Owen Teague Says He Needed 'Human School' to Unlearn Monkey Mannerisms After “Planet of the Apes” (Exclusive)

The actor stars as the chimp Noa in 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'

Owen Teague had to deprogram his animal side after transforming into a young chimp for his latest role.

In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the actor, 25, plays a monkey named Noa in a futuristic world where apes are the dominant species and humans are pushed to the fringes.

To prepare for the roles, Teague and his costars went to so-called "ape school" to train on how to move like the animals. Via motion-capture technology, their performances shine through CGI fur.

"After a couple days, you're used to it. Your brain just adapts really quickly," Teague tells PEOPLE of filming in the polka-dotted suits with face-tracking cameras strapped to their heads. "Then it wasn't really silly or anything, because we all bought in. Everybody committed so hard that there wasn't really any feeling of embarrassment ever."

At the end of the day, "I'll do anything for a production," says Teague, also known for roles in the It movies and opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus in You Hurt My Feelings.

But, after wrapping Apes, Teague could have benefited from human classes to shed the monkey mannerisms he'd spent weeks perfecting.

"It stuck around. I mean, for months afterwards," says the star, who grew up in Florida. "We needed human school afterward, which we didn't get. Little things will still pop up that I have to be consciously aware of not indulging."

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For example, he says, "If I'm sitting on the floor and I get up, I don't put my palms on the ground — I use my knuckles. I don't even think about doing that anymore. That's just how I use my hands when I'm on the ground; it's always knuckle. Stuff like that and little facial tics or the way I scratch."

He admits, "It's really strange." Still, it was worth it for the "incredible" final product onscreen. But is Teague frustrated that his big blockbuster starring role masks his human face? "Not at all."

"Because it's what I try to do, regardless of who I'm playing, whether or not I'm a human," he explains. "You want to disappear. I want to become whoever I am playing. I don't want people to see me onscreen; I want them to see the character."

"Also, I get to maintain my anonymity. I can walk down the street and nobody cares," says Teague. "I can go see this movie in theaters with my friends, which I will probably do. It's cool. It's great."

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The celebrity aspect of the Hollywood gig isn't what Teague is after.

The actor, who says he isn't online much, enjoys making music and taking photography in his free time and spending time with his friends from high school. "That's my life," he says. "And then on top of it I'm an actor, which is the other, separate thing."

Even the attention he got after a role in the It films (he played one of the teen bullies, Patrick Hockstetter) released in 2017 and 2019 turned out to be too much for Teague.

"It's always been a bit freaky for me," he says of fame. "The idea of that and the small peripheral taste of it that I've gotten with it, and I am not even a big character in that movie, but the fandom that emerged out of that was so intense, and I got a little bit of it. I was just like, 'This is a lot for me to deal with.' "

"It's frightening. So I have to stay at the background," he adds.

He'll continue to take non-monkey roles too, even if Apes will always be in his DNA. Says Teague, "It's funny because if I think now when I play human characters, I'm very normally human. But the minute it goes back to me, there's a little bit of that ape thing that comes in."

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in theaters May 10.

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