Exclusive Video: Andy Serkis and Son Louis Working Together on Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

Updated December 20, 2018:  It became a family affair when director Andy Serkis took the reins on Netflix's performance capture film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. After setting a star-studded cast, including Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch as Sheere Khan, and Naomie Harris as Nisha, he was convinced to take on the role of Baloo himself, and he cast his son Louis Serkis as Bhoot.

"Bhoot is this young, oddball, albino wolf," Serkis explains. "He has formed a magnificent relationship with Mowgli, who is his best friend. Bhoot immediately draws sympathy from the audience, and, rather cleverly, becomes the most beloved character."

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is based on the Rudyard Kipling classic tale of a boy torn between two worlds who finally accepts his destiny, becoming a legend.

This isn't Louis's first acting job. He previously appeared in Alice Through the Looking Glass, Taboo, and has the upcoming The Kid Who Would Be King.

"Louis is a very instinctive actor," Serkis continues. "It was a real thrill to work with him on set. I have been very, very lucky being surrounded by people who have a love for the story."

Watch the video and see their awesome father/son relationship for yourself.

Originally Posted December 7, 2018: Andy Serkis on How Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Differs from Jungle Book and Why We Need Both

It is only two years since Disney's The Jungle Book sang and danced its way into theaters, so why another version of the Rudyard Kipling classic? According to its director Andy Serkis, his film's non-musical adaptation is closer to the source material.

"I’m very passionate about The Jungle Book itself by Rudyard Kipling and his version," Serkis tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. "It seemed to me that in other versions, the one character that often suffers, and is the glue that holds it all together but isn’t terribly celebrated, or never really given a moment to shine, is Mowgli."

With the emphasis on the man-cub, played by RohanChand, the name of the Netflix film reflects that, employing the title Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.

"I’ve always believed that in other versions it really celebrates the antics of the animals," Serkis continues. "People put such a lot of emphasis on the animal characters, and lovingly create their story arcs and the story around them, and Mowgli’s being left out."

It took Serkis five years to get Mowgli completed -- another reason that Jungle Book beat it into theaters. It began under the auspices of Warner Bros., but then, after the film was completed, was bought by Netflix. Even with all the difficulties, he never gave up hope.

"Going back to the book, it’s such an extraordinary rite of passage and an extraordinary journey, a journey of someone who is other, someone who’s different, and his emotional journey to discover himself. That desire to tell that story has never left me."

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, voiced by Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch as Sheere Khan, Serkis as Baloo, and Naomie Harris as Nisha, begins streaming on Netflix on today.

Is the message of Mowgli as you see it, what it feels like to be an outsider, because there’s other themes in there, too, like to misquote Rodney King, “Why can’t we all just get along?,” or there’s an environmental theme as well?

Absolutely. Those themes are there, and Mowgli because of his duality, because he's of both worlds and of neither, he’s, in a way, able to be that bridge, that conduit of peace. The book was, obviously, written in a time of colonial occupation, and Rudyard Kipling himself was a child of the British Empire, so it’s very much about displacement. It’s about the jungle being encroached upon. It’s about seeing difference, which is what makes it very contemporary in a sense. We’re in a world now where we’re being told to see differences in people rather than what binds us, and so, I think, those are certainly the themes that can come through.

Since your version focuses more on Mowgli, the key, obviously, is finding the right actor. What made Rohan the perfect choice? And with the length of time it to took get it made, did he almost age out of the part?

First of all, I fully expected to do a huge search for Mowgli, to find the right actor, but our casting director, Lucy Bevan, put us onto Rohan. He was the third person I saw, and immediately thought, "This is our guy." It was quite extraordinary really. I’d seen him in Mark Wahlberg’s film, Lone Survivor. He plays this Afghani child, at the end, who helps him, and I just thought, "Wow, he's something really special."

Then, when we met on Skype, he was living in New York and I was in London, I just knew that he’d be right for the role. Considering his age at the time -- he was 10 going on 11, but just had a very old soul and his physicality was as if Rudyard Kipling was describing it. His body shape and everything about him just spoke of Mowgli.

