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David Charkham reflects on his time as an ape-man in "2001: A Space Odyssey". I was living in the London suburbs with my parents when I made the movie. I can't remember the year exactly, but I'd been a child actor since 15 (and had) already appeared on the West End stage, soaps and kids TV. I remember the Six Day War was onNOTE 1 , I think also there had been a disaster in Aberfan, south Wales. A mining village had been flattened by a collapse of a mountain of coal waste that destroyed the local school and killed many kidsNOTE 2 . They searched for the apes high and low, first through acting channels, where I was seen. Nothing happened, then some time later the labour exchange sent me to the studios, where I met Andrew Birkin, an assistantNOTE 3 . He took many polaroids. I'd like to say my acting talent got me the part, but really I thimk it was because I had long arms and a short body. I was pretty fit and agile. I'd danced briefly on the Young Generation show starring ... Rolf Harris!NOTE 4 But I was mostly fit from dancing all night in "swinging London" clubs and chasing pretty girls in mini skirts!! I spent six weeks shootng the ape sequence. We must have been chosen as two groups of apes, dominant males, juveniles and females ... I got paid a lot of money for those days, as I was living at home and driving my mom's car. Thankfully my dad set up a tax account for me so I didn't get hit with the huge tax bill I couldn't pay the following year ... We had no idea we were working on a classic movie. I thought it was an interesting movie, probably more impressed 'cos John Lennon said it was fantastic. Yes, I saw it in London first (at the) Cinerama theatre in SohoNOTE 5 . I knew nothing about Kubrick or Clarke. My interests were more sex, drugs and rock and roll. My friends would joke with me when I said I was playing an ape in a movie and the star was a giant computer. I thimk the only point Clarke didn't predict correctly was the invention of the microchip because Hal would have been minute in comparison. I did see a bit of Mr. K (Stanley Kubrick). He seemed a bit remote but highly respected by cast and crew except for one young punk! I wasn't very big on sci fi. My interest in Apollo came much later. I was in the middle of crazy swinging London when they landed on the moonNOTE 6 ... The studio was big, M.G.M. in Elstree, Herts, of course near Kubrick's home. The studio closed around 1970 but there are street names on the estate with film connections. In the sixties there were 3 large studios with plenty of work for all. Sadly there's only one left, owned by the BBC, home of our biggest soap, East Enders. All I saw was our ape stuff, except for one stage completely draped in black cloth where they shot all the model sequences. I saw some space ships and the space station. ... Our background (consisted of) stills made into giant slides projected onto a bluescreen backdrop. The picture could only be seen when you looked through the camera lens. Our set was on a (revolving stage) so the backscreen stayed where it was. As you see in the credits, it did have a huge technical crew, perhaps not compared with today but huge for the time. I only met the other apes plus the real animals in the film and their trainers. I mostly remember the jaguar, which was pretty scary. As for the general vibe on the movie, Dan Richter and possibly Kubrick were convinced that the Planet of the Apes, being made around the same time, technical crew were spying on us! One day we were rehearsing in a field on studio grounds and Dan made us all get in a tight huddle as an aircraft flew over in case they had a camera. Rumour had it that everything from the movie was destroyed to avoid copies etc. The ape suit ... First we had sort of long johns, then the bottom and top of the suit. It was so hot in the outfit that they gave us salt pills every day 'cos we were sweating so much. Finally the head, it was very claustrophic, we could only handle about 15 minutes each go. Until the cameras actually rolled we had tubes placed through the mouth section and then in to our own mouths so we could get extra air. We could make our lips curl and move with toggles built into the mouth which we operated with our tongues! Apes use lots of facial expressions. There is a book on the making of the movie published in the USA that shows some good ape picturesNOTE 7 . Our eyes had to all be the same colour brown so we had contact lenses. As this was years before soft lenses, ours were made from glass, and this was how one of us injured his eye and that's why the union man was called. I think we got some extra danger money. London in the sixties was great and wild, I was making great money with no overheads, spent it all on good times. I was hanging out at the hip clubs watching the newly formed Who, Animals, Cream, and digging Hendrix who had just arrived in London. Also Otis Redding and of course the Stones free concert in Hyde Park two days after Brian Jones had diedNOTE 8 . (Up to) 1986 ... I was in shows like Hair and (Jesus Christ) Superstar in the West End, a few more movies, tiny parts, and TV sit coms, etc. ... I'm proud to have been a tiny part of THAT MOVIE... As for my wishes for 2001, that there will be a huge sixties music revival, so I can dance my ass off, and my band Rocky Recovery will be asked to perform in the U.S. again and Australia. Oh yes, I have no regrets about anything really, even most of the shitty bits. Cheers David
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Endnotes
NOTE 1
Six-Day or June War: ended (for some...) on June 10th, 1967 NOTE 2
Aberfan disaster: on October 21st, 1966, 144 people including 116 children were killed when an unstable coal-mine slag heap slid and engulfed this South Wales village school. NOTE 3
Andrew Birkin: Kubrick's "tea boy" who quickly became a key member of the director's staff. NOTE 4
Rolf Harris: the wobbleboard man - you have to be British or Australian! NOTE 5
Cinerama theatre in Soho: Casino, Old Compton Street. NOTE 6
When they landed on the moon: July 20th, 1969. NOTE 7
Some good ape pictures: presumably Jerome Agel's "Making of Kubrick's 2001". NOTE 8
Stones free concert in Hyde Park: July 1969. I was there, too! |
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Many thanks to David Charkham for sharing these insights and memories and for being so patient waiting for them to appear! |
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 by David Charkham and The Underview |