page 19, Paul Kasey as Captain brim. Left as Captain Tybo and Leef Blathereen in "The Sarah Jane Adventures". Below, a Judoon guard. Photographs © BBC

Caption: Paul Kasey unmasked. C Second Skin Agency

Playing creatures

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