'Fantastic Four': Jamie Bell Talks About How Motion Capture Technology Helped Capture 'The Essence' of The Thing

RTR2TV24 — IN PHOTO: Cast member Jamie Bell poses at the North American premiere of the film "The Adventures of Tintin" at the Closing Night Gala of AFI Fest 2011 in Hollywood November 10, 2011. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok Reuters/Danny Moloshok

Jamie Bell, the actor who plays the role of The Thing in “Fantastic Four,” spoke about his experience while filming the movie in a recent interview. The actor talked about how some of the fans were “confused” after hearing about his role and how his experience with motion capture technology helped him bring the character to life.

The Thing, known as Ben Grimm before the transformation, is one of the strongest members of the team in “Fantastic Four.” Jamie Bell spoke about his character in an interview with AOL, and the video of the interaction has been posted on the YouTube channel of AOL.

Jamie Bell admitted that playing the character was a “huge responsibility” because of the popularity of the character in the comic books. The actor said that there was a lot of “hoop jumping” and “trust” when it came to playing the character in the movie.

The actor explained that this was an origin story that featured a lot of young actors playing the roles of the superheroes, as opposed to the previous movies of the franchise where Michael Chiklis played the role of The Thing when he was about 42 years old at the time of the release of the first movie in 2005.

He emphasised that his character was brought to life using motion capture technology. He said that although the cast members had to go through a rigorous workout routine for the movie, his character was mainly about performance. “Obviously I’m not made of rocks and I’m not 6 foot 8,” the actor pointed out in the video.

Jamie Bell added that his experience of working with Andy Serkis on motion capture or performance capture technology for four times in his career helped him capture the “essence of a human being inside of the character, when he is transformed.” The actor considered Andy Serkis as his “mentor” for this aspect of filming in “Fantastic Four.”

The actor compared his experience with filming in “Fantastic Four” with that of a puppeteer bringing one of his puppets to life through his actions. Jamie Bell also expressed his excitement about having to work with fellow cast members like Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Toby Kebbell and Michael B. Jordan, who are all actors in his age group.

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