Andy Serkis & Mowgli Star Pick Animal Personalities For Celebs

Hey, what's up guys? We're hanging out in the Young Hollywood Studio with Andy Serkis and Rohan Chand. Hey guys, how's it going? How are ya? I was just telling you guys how much I love this movie. It's insanely good.

Oh my gosh. Thank you, thank you.

And you shot it in South Africa, right? That must've been so beautiful.

Yeah. It's an incredible place. We built the location for the village which is the the last kind of act of the story takes place in the human village. And they they took they took ages and months to kinda grow plants and fit it into the jungle. They cut their way through it originally to to to actually build huts and things. And there was lots of snakes, wasn't there?

Yes, yeah, there was a lot.

Oh my god, were you horrified?

Yeah, I mean I'm walking around with bare feet and everything too so it's not surprising.

No. You poor thing. And you were just in a little tunic. That couldn't hide you anywhere.

I mean, they're I think we cut over 80 or something snakes and there are monkeys and things stealing props from the set, so that was that was always exciting.

Are you serious? I don't know why.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you you were so passionate about this film. Why is that? Were you a fan of the books?

Yes.

Is that why you were so passionate about this film?

Yeah, and also, I mean, you know, I I don't think people really were familiar with the books and the and the sort of the tone of the book. And everyone we we all grew up we all grew up, didn't we, with the 1967 animation, but there is a much more kind of uh complex journey of this young boy played by uh Rohan beautifully, um Mowgli, um and his journey to self-discovery. And this sense of him being other, this sense of him being outside and having to really work to to see what world he's happiest in, whether it's the world of animals or man. And it really apart from anything else, I think this is a really emotional telling of that story.

I am not a man, but neither am I a wolf. Which of you will follow me? Man cub, the whole jungle has been watching you. I won't fail.

Yeah, I like that it wasn't a it's not sing along, it's not about the animals dancing it's it's so real.

Yeah.

It's frightening, it's emotional. I love it. Um you did such a great job in it. How did you guys get connected? Did you audition? How did it How did you guys get connected for this movie?

We had an amazing casting director on this movie and uh it was Lucy Beven who suggested that I look at Rohan and I'd already seen him in this film which was called Lone Survivor, Mark Wahlberg's film. He plays this great character at the end with this Afghani child with a duck.

Yeah. Very good film.

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we met via Skype and we just immediately I saw him, I just thought this is this is Mowgli. This is We look no further.

Now, I read you actually slept with wolves to get into character.

Yes, so I actually went to Upstate New York in order to to kinda observe the wolves without, you know, human interference and everything and how the wolf interacts like within the wolf pack like alpha to omega stuff like that, you know. It was just amazing to be able to like see that and incorporate that into Mowgli.

What about the ladies? Do you have any Hollywood crushes yet? Are you giving him any advice dating wise?

Uh I'd be hopeless to get anything. Um, but have I have I ever given you any advice in that department?

Not too much.

Any Hollywood crushes or anything like that? They're probably like, oh my god, it's here you pay for that.

Uh, no, not so much I don't think. I mean, you know, I guess I'm Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'm a bit more focused on the work.

What's it like working with all these other characters in the movie? Cate Blanchett, so many great actors in this movie. Was that fun too to work with them?

Yeah, it was really great. I mean, just the amount of commitment and the amount of hard work they really just put into their roles is really fantastic.

We were blessed, we had the most amazing cast.

I know, yeah.

I mean, and they and they're all using this, you know, performance capture technology to bring their performances to life. So it meant that Rohan could act absolutely in the same space with them. And what one of the things that we really wanted to do in this movie was make those emotional connections between Mowgli and and the animals feel very real and you know, and and heartbreaking at times. And and and I think that's, you know, using that technology we were certainly Yeah.

That's true. Oh, and did the baby cub that's like, you're my best friend Mowgli. I'm like, oh my god.

Oh, yeah, that was that was actually Andy's son who played that. That's my son. Yeah.

Oh my god, you're so good. That was so good. How do you choose an actor to play a certain animal? How did you know Cate Blanchett would be good as a python?

You you you really when you're casting it, you start to think about the the persona, the animal persona of of that a person might give off. You know, or I'm not that I'm saying Cate's like a snake, but all of the actors were cast because you just you just heard their voices in the character and then thought but actually physically they would be amazing because they would bring something very special to it.

Okay, before we end this segment, because you're so good at this, deciding what actor's good in an animal character, I'm just gonna throw some celebrity names out at you guys. Don't even think about it, just say which animal you think they could play. Don't even hesitate. Let's just go for it. Selena Gomez. Go.

Ostrich.

Ostrich.

Uh, deer, giraffe, I guess.

Giraffe.

Okay. Um Harry Styles. Go for it.

Um um sloth.

Sloth.

I was gonna say some sort of bird. A bird. Emma Stone. Go.

Um Magpie.

Cheetah.

Cheetah.

Okay, last one and make it count. Justin Bieber.

Uh Baby Rat.

Baby Rat.

That's amazing. You guys, thank you so much for coming in.

Thank you.