Movies - TV
Becoming The Predator In Prey Wasn't Easy On
Dane DiLiegro
By STEVEN WARD
When Dane DiLiegro was cast as the Predator in “Prey,” the designer of its costume, Alec Gillis, told him that his Predator would be different from its predecessors. In an interview, DiLiegro said that his character was to have a “balletic svelteness” like “a panther, something feline, smoother, that's very in tune with the forest. Feral was another word thrown around, primal, something very instinctual.”
In other words, his Predator had to have the agility to move silently in the forest yet still have the muscle to brutally kill its prey. In order to achieve the “lean, dynamic, more animal Predator,” DiLiegro lost 25 pounds and trained for two months in martial arts and parkour training – the latter which he said was difficult for someone at his height of 6'9" to accomplish.
DiLiegro also had many challenges with the costume, including the 13-pound mechanical head mask, which required him to do neck preparation with a company called Iron Neck. The large headpiece also presented a challenge when he had to bend down to see through the two holes in the suit’s neck – the only option he had was to barely see three feet in front of him.
The Predator’s foam-latex suit was another hurdle as it absorbed all of DiLiegro’s sweat. He explained, “I'd go down to crouch, and sweat would shoot out of my knees. You can see in some of the production stills, if I'm swinging during a fight scene, you can see the sweat just shooting out of my sleeve of this character.”