Terry Notary

Terry Notary (born August 14, 1968)[1] is an American actor, stunt co-ordinator/double and movement coach.[2] Notary mainly portrays creatures and animals for the film and television industry, and is known for his motion capture performances in films like Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn, the Planet of the Apes reboot series, and The Hobbit film trilogy. In 2018, Notary played Cull Obsidian in the Marvel Studios films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Terry Notary
Notary at the 2018 Raleigh Supercon
Born	(1968-08-14) August 14, 1968 San Rafael, California, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, stunt co-ordinator/double, movement coach

Early life

Born in San Rafael, California, Notary was diagnosed as being severely hyperactive at age 7. His parents enrolled him in gymnastics class to burn off excess energy.[3] He won a gymnastics scholarship at UCLA, where he graduated with a major in theatre.

Career

Notary's first career was as a performer with Cirque du Soleil. His first job as a stunt movement coach was on Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Director Ron Howard was hiring Cirque gymnasts for the film, and after sufficiently impressing Howard, Notary was offered the job of teaching all the actors how to move.[4] Notary followed this new career path to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, for which he prepared by studying ape movements at the LA County Zoo. Notary's first motion capture film was Avatar, where he was the movement coach for the Na'vi.[5]

Swedish director Ruben Östlund hired Notary when casting his Palme d'Or-winning 2017 film The Square. For Oleg, a character who acts like an ape, Östlund discovered Notary after running a Google search for "actor imitating monkey" and viewing one of Notary's performances (which was for an audition for Planet of the Apes).[6] His performance in that single scene, in which a performance artist acts like a hostile ape at a fancy dinner, was widely praised, The Independent calling it "the most tense, uncomfortable scene of the year."[7][8][9][10]

Filmography

Year	Title	Stunt work	Role
2000	Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas	Stunt performer / movement coach	N/A
2001	The Animal	Stunt performer	N/A
	Planet of the Apes	Stunt performer / Tim Roth's stunt double (uncredited) / movement coach	Various Ape Extras
	The Hot Chick	Stunt performer	N/A
2003	X2	Stunt performer / movement coach	N/A
	Tarzan	Animal movement coach	N/A
2004	The Village	Movement coach	N/A
2005	Me and You and Everyone We Know	Stunt co-ordinator	N/A
2006	Superman Returns	Stunt performer / movement coach	N/A
2007	If I Had Known I Was A Genius	Stunt co-ordinator	N/A
	Slipstream	Stunt co-ordinator (uncredited)	N/A
	Next	Stunt double (uncredited)/ movement coach (uncredited)	N/A
	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	Stunt performer / Silver Surfer MoCap performer / movement coach	N/A
2008	The Incredible Hulk	Movement coach / Tim Roth's stunt double (uncredited) / Hulk & Abomination MoCap performers	Soldier (uncredited)
2009	The Forgotten Ones	Stunt co-ordinator	Alpha Creature
	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Movement coach	N/A
	Avatar	Stunts / MoCap performer/ movement coach	Banshee (uncredited)
2010	The Lost Tribe	Executive producer/ stunt co-ordinator/ movement coach	Alpha Male
	Primal	Stunt co-ordinator	N/A
2011	Attack the Block	Movement coach	Head Alien
	Rise of the Planet of the Apes	Stunt co-ordinator / Andy Serkis & Richard Ridings's stunt double / movement coach	Rocket / Bright Eyes
	The Adventures of Tintin	Stunt co-ordinator/ stunt performer / MoCap performer / movement coach	N/A
	The Cabin in the Woods	Stunt performer / movement coach	Clown
2012	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	MoCap performer/ movement coach	Goblin
2013	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	Stunt performer / movement coach	Goblin / Yazneg (pick-up shots)
2014	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	Stunt co-ordinator / movement coach	Rocket
	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	Movement coach	Laketown Refugee
2016	Warcraft	Stunt coordinator / movement coach	Grommash Hellscream
2017	Kong: Skull Island	MoCap performer	King Kong
	War for the Planet of the Apes	Stunt co-ordinator / movement coach	Rocket
	The Square	N/A	Oleg
2018	Avengers: Infinity War	Groot MoCap performer[11]	Cull Obsidian (motion capture and voice)
2019	Avengers: Endgame
	The Lion King	MoCap performer	N/A
	Doctor Sleep	Stunt performer / movement coach	N/A
2020	The Call of the Wild	MoCap performer	Rail Worker / Buck
2022	Thor: Love and Thunder	Groot MoCap performer	N/A

References

1. SensaCine. "Terry Notary". SensaCine.com. Retrieved 2018-07-07.
2. Caranicas, Peter (Aug 9, 2011). "Terry Notary on 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'". Variety. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
3. Dundjerski, Marina. "Monkey Business". UCLA Magazine (Fall 2001). Retrieved 17 November 2016.
4. Bhattacharya, Sanjiv (11 July 2014). "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: how to act like an ape". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
5. "MEET THE TALENT – TERRY NOTARY". Animatrik.com. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
6. Utichi, Joe (29 May 2017). "Meet Ruben Östlund, Director Of The Newly-Crowned Palme D'Or Winner, 'The Square' – Cannes". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
7. "Ruben Östlund and Terry Notary on the Stunning Climax of 'The Square'". 1 November 2017.
8. Yuan, Jada. "The Square's Monkey-Man Scene Is Bonkers. Here's How It Was Made".
9. "How 'The Square' Used a Half-Naked Ape-Man to Pull Off the Film's Most "Intense and Unexpected" Scene".
10. "How the most tense, uncomfortable scene of the year was achieved".
11. Alter, Ethan (October 25, 2017). "Terry Notary on going ape in 'The Square' and playing teen Groot in 'Avengers'; plus, an exclusive clip". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.

External links

• Terry Notary on IMDb