A BUG'S LIFE
ROBERT STRANGE TALKS ABOUT BRINGING THE WRARTH TO LIFE
Were you familiar with Doctor Who? I’ve always been a fan. I remember watching the Christopher Eccleston series when I was young. David Tennant and Catherine Tate were my childhood heroes. To be involved in their reunion was something special; to see them in real life on set, doing their back and forth the way that they do.
How did the role come your way? Because I carved a niche for myself as a creature performer, a lot of work comes to me directly based on what I’ve done in the past and what they’re looking for physically. I’m lucky enough to have worked a lot over the years with Millennium FX, who make Doctor Who’s creature suits. They got in touch and said, “We need a tall performer who’s willing to do something quite physical”. So I went to the workshop. There was a pair of giant stilts lying on the floor. They unofficially told me what it was for. I didn’t need any convincing whatsoever – I said, “Let’s do it!”
How well did you take to the stilts? Quite well. They’re almost like a giant pair of heels, just on a tiptoe with a counterbalance down the back. They’re quite agile. You can’t stand still in those specific type of stilts. They have a curved base on the foot which allows you to move forwards and you have to constantly shift your weight to stand on the spot. So we incorporated that into the movement of the Wrarth – they have this lumbering, insect-y quality.
Tell us about being fitted in the costume… It took an hour and a half to get ready. We had a balaclava-esque head with the big glowing eyes and antennae, and the exoskeleton of the insect-like head was a pull-on thing over our head and neck. And then the face was stuck on our face – we could look out through holes. That was the only bit that was glued on, blended in and painted. The rest was a suit that you put on in various layers.
The incredible people from Millennium who made the suit dressed you and looked after you all day, with water bottles and fans to cool you down. They even made huge bicycle seats on a big stand that they could run in between takes, so when we couldn’t take the stilts off, we’d at least have something to sit on. Vital when you’re marching up and down a street in Cardiff for several hours!
This was the Wrarth Warriors’ signature battle scene…
In terms of spectacle, it was really fun.
Primarily for the shoot there were two of us, Stephen Love and myself. But for those shots there were four of us, Jordan Benjamin and Vassili Psaltopoulos as well. We had earpieces in so that Paul Kasey, who’s the creature, movement director, could keep us marching on time. We brought all the movement together, with the twitches of the head and the cl
