Even though Mark Wahlberg got some experience working with special make-up, exposing his (prostetically enhanced) privates as a well-endowed porn star in 'Boogie Nights', the 30-year-old actor insisted on the human role in Tim Burton's $100 million remake of the sci-fi classic, 'Planet Of The Apes'.
"People tell me I'm pretty simian, but thankfully Tim wanted me to do the Charlton Heston role," tells the rapper-turned-underwear model-turned actor.
Despite having shown off his body on concert stages, in underwear ads and a workout video, Wahlberg insisted that he would not prance around in a loincloth, as Charlton Heston did in the original 1968 version. "I like to keep my clothes on these days," explains Wahlberg. "Tim promised me I didn't have to wear a loincloth. It would have been hard for me to walk out of my trailer with that thing on. Also, I have tattoos that would have made it difficult."
Despite promising himself no more action films after having made 'The Perfect Storm', Wahlberg signed up for 'Planet of the Apes' without even seeing a finished script. He explains: "Making 'The Perfect Storm', everybody got banged up really badly. I got bruised, battered and seasick. I was being hit by water cannons with 3,000-pound thrusts and then waves created by 30,000 gallons of water. An animatronic shark practically ripped my leg off."
"But working with Tim Burton was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He has always done so many amazing things; 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Ed Wood', 'Batman" and 'Sleepy Hollow'. I would have been foolish to pass up the opportunity. And I didn't think working with the apes could be worse than battling the shark in 'The Perfect Storm'. "
He was wrong. In one sequence, the reluctant action star was pelted by fireballs. "The stuntmen were seeing who could get closest to me, and whoever hit me would get a hundred bucks," Mark recalls. "I got hit with a couple, but luckily we were next to a lake so I could jump in and kill the fire." The Boston-raised actor also ended up spending four months being harassed by apes. "Almost every day, this pack of gorillas would come find me and kick my ass," he laughs. "I couldn't tell who they were because they were in costume."
And one day two real chimps became overprotective when he greeted co-star Helena Bonham Carter with a hug. "I think she smells a little nicer than I do," he laughs, "so they got a little bit upset. They got over it."
In 'Planet of the Apes', out August 17th, Wahlberg stars as astronaut Captain Leo Davidson whose spaceship crash-lands on a simian-run planet. In a world where apes are talking and humans are slaves, Tim Roth plays Thade, the chimpanzee general that favours exterminating humans and Helena Bonham Carter is Ari, a human-rights-activist chimp. The film was shot in Arizona and California, where the main set, Ape City, was constructed on a Hollywood sound stage by production designer Rick Heinrichs - an Oscar winner for 'Sleepy Hollow'. Six-time Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker created hundreds of ape makeups while three units were filming simultaneously to get the film ready for summer release. "But Tim never compromised his vision," tells Wahlberg of working with the 42-year-old director. "Tim used a mobile editing facility on location that he visited between set-ups but it wasn't like we rushed for the sake of short schedule."
Although the 1968 sci-fi classic spawned four sequels and two television series (one of them animated), Tim Burton has created his own unique version of the film.
"People should accept that this is a different film," compares Wahlberg the Burton film to the original version. "All the things that people want to see from the original are there, but there are so many things they missed out on that Tim can really take care of. I look at it as a very expensive art film. It'll blow people's minds."

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