How life on farm prepared Travis Jeffrey for ape school

Actor Travis Jeffery has been preparing for his Planet of the Apes role since he could walk – but weeks of ape school helped.

Growing up on a farm in the Yarra Valley is a different planet to the bright lights of Hollywood – but that’s exactly where acting has taken Sydney-based Travis Jeffery.

The 35-year-old stars in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – and although family and friends won’t recognise him as AI-generated ape Anaya – he says growing up jumping from hay bale to hay bale at the farm put him in perfect stead for ape school. Yes, you read that right – ape school.

“It was so cool. When we first heard about it, we were like, what is ape school? And they took us to a basement level at Fox Studios, which is now Disney Studios, and there’s monkey bars set up and padded poles so we don’t hurt ourselves, and extensions, and this amazing French Canadian movement coach took us through how to become an ape for six weeks,” Jeffery tells Insider.

“It was like being right back in drama school … to begin with, you feel pretty silly running around as a chimp. I’ve always loved movement, I’ve always love climbing things – I grew up on a cattle farm so on hay bales, on the hay shed, in the trees. I was always getting told to stop climbing things – so I’ve really been practising for this my whole life,” he laughs.

“It was just a dream come true.”

Australian actor Travis Jeffery prepared for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at “ape school”. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Jeffery grew up in Melbourne, studied in WAPPA in Perth and has called Sydney home for the last 12 years. Today he’s flown back from LA following the global premiere of the film on Thursday and is home just in time for its Sydney screening on Tuesday before it opens in theatres worldwide on May 10. It’s a whirlwind that’s still very surreal for the country boy at heart. In theatres worldwide May 10.

“It’s so surreal – when I think about the Planet of the Apes premiere and going to LA – for these big things, it’s like, who let me in here,” he laughs.

Noa (played by Owen Teague), Soona (Lydia Peckham) and Anaya (Travis Jeffery) in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Picture: 20th Century Studios

“I grew up on a cattle farm – how’d I even get here? I’m just waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and go ‘sorry, you’re not meant to be here’. What I’ve achieved over the last 12 years in my career, I’ve been so lucky. I’ve worked really hard as well, but hard work is nothing without luck.”

And lucky he’s been. Within a year of graduating from drama school, Jeffery found himself on the set of a blockbuster film, cast as the young Scottish prisoner of war in Angelina Jolie’s 2014 war epic Unbroken. He’s gone on to play a number of soldiers – starring in celebrated Australian series including Gallipoli and Anzac Girls.

“(Working with Angelina Jolie) was the greatest lesson, straight out of drama school,” he says.

“I graduated and I was pretty pragmatic – I was like this might not happen for a while, it’s going to be a slog. But then to get a couple of jobs – like Anzac Girls and Unbroken – was just the greatest lesson and greatest traineeship at my first experience into how films are made. Just to see the scale of it. To walk on set on day one was terrifying – there’s 200 people all knowing exactly what they’re doing, and I feel like I’ve got no clue what I’m doing. But to slowly watch everyone and work out what everybody’s doing … and Angelina Jolie was so kind and so passionate, and so invested in making Louis Zamperini’s story, that investment filtered down, and you could feel everybody wanting to give it their all.

Gallipoli actor Travis Jeffrey. Picture: Nine

“Growing up, people always were really complimentary and said really lovely things about the plays and the stuff I did, but it felt a bit like a glass ceiling – like I’d be the kid from the country town that was good at acting, and then eventually would have to go get a real job.”

After Gallipoli – the work he’s most proud of – it was on to 2016 comedy Spin Out, the TV adaptation of cult horror Wolf Creek and the acclaimed 2019 series The Heights. But every role so far has taken him to the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. And the fact it was shot in Sydney was the icing on the chimp-friendly cake.

“I’m just so excited to share it with everyone you know, share it with the world – from start to finish it was just an absolutely incredible experience,” he says.

“I play one of the younger chimps – there’s sort of three best friends that the film opens on. It’s such an incredible trilogy, and those characters are pretty much always in conflict – they’re fighting for freedom, they’re fighting for peace – but because this film is set 300 years later, we open on these chimps living these great lives. There’s so much chaos in this film but, before the chaos breaks out, it’s so beautiful that the world has just been reclaimed by nature.

“Growing up on a cattle farm, I had a very lucky childhood, having space to run and play and ride motorbikes and do all the climbing that I loved so much. So to shoot on location in the Blue Mountains as a chimp – it was so much fun. And so stunning – you feel your shoulders drop an inch when you get out of your car in the Blue Mountains. It’s the same when I go home to Healesville.”