“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” cast had a 'running joke' about how many bananas they ate on set

Star Owen Teague reveals he ate at least one banana every day while playing a chimpanzee, and that was a common theme among the rest of the cast.

The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes cast went a little Method when it came to their eating habits.

Director Wes Ball’s next installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot saga is set about 300 years after War for the Planet of the Apes. The new story revolves around a young chimpanzee named Noa (Owen Teague) who lives peacefully with his isolated clan. But when his village is attacked by vicious apes ruled by the tyrannical Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), it's up to Noa and a mysterious human girl (Freya Allen) he meets on his journey to not only save his clan but also potentially fight for a future where apes and humans can once again co-exist.

The franchise's new lead actor, Teague, spent a lot of time watching and studying primates while preparing to play one and even ended up mimicking their eating habits. In fact, he and the rest of the cast ate so many bananas on set that it eventually became a "running joke."

"I had a routine because I was in this every day for six months," Teague tells Entertainment Weekly. "I would get up two hours before call. I would do my warm-up, I would do my breath stuff, and vocal work. And then I would eat something — I would eat usually a banana."

Related: The lavish Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes introduces a new primate protagonist

Teague laughs and adds that he knows how perfect that is. "It's a running joke in the cast that we all love bananas," he says.

As his daily routine continued, he would head to set and eat again. "[I'd] eat breakfast, which was eggs with avocado every day — not more bananas," Teague explains. "Although those would come up throughout the day."

Related: Planet of the Apes director sets the stage for Kingdom and 'a lot more story to be told'

When it was finally time to get into character, Teague would only have to spend 15 minutes getting the motion-capture dots put on his face and putting on the suit.

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"Then I go on set, and usually Elaine, our movement coordinator, would lead us through a warm-up, and that was it," he says. "It became a ritual for me — that was my day. We would shoot 10 hours and eat five more meals because you're burning so many calories that you just have to keep [up]. And then I'd go home, have dinner, take a shower, go to bed. That was my life for six months, and it was really, actually quite wonderful."

And full of potassium.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes swings into theaters on Friday.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.