War For The Planet of the Apes Teen Star Amiah Miller Interview

By: Lynn Barker

In War for the Planet of the Apes, we return to a world where an experiment gone wrong gave rise of a species of intelligent apes and a virus that nearly wiped out humans. Now, with few humans left, it’s up to leader ape Caesar to continue a war that will put apes on top or try to live with remaining humans.

In between worlds in the movie is young Nova, a mute, virus survivor orphan living with apes in the woods. Can she be the healing link between apes and humans? Nova is like Red Riding Hood but instead of meeting the Big Bad Wolf, she has mostly friendly apes taking care of her.

Nova is played by soon (July 16^th) to turn 13-year-old actress Amiah Miller. Originally from Virginia, the Southern actress moved to Florida at age eight and became a model and commercial actress until her family moved her to L.A. where the cute blonde acted in TV’s  “MacGyver”, “Richie Rich” and Nick’s “Henry Danger” as well as landing a lead role in the indie film House by the Lake.

Amiah tells us that she’s still in shock about flying in a private jet with “movie stars” and right now her life is just full of “living it up!”  One of feisty Amiah’s hobbies is training in Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu at her dad’s mixed martial arts gym. Playing a girl who couldn’t talk must have been hard for this outspoken gal who is just becoming a teen. Check it out!

Q: What does your character Nova represent in the story?

• Amiah: Nova represents humanity and goodness. She’s just the light in the movie. She brings out the good in Caesar. Everything is so dark and she makes him see things in a different light. I’m glad she does because things are going downhill.

Q: Nova is living with the apes. Were you trying to be a bit like an ape?

• Amiah: I wanted to have ape-like mannerisms because I’m with them a lot. Plus I had to take Terry telling me “Okay you’re going to inhale and as you exhale you are going to become like an ape”. So I was (working on) the similarities between them.

Q: How was working with your director Matt Reeves? Did he make it easy for you?

• Amiah: He’s so great at visualizing what he wants and telling you what he wants and he’s very soft-spoken. He never raises his voice. He makes sure that you are comfortable with everything. He’s just amazing.

Q: Were the sets cool and impressive?

• Amiah: My mind is blown!  It’s crazy because I pictured something in my head reading the script and it turned out a thousand times better when I first saw it.

Q: What are you most excited to see in the final film?

• Amiah: I’m most excited to see the motion capture, how the apes look. There are the green and blue screens and I want to see how it is all put together because everything (I saw on set) is one puzzle piece and, at the end the puzzle is put together.

Q: How did you find out you got the part?

• Amiah: Well, I didn’t know what the movie was when I was auditioning then we got the call that I got it and found out it was Planet of the Apes. My dad and I are freaking out because we’re really big fans of the Planet of the Apes movies.

Q: Andy Serkis does an amazing job wearing a motion capture suit to play lead ape Caesar. Did you like working with him?

• Amiah: He’s awesome. He’s very nice and Karin (Konoval who plays orangutan Maurice) had said before I ever met him that he was one of the nicest men she’d ever worked with and she was right.

You can see War for the Planet of the Apes in theaters July 14^th!

 

Have Your Say

Do you root for the talking apes or Mankind when you see these films? If you are a feisty tween or teen can you imagine not saying anything in a whole movie? Comment below!