Andy Serkis heavily advocated for the technology of motion capture before resolving to a calmer approach. The actor has taken on quite a few roles throughout his career, which were brought to life using motion capture technology. A few of those roles are Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Kong in King Kong and more.
So, he knows a thing or two about the technology and has been a vocal supporter of it. The actor and director even admitted to his efforts to convince people to recognise the performance.
Andy Serkis confessed to being a huge advocate of Performance Capture technology
Andy Serkis, in his recent interview with The Times, spoke about Performance Capture technology. The actor shared that the technology is very misunderstood. And he further confessed to have often spoken about the technology to explain it to the other people.
“I used to be evangelical. I’ve talked for hours about how performance capture is acting and watched eyes glaze over, but life