We’ve already seen him play a bureaucrat-turned-Prawn in District 9 and a vicious mercenary in Elysium, but Sharlto Copley’s third collaboration with Neill Blomkamp marks his most drastic transformation yet. Copley leads Chappie as the title character, the world’s very first robot who can think and feel for himself. His maker, Deon (Dev Patel), has the best intentions, but when Chappie winds up in the hands of a group of thugs, they corrupt his impressionable mind and childlike wonder by teaching him to “keep it gangster.”

With Chappie making its way into theaters on March 6th, I got the chance to talk to Copley about his experience bringing the character to screen. We discussed how he made his skin-tight motion capture suit feel more gangster, whether or not Chappie’s unique mannerisms made working with a stunt double more challenging, Chappie merchandise ideas and more. You can check it all out in the video interview below.

Sharlto Copley:

• Making the Chappie motion capture suit more gangster.
• Acting like a kid for three months.
• Was working with a stunt double more challenging with this type of character?
• Did playing a motion capture character change his collaboration with Blomkamp?
• Did the VFX team get all the footage they needed during production?
• His custom-made shirt honoring the Chappie VFX team; Chappie merchandise ideas.