So he came on board, and, fortunately, over the years, he didn’t change too much, and the changes that did come, in terms of his slightly getting physically bigger and stronger, we used to affect really, because we needed to reshoot a lot of the ending of the movie, which was being rewritten, where he starts to feel more like a young warrior, and that worked in our favor.

Not to name drop, but I was talking to Christopher McQuarrie for the DVD release of Mission: Impossible -- Fallout about decisions that have to be made, knowing that some people will watch a film on small devices. How did that work in this process once you knew you were being sold to Netflix?

It was kind of too late by then, because we’d already finished the film, but having said that, an inadvertent piece of luck, really, was that the way I wanted to tell the story, especially from the animals’ point of view, was to shoot them very close, so that you can really see what they’re going through emotionally. So, a lot of the film is in close-up. You see right into the animals' eyes, you see into their souls, and that emotional connection with Mowgli works very well on the small screen. You can really enjoy this film on a home cinema screen, I think, and even on your devices, too. If this was purely a spectacular piece of cinematic filmmaking -- there are elements of that, but it doesn’t rely on great big vistas too much. It’s much more intimate. It’s much more personal. It’s a drama with animals who are actors.

https://parade.com/718850/paulettecohn/mission-impossible-fallout-director-christopher-mcquarrie-on-tom-cruise-crazy-stunts-and-strong-women/

You have a stellar cast with Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Cate Blanchett. Why did you pick Baloo for yourself?

We were doing so well with the casting, and Baloo seemed to be the only one that was sticking. We weren’t getting there with him. I really didn’t intend to play anything in it, because I knew I’d have my hands full directing, then we -- the filmmakers and the producers -- were talking and people turned around, looked at me and said, "Andy, this is crazy. Why are you not in this movie? You should actually play in it."

So, I had to figure out how I would approach it. For me, I wanted to, again, go closer to the book, and to go to an element of Baloo which is never really represented. There’s a notion of him being all about tough love, and about him being like Rudyard Kipling’s colonial soldier characters in his poems in Barrack-Room Ballads, and so on. I wanted him to be this drill sergeant who pushes Mowgli really hard. Not because he doesn’t feel affection for him, but because he wants him to survive in the jungle, and he knows how dangerous it can be.

In the book, Baloo’s called Iron Paws, and he does give him the occasional smack if the cubs are not paying attention. He’s not afraid of being quite hard on them. So, that was the Baloo that I wanted to bring to the screen really.

This is a darker version than what Disney did. What do you see as the target audience? Is it right for young kids?

I think it’s really absolutely perfectly fine for all ages, but then I’d let my kids see anything perhaps. I’m a bit of a lenient parent. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this, and everyone seems to agree that from the age of about 8, again, depending on the sort of parent you are. There’s nothing gratuitous in this movie. There’s nothing salacious or adult themed that would stop anyone from watching it. It’s intense, that’s the thing. There’s an intensity to it, and it can be frightening, but then, storytelling and fairy tales can be frightening. Kids can be frightened, I think, in a good way even at a young age, because in a controlled environment you’re teaching them about life.

You’ve been very involved with performance capture technology. What do you love about working with it and what are maybe some of its minuses?

I don’t think there are any minuses. I adore it as a 21st century actor’s tool because it allows you to play absolutely anything. It’s this egalitarian tool that means that anyone can be anything, which I love, and philosophically as an actor that’s so important. Regardless of what height you are, or the shape of your body, or the color of your skin, or what sex even that you are, you can totally inhabit any person, creature, or inanimate object. You can become anything. It’s like a magic suit.

And also, it’s no longer solely in the domain of big-budget filmmaking. It can be used for television, for video games, for augmented reality, and virtual reality, and even stage work and live theater. So, I see it as a very exciting tool for next-generation storytelling that will continue to burgeon over the next however many years.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle begins streaming on Netflix on Friday, Dec. 7.