Phil Roberts 
We sat down with Primate star Miguel Torres Umba to discuss his role as Ben the chimpanzee and go beyond the mask to get down to the real monkey business of developing a truly memorable character.
We all love a creature feature. Whether it’s a zombie apocalypse, a vampire slaughterfest, or a Mummy unwrapping, there’s nothing like a monster movie. This week, horror fans are being treated to a new killer classic: Primate, a film about a pet chimpanzee going ape after contracting rabies. The film is an absolute riot, earning high praise from both of our critics, especially for Miguel Torres Umba’s performance.
By switching from the stage to the screen, the actor delivered a masterclass as Ben, the chimpanzee, mainly because the character was created solely through practical effects and Miguel’s performance. But what inspired Ben’s character, and how did Miguel approach portraying a chimp infected with rabies? Fortunately, we sat down with Miguel to discuss his incredible performance and explored the depths of his dedication to method acting.
MIGUEL TORRES UMBA & MONKEY BUSINESS
Phil Roberts: Your performance in this film is incredible. We’re all used to seeing creatures like those in Planet of the Apes created using motion capture and CGI. But you went well beyond that, actually portraying a practical chimpanzee. What was the biggest challenge of bringing that character to life?
Miguel Torres Umba: Thank you. Well, the fact that it’s practical. Everything surrounding Ben, the costume, and the pressures on my body are real. So I can’t hide away from them. The mask is heavy, it’s noisy, and it’s very hot in there. I can’t hear or see much, and also, I’m in the crouch position to to keep the proportions of the chimpanzee all the time, which means I’m burning energy very quickly with very little oxygen coming in. So really just juggling with that, with the costume itself, and then keeping that going in the background so that then I could perform and be a character and give a personality. So just dealing with that in the background is the biggest challenge of doing this.
Phil Roberts: Yeah, Ben is such a primal character. I mean, that mindset must be so difficult to get into. Not many people know that the film is based on a true story. So, now, to actually see that coming to fruition and touching such a visceral sense is shocking. How do you get into the mindset of a rabies-infected chimpanzee? There’s no study to say this is how they’re thinking. How did you get to that point?
Miguel Torres Umba: Well, I think what was useful was to play the character as a character, you know, just give it a bit of personality. I think what could have been really easy was to go into a rabid place and just be mindless and very angry all the time. That would have been one simple colour, but then we decided, and as I was playing it, to also infuse it with personality and give it a sense of like, once he passed the threshold of pain, and he became the killer that he became, then he was like, okay. But maybe he’s thinking about it, too.
Maybe he’s also strategic. Maybe he’s also feeling betrayed. There’s a moment where, in my mind as a character, he did feel betrayed by Lucy. So now he’s going to betray her in the same way that she did. So I started infusing him with personality, just as you would with any character, so it wasn’t just one simple layer; it was a lot more complex, which I think is what gives him the characteristics we all love.
Phil Roberts: You mentioned performing with a great cast. What was their reaction to that? I assume you were full method on set. So what was their reaction to seeing this massive change and swing from Ben from the lovable pet to the crazed killer?
Miguel Torres Umba: Yeah, it was great. It really helped us all. I think we were very happy about the practical approach to the film. I think Johnny, Troy, and everyone are very happy about it, because it meant that they had something to work with. They were able to work with me directly. And it wasn’t just me and my performance, but it’s like the costume is so good. It looks so good, and I’m drooling blood, sweat, and saliva on them. So they were feeling it for real, which meant their emotions were very genuine, and I think that was the biggest and loveliest thing. Not lovely (laughs)! But a terrific thing about the film is that they were able to respond in real time to something that was actually happening, and we were able to build a relationship of trust between me and the characters and Johnny’s character, to then also switch it and turn it on its head when he became rabid. So it actually was brilliant. It was absolutely exciting.
Phil Roberts: The film also raises questions about keeping chimpanzees as pets, their moral implications, conservation, and so on. What does that message mean to you about the preservation of the animals?
Miguel Torres Umba: Well, listen, for me, although the film is not trying to make that point, it does make the point without trying. That thing for me was always the big thing. I think chimpanzees should live in the wild. They are a sentient, beautiful, intelligent creature, so close to us that they deserve to be respected and left alone. As humans, we’ve become specialists, haven’t we, over our evolution? And we think we’re superior, but I think we should respect them a little bit more. So, in a way, I love the fact that we went practical in this film, respecting them and leaving them alone. We didn’t bring a chimp to try to make him perform in that way. In fact, we just made it all crafted. Over 50 people were involved in the making of the costume. I had a team of about 15 people around me. Every day, every single detail was being dealt with. So there’s that, there’s craftsmanship behind the making of the role.
Phil Roberts: What was the biggest challenge about being in that costume all day? It must have been a massive test of endurance?
