Hollywood creature performer sways Sharjah crowd

Hollywood movement coach and performer Terry Notary, known for training actors to play apes, aliens and other non-human characters, made his Middle East debut at the Sharjah Animation and Comics Conference (SACC) 2026 with a two-hour masterclass on how physical performance gives digital creatures weight, rhythm and personality.

By the end of the session, Creature Performance and Motion Capture, a room of filmmakers, artists and actors were sitting forward in their chairs, shoulders dropped and chests open, learning one of Notary’s central principles: before an actor can convincingly become someone else, they have to become comfortable being fully seen themselves.

The masterclass by Notary – known for bringing non-human characters to life on major film franchises, including Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn, the Planet of the Apes reboot series, The Hobbit trilogy, and Kong: Skull Island – covered how posture, breath and rhythm make digital creatures believable, and how live performance is captured through motion capture suits and real-time virtual production tools such as Unreal Engine.

Mistakes make it real

Notary said convincing performance starts by dropping the urge to get everything right.

"Life isn't perfect, and neither is a movie set. When it's perfect, it feels perfect, and it's not real," he said. "I always encourage my actors to allow themselves to make mistakes. Then it becomes part of the real experience, and the audience can identify with it."

He said conditioning and the need for approval hold actors back. "We've all been conditioned to be a certain way. It becomes your identity, your resume, but it's not really who you are, and as an actor that limits you," he said. "Let go of needing to be liked, needing to be approved. When you do, you get comfortable enough to let people actually see you."

Up, out and wide

The practical portion of the session began with what Notary described as a neutral body, a blank canvas from which any character can be built. Participants sat forward with no back support, opening the chest and imagining a helium balloon lifting the head.

"Your body is your vehicle of expression," he said, explaining how he uses the same exercise with athletes and chief executives as well as actors. "You have to be honest enough with yourself to be seen. You are in charge of your own space."

Using short stilts, he then guided participants through quadrupedal movement, teaching them to walk on four limbs as an introduction to the creature-performance techniques for which he is known.

"I found myself today"

For participants from different professional backgrounds, the session extended beyond technical instruction.

"The movements, the posture, the mindset every actor should carry through a scene should feel effortless, and he does it really well," said Nikhil Ramdas, 37, a Sharjah-based filmmaker, commercial director and AI visualiser. "I will use these tips across my filmmaking journey."

His friend Gautam Raveendran, 37, a Dubai-based film director from India, said his main takeaway was "how movement and state of mind can let your ego go and bring out the actor inside you."

Meanwhile for Russian Yana Shakhmaeva, who works in aviation, the masterclass was personal. "I found myself today," she said, accompanied by her son who is an aspiring actor. "There was a lot of tension [before coming for this class], and now I feel free."

Notary began his career as a stunt and movement coach on Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas under director Ron Howard before working on Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, for which he studied ape movement at the Los Angeles Zoo.