Owen Teague spent weeks walking like an ape after Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball discuss the blockbuster's bootcamp:

Embodying an ape for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was so immersive that it took weeks for some actors to unlearn their moments and body language, director Wes Ball reveals to Yahoo UK.

The forthcoming blockbuster is the fourth film in the Planet of the Apes prequel series —and the tenth overall if we include the 2001 reboot of the Charlton Heston original— which follows a new group of apes, and is led by Owen Teague's Noa. The actor, Ball shares, was so completely immersed in the world that after completing boot camp and filming he had a hard time shaking the chimpanzee persona.

"It's funny because Owen, two weeks after he had to do another movie after our movie and the director was like, 'why are you walking funny?'" Ball recounts.

"Because it was still in him. He was still kind of walking like an ape, they hold themselves differently, they just become that thing which was fascinating and it was crucial."

Even though it was hard to shake the director explains that it was the most important lesson that Andy Serkis, who led the first three films in the reboot series, taught them: "It was crucial, that was one thing Andy always told us: 'You really have to become an ape, you can't be pretending to be an ape'.

"You have to get become so intuitive and so internal that when we're out on set you're not even thinking about it, they're just doing their ape thing. You know what I mean?"

Ball went on: "It's totally necessary that they don't think about that stuff because you can tell when they become an ape —if they weren't there, or some actor wasn't quite doing the right thing— they look like they're [a] human walking around.

"So it's really fascinating stuff, and it was quite a learning experience for all of us, I think."

The new chapter of the Planet of the Apes franchise is set several generations after the death of Caesar, Andy Serkis' leader who helped free all apes from captivity. He may be gone but his legend lives on, but some try to perverse his teachings including rising dictator Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand).

Read more: Everything you need to know before watching Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Kingdom centres on Noa, a young ape whose clan is attacked by the villain's goons in their search for more ape-power, and their mission to find a human who escaped captivity. This human, Noa soon learns, is Mae (Freya Allan) who he aids on his journey to save his clan from Proximus — but who also teaches him that apes and humans might not be so different after all.

Ball admits that the "big question" over this film was how they'd honour Serkis' Caesar and his legacy going into this new story. He explains: "We wouldn't have made it if we didn't feel there was a good reason to tell the story. But, with that said, we wanted to start with new characters and a new sense of tone and adventure, and a different type of story this time.

"We didn't want to abandon that Caesar storyline, so Caesar is still a character in this movie in a way, spiritually. And that was a fun thing to play with, to not do a direct sequel, but to be something that is still part of that same universe and explores what's happened to that character that we all loved."

"[Looking at] what's happened to his memory, and the myth and legend stuff that's formed in the time since that last movie ended — it was fun," he adds.

"It was really exciting to play with and we think we found a good story that inspired us and got us excited to do something [that's] its own new chapter. It's a new beginning essentially for this long, 55-year plus franchise of movies."

Teague and Allan provided a "youthful spirit" to the franchise through their characters, the director says, as he admits the story they've created is "very much a journey of discovery for both of them."

"I think what what we ultimately see in the movie is that it may start as an ape story with Noa, [but] it becomes also her story as well," Ball reflects. "So by the end of the movie, you realise what we're trying to do here is tell a story of these two characters and their relationship.

"They have each other as we move forward, hopefully, in the future movies, [and there's] a conflict, drama, that's going to arise from that, you know?"

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out in cinemas now.