Predator Talk

I finally got it! I talked to 'The Predator', from Alien VS Predator. Although I wish I could have got more, I was able to get this interview with him. 1.How did you prepare for the role of the famed predator? The first thing that I did when I found out that I had been cast in the role was to remind myself of the earlier films. Obviously Kevin Peter Hall was the only other man in history to ever play the role and it would have been foolish of me to ignore his performance. Developing a performance style that I could carry through the entire film was not as hard as I thought. I went through the original films frame by frame trying to extrapolate little nuances of Kevin Peter Hall’s performance that I could utilize and develop into characteristics and personality traits for my own performance of the predator characters. When you consider that the predator does not speak and has no face (for much of the film at least) then you get an idea of how important body language is to the character. The predator is not a robot, he has emotions and a personality and every little hand gesture or head movement can be used to convey those emotions. By far the toughest and lengthy part of my preparation was making sure that I was fit enough to carry the performance through a very arduous six month shooting schedule. After visiting the ADI studios in California for the preliminary fitting I knew that this role was going to need another level of fitness both physical and mental. I put myself through a punishing fitness regime prior to the start of filming to get used to carrying an extra 40 or 50 kilos around everyday. Even during filming, at least up until the Christmas hiatus I was training regularly to maintain my fitness as well as spending all day on set. 2.Have you ever watched any of the predator movies? Yes, I have always been a fan of the predator. The idea of an alien race visiting planet Earth and being fought off by heroic figures is as old as the hills, but the concept of this intergalactic tribal hunter with a perceived code of honour and very well developed combat ideal was quite ground breaking and it really captured the imagination when it was released. Not to mention the awesome Stan Winston design; it had to scare Arnold Schwarzenegger for goodness sake!! Even predator 2 was not as bad as people make it out to be. The predator was still awesome. 3.How long did the make up effects take themselves? On the first day of principle photography the costuming took about four hours, but by the end of the first week the team had it down to about ninety minutes. There were several stages of the costume. The first stage was a point where I could sit off set in relative comfort waiting for the call to action. The next stage was everything except the head and the last stage was of course the head. The face plate was the very last piece to go on. It had to come off after almost every take because the visor steamed up rendering me blind most of the time, but as soon as it went on I was fully in character – I was the predator! It was a little different when I was performing scenes with the face plate off, because I had to have my contact lenses put in and my eyes blacked out. The mechanized head was cinched very tightly around my own to ensure that no natural skin colour could be seen around my eyes. At first I found the mechanized head very difficult to perform in, but like everything else about this role that was uncomfortable or painful, I came to terms with it very quickly. It was a mental battle more than anything, at the front of my mind every day was the single motivating thought that I was playing one of the most iconic science fiction characters ever imagined, there was no way that I was going to let a little pain or discomfort effect my performance. 4.Do you have a favourite scene and if so what is it? There were so many scenes that were so much fun to shoot it is very hard to pick one that stands out from the rest. The beginning of the fight chamber scene when I got to beat up almost the entire leading cast, strangle Raoul Bova and stab Colin Salmon was certainly one of my favourites. The Lance Henriksen death scene was also a favourite, (that was my first scene ever and they set me on fire as well). The scene when an alien creeps out of the masonry and breaths down my neck before I slice off its face was also a lot of fun and was one of the few scenes when Tom Woodruff and I actually appear together. Generally, for someone like me who had never done anything like this before the film was a hoot from beginning to end. 5.Did you keep anything from the role as a memento? I was not allowed to keep any memorabilia or souvenirs from the film. I have a preview poster and several photographs to go along with my fond memories. 6.Was the suit difficult to move in? What about ventilation? The costume was very hot and heavy, but making it look as though it was not a man in a hot and heavy rubber suit was exactly what was required of me for the performance. I am still not sure if I have achieved that or done it justice. The suit was not ventilated at all other than when I removed the head. Provision was made for the call of nature, but again it was a mental battle; I couldn’t go so I didn’t want to. The suit was not that difficult to move in. It had to be flexible enough to allow me to give a full performance. If it was restrictive in any way then it would have had to be redesigned. 7.Did you have any motivation for the role itself or did you just go in and stand where instructed? There was a certain amount of doing whatever I was told, as long as I was in the right place and lit properly the performance was basically up to me. If Paul Anderson didn’t like anything that I did he would say so and I would do it differently. I found inspiration in the unlikeliest of places and I was greatly motivated by the epic saga of Beowulf. It may sound an odd source in which to find motivation, but I viewed the lead character predator as a noble warrior skilled in the art of combat and possessing of a strict code of honour. Beowulf is the epic tale of victory against the insurmountable foe and it appeared to provide a perfect parallel. I was also motivated by the fact that this was not an original role and there had already been two magnificent performances of the character by Kevin Peter Hall. I was very aware that I not only had to deliver a performance worthy of the movie, but I also had to deliver a performance worthy of Kevin Peter Hall. He was a talented and well respected character actor and the predator was probably his crowning glory. Performing the same role in my first performance; I felt a great deal of pressure to live up to the bench mark that he created. There you have it folks. Ian Whyte; The Predator. Great guy and we all thank him for his work and allowing me this interview Ian is a client of Coolwaters Productions