Miguel Torres Umba: 100%. It’s too hot. The mask is really hot. As soon as I put on the mask, I got very little oxygen. I get super hot very quickly. I can’t perspire properly. My lenses limit my field of vision. Inside the mask, any noise that I make is amplified. So any noise as a chimpanzee is really bursting in my ears. So I had to wear headphones, but I could still hear people talking everywhere. My senses were suppressed, but also overloaded. And then, just being in the mindset and being able to be there for a long time was really, really challenging.
But that’s part of the challenge I took on. I had a stunt double, Nadia, who did really great. But you could just see the difference. You could just see how, when she did a sequence, how much it took out of her. And I was getting that most of the time. So, really keeping my mind under control and holding the team to put on the mask only when it was really needed was, I think, very challenging.
Phil Roberts: Obviously, the film also takes a big swing by having a deaf character in a major role. I mean, it’s quite a shocking moment when Ben, under the influence of rabies, is literally stalking his owner, and he can’t actually hear him coming. How powerful a moment was that for you, bringing that to the screen?
Miguel Torres Umba: Ah, that was brilliant. Again, because Troy is bringing that kind of new layer to the film, it was just very genuine, like literally he couldn’t hear what I was doing. So it was brilliant. I could make as much noise as I liked and was really trying to get his attention because he couldn’t quite hear where I was. You know, he is very genuine. So just adding that level of complexity was, I think, was brilliant. I think it was a great choice from Johannes as well, and one that Troy and his team took to the very best of the possibilities and made a beautiful sequence out of it, which has never been seen before. So I think that was absolutely brilliant.
And for me to play it, excellent. I mean, it just gave me so many possibilities. Every kill, every kind of moment was always very different, and I was able to make it playful or a little bit more stocky or a little bit more endearing to then betray them. So I just had tools to play with. It meant I wasn’t just playing the same tune over and over. I was able to be different each time.
Phil Roberts: You’ve made a career out of method acting and bringing some of these visceral, down-to-earth characters to life. How much of a challenge was Ben compared to the other characters you played?
Miguel Torres Umba: Oh, this is a massive challenge because a lot of the work that I’ve done has been in theatre. In the theatre, I was performing last week, and everything is big. Like, I know my audience is really far away from me when I’m in an auditorium of a thousand, two thousand people. People are far away from me. So everything is massive.
And with Ben, even though the physicality was really strong, I also had to be able to contain it, which is what happens in film all the time. So I was just dealing with these two realms of having to be quite physical and big to make sure the chimpanzee language was seen, and people believed it. And at the same time, really be able to contain it behind the mask, give it breath, give it life. Because chimpanzees behave so big. They don’t hold back. But there were moments when the camera wouldn’t like some of the movements that a chimpanzee would do. There was this up-and-up movement that the camera didn’t like. So it was just kind of like in between space of like, I know I have to be big, but at the same time, I have to be able to find the moments to hold it, to respond to the medium. So shifting that gear was very exciting at the same time. And I think my tools from theatre really helped, but I learned a lot. And I was very happy that Johannes allowed me to play and find these things. And he was pointing the camera and trying to capture as much as I was doing.
Phil Roberts: Yeah, it definitely comes across, at times you can see Ben tensing to attack. You can feel the raw emotion coming from you. So congratulations, it was an incredible performance. Last question. What do you hope the audience takes away from the film?
Miguel Torres Umba: I hope they enjoy it. I hope they’re really getting on the edge of their seats, and they really make the most of it. It’s a horror film. It’s made for them, for the fans. If any message stays in the background, I would say just respect animals and leave them alone. Let’s leave animals where they belong. It’s not what the message is. It’s not what the film is really trying to do. But if that stays in the background, I think that would be wonderful to have.
REVIEW
As my interview shows, we had a great time with Primate and were blown away by Miguel’s incredible performance. In his FOUR-STAR REVIEW, our reviewer, Carl, said: “Johannes Roberts’ Primate is a completely nuts, gory, scary horror that can only be described as Chimpan-Crazy! But has fun along the way. In under ninety minutes, it delivers more than enough to send the audience home happy.
It doesn’t outstay its welcome and makes for a tense, scary movie that deserves to be seen time and again. Although several aspects drag it down, making it not as good as it could have been, it’s still something that we can’t seem to get enough of. It draws us in, has us fall in love with Ben, then scares the pants off us as he turns violently murderous. It isn’t good, clean fun, but it is highly entertaining from the start.” Read his full review here.
RELEASE
Thankfully, audiences around the world won’t have to wait too long to experience the film for themselves. The film is now playing in cinemas everywhere, so there’s plenty of monkey business to enjoy. Go for the horror, stay for the jaw-dropping action, and immerse yourself in Miguel Torres Umba’s incredible performance. You’ll laugh your face off! Enjoy.
Primate is now playing in cinemas everywhere courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Meet Phil Roberts! He’s the dedicated owner, daily content manager, and editor-in-chief of The Future of the Force. Phil is a budding novelist who turned his passion toward writing about the franchises he loves back in 2016. He’s a huge fan of all things Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Phil is a BFI-accredited journalist and a distinguished member of the Film Critics Association UK.
If he’s not catching a movie at the cinema, you can bet he’s streaming something just as awesome!
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