The Big Picture

Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
star Freya Allan.
During her conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Allan revisits her experience scoring the role of Ciri in
The Witcher
, and also discusses what’s to come in Season 4.
After that, she reveals her
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
character’s backstory, and defends Mae’s “selfish” choices.

No role is easy, but at just 22-years-old, Freya Allan has already had to do a considerable amount of heavy lifting playing characters in dire situations with the weight of the world on their shoulders. After comparing the pressure The Witcher’s Ciri is under to the challenges her Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes character, Mae, faces in the film, Allan laughed and said, “Clearly they look at me and go, ‘Yeah, she’s got a lot going on. She’ll do the job.’” Allan may have been humble about it, but roles like Ciri and Mae could never soar without an actor capable of capturing and giving an audience access to their complex internal worlds.

In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Allan’s Mae finds herself forming an unexpected bond with Owen Teague’s ape character, Noa. It’s hundreds of years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes. Apes are now the dominant species while humankind struggles to find safety. Given Noa’s grown up in the confines of his village and knows little of the outside world, he’s shocked when he encounters Mae and she isn’t some feral creature, but rather, a brave being of intelligence with wants and a drive that isn’t so different from his own.

With Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes arriving in theaters nationwide on May 10th, I got the chance to have a Collider Ladies Night conversation with Allan to recap her journey in the industry thus far, and to dig into her experience finding Mae and conveying her complicated contributions to paving the way to a brighter future for humankind.

Nope, Freya Allan Didn’t Go to Drama School
Image via Netflix

As many well know, I do extensive prep work for every Collider Ladies Night interview. But yes, that includes reading someone’s Wikipedia page. Given I’m a big believer there are countless paths to success in this industry, and studying a craft like acting in a formal school setting it right for some and not for others, I often zero in on that particular part of one’s biography. However, in Allan’s case, she never studied at the universities she’s often associated with. “I did not go to National Film School.” She continued by clarifying, “I just did short films with them.” Allan also added, “It’s so frustrating. I’ve not done any of that.”

While the misconception may be frustrating, Allan’s actual experience honing her craft is still fruitful and fulfilling — just in a different way.

“
I’ve been told by actors that
have
gone to school, they’re like, ‘Your biggest power, Freya, is that you haven’t.’
I think, especially starting at 14, I’ve always just trusted in an instinct and a feeling. There hasn’t been too much noise. Of course there are amazing things you can take from drama school, but for me personally, I like to be able to not have any of that and to just have my life and what I’ve gone through in life and have that as a little toolbox, you know? I think that’s far more real than certain other things. I feel grateful for that, basically, if that makes any sense.”

Allan went on to note, “I think, for me, it’s just about, in the gaps between filming things is actually going out and living and experiencing, and that’s what my focus is on.” What’s the latest real-world experience that she finds influencing her acting? Allan laughed and noted, “Probably a breakup. The things that really pull on the heartstrings.”

Freya Allan Finds Her Approach to Acting Aligning with This Academy Award Winner

Another place Allan turns to to hone her craft? Her co-stars.

“I also feel like I’ve been lucky because I started working so young, to have absorbed a lot of other actors subconsciously in watching them. 100%,
so much of how I work is down to subconsciously absorbing from amazing actors who have been opposite me
. I feel very lucky to have learned that way, you know? And to have been inspired by the people in front of me, and to have been like, ‘You know what? I want to be a bit like them.’”

There’s one particular Academy Award-winning actor Allan is eager to follow in the footsteps of, someone she suspects has a similar approach to the work — Joaquin Phoenix.

“I’ve watched interviews of other actors where I’ve been like, ‘Ah, that’s similar.’ Like Joaquin Phoenix was having an interview and I feel like what he was saying resonated with me. I’d love to be like him because I think he’s amazing.”

While Allan looks toward Phoenix for inspiration, she currently finds herself being heavily influenced by her Witcher co-stars, especially when it comes to rehearsing. She explained:

“
I definitely think recently I’ve begun to enjoy, more than I used to, rehearsals, which I know that some of my co-stars on
The Witcher
love.
I used to hate them because, for me, ‘camera rolling’ and ‘action’ is like, I then jump out of the plane, you know? I hate the half-hearted thing of pretending that we’re doing it in a room that’s not it. I’ve never enjoyed that because I want to be
in
it and fully there. But, I’m beginning to, recently, really actually enjoy finding different things by doing it a lot of times. Usually I quite like to just do a few takes and just get it. I don’t know. That’s how I’ve been. But more recently, I’ve just been noticing myself thinking and finding new bits and pieces that have excited me, so maybe that’s beginning to change.”

Freya Allan Defends Mae’s “Selfish” Choices in ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’

In addition to discovering new things during the rehearsal process on The Witcher, Allan was also surprised to find herself identifying new things about her Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes character while watching the film.

It’s quite clear that Mae and Noa remain suspicious of one another throughout the film, but there’s also no denying that they find a degree of trust in one another. However, that trust is often tested, if not broken, and, more often than not, it’s due to Mae’s choices.

“I think I discovered a lot, actually, from watching it. I can see how Noa is constantly disappointed by the distrust there. But at the time playing it, I was like, of course she’s got to be selfish in these things. She’s a single human in a planet of apes. I mean, obviously, she’s not a single human, but you know what I mean. The setting she’s in, she’s on her own! She hasn’t got a teammate, like a true teammate.
The weight of humanity is on her shoulders, so it makes sense as to why she’d be doing selfish things
because she has to in order to survive, in order to uphold everything her family ever wanted. It’s a massive weight on her heart, as well. I think she’ll just die if she has to, basically.”

That weight is palpable while watching Allan’s performance in the film, but Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes doesn’t offer up many specifics regarding why Mae is the one bearing that burden. However, Allan did come up with her own reasoning and she revealed the details during our Ladies Night interview:

“Her parents went out on the same mission, and so I constantly held that with me. And they died.
Or
they never came back. You never know. Maybe they’re alive, but they never came back, so I think that that drove me along …
I held onto this thing that she had some kind of love interest who was in her group, and they all died, and Proximus killed them.
”

Image via 20th Century Studios

Allan went on to reveal that she did shoot a scene with Teague that hinted at this love interest for Mae:

“There was a moment in one of the scenes, which was taken out, where she says to Noa, ‘Do you like Soona?’ And then we went into this other little moment of hers where I got to really think about that person that had been in the camp with me, without vocalizing it, but it was there. There was a lot of that, which no one will ever know. But maybe they will if there’s another movie. Maybe. Or maybe they’ll change my entire backstory, and I’ll be like, ‘Sorry, I just spent the whole movie with this heartbreaking story, and suddenly my parents are actually there.’ Hopefully not.”

Looking for even more on Allan’s experience working on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Witcher, and then some? Be sure to check out our full Collider Ladies Night interview in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the conversation in podcast form below:

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he’s been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.Release Date May 10, 2024 Main Genre Sci-Fi

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes arrives in theaters nationwide on May 10. Click below for showtimes.

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