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 Catapulted to worldwide fame in a film role in which, ironically, he never physically appears on screen, Andy Serkis became a familiar name, if not face, for moviegoers enchanted by the slithery character of Gollum in director Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Prior to portraying Gollum, Serkis was a classically trained British actor with scores of credits on stage, screen and television. His early career found him performing on virtually every major theater in England in works such as "King Lear," "Othello," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Macbeth," "Faust," "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and a star-studded production of "Hurly Burly." The actor first appeared on the televison screen in the late 1980s in various BBC television series and miniseries, most notably 1994's murder mystery "Finney," a 1996 adaptation of Agatha Christie's "The Pale Horse" and a 1999 "Mystery!" production titled "Touching Evil." He made his motion picture debut in the thriller "Grushko" (1993) and went on to appear in director Mike Leigh's "Career Girls" (1997), has a memorable turn as a wacky choreographer in Leigh's "Topsy Turvy" (1999), and portrayed 18th century English poet John Thelwall in Julian Temple's raucous Pandaemonium (2000). Serkis rose to greater prominence in 2000 with roles in "Masterpiece Theater's" 30th anniversary production of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" (playing loose cannon Bill Sykes) and a Hallmark Hall of Fame production of "Arabian Nights" as Kasim. The actor also appeared onstage in a 2001 production of Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind" under then-artistic director Sam Mendes. The actor's big screen breakout came with the "Rings" trilogy. Working in concert with the digital special effects technicians of New Zealand-based Weta Workshop, Serkis established the physical foundation for Gollum by performing in a motion-capture suit that provided signals to a computer controlled camera and provided a template from which the films' digital animators could create the otherworldly character, a Hobbit-like creature that had been corrupted by the evil ring of Sauron. Serkis also provided the hiss-thick voice of Gollum and was on the set to play alongside the live-action actors featured in the trilogy. Each scene that included Gollum was shot at least twice during principal photography, the first time with Serkis in front of the camera with his fellow actors so they could create an emotional energy and give key data to the lighting and animation teams. On the second shoot, Serkis stepped off-camera, giving the effects crew a "clean" pass with space to put in the digital creature. Later, Serkis, in the motion-capture suit, would act every scene for a third time in front of a blank screen. During the process Jackson ultimately decided that Gollum should also resemble Serkis. The result was a breakthrough in digital character creation, one of the most realistic and compelling computer creations to grace the screen-a fact that prompted the moviemakers to stump hard, if unsuccessfully, for an Academy Award nomination for Serkis. The actor reprised his role in the third film "The Return of the King" (2003) and also appeared in his own skin in near-human form as Gollum's pre-ring incarnation, Smeagle. The actor quickly caught on with Hollywood, and he found himself cast in non-CGI-fare such as "13 Going On 30" (2004), as a chum of teen-turned 30-year-old Jennifer Garner. Reuniting with director Jackson, Serkis spent time in Rwanda living with gorillas to prepare for his next role as "King Kong" (due 2005) in a remake of the classic ape movie--the actor was also cast in a human role, playing the crewman Lumpy.
Muybridge (2007) (announced) .... Erickson **DISCLAIMER: Most of this material was obtained through search engines If anyone discovers that anything on this site is copyrighted, please notify me, and I will remove it immediately. |
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