Gary Oldman attends press conference at WonderCon 2014

Last weekend, Gary Oldman made an appearance at this year’s WonderCon in Anaheim, specifically for a press conference to promote his upcoming film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. We Are Movie Geeks reported that he joined fellow cast members Andy Serkis and Keri Russell and director Matt Reeves to discuss the film that is due for release this summer. 

When asked about his first memory of Planet of the Apes, Oldman replied,

Really, you look back, and I can’t imagine a sort of childhood without [the original] PLANET [OF THE APES]. I was nine – ten when the first one came out. It’s not only the opportunity to work with these good people, [but] you’re also being asked to be part of cinema history. So that was above and beyond the story. You’re involved with something, for the most part, that comes with a very good pedigree. I mean, it went a little wobbly for a while, but we’re back on track.

He continues by talking about his experience working with Andy Serkis, who reprises his role of Caesar the ape in the film:

The question that’s often asked is ‘What is it like working with Andy Serkis as the Ape? You’re better to answer that since you’ve got all the big scenes with him.’  I come to work, and I get into a costume, and Andy comes to work and gets into a costume. So at least you can see his face; you can see the eyes, and you see the emotion. I would actually rather that than – if you were wearing a mask then the question might be “What’s it like working with someone who’s behind a mask?’  but you’re not.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel to the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a reboot of the original Planet of the Apes films, which, as you may remember, starred Tom Felton. This movie will focus on Caesar and his gang of “genetically evolved apes” as they are “threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier.” In response to being asked about the survivors’ mission, Oldman said,

Initially, we don’t know that there are apes there because this community has survived the flu. The epidemic that has sort of wiped out a part of the world. We believe the military had done their job and that, basically, they have wiped out the apes. The thing is we have food; we have water, but the currency is, for lack of a better word, electricity. That’s the currency, and we need that to communicate to the outside world to eventually find out if there is anyone out there or how many are out there… who is out there. We believe, for all intents and purposes, that we could be the only survivors. Then, we discover a community of apes who are all doing their thing with their family, and we’ve all been wiped out. And of course we discover each other. The drama is ‘Can the apes and the human[s] coexist?’

Catch Dawn of the Planet of the Apes when it rolls into cinemas on July 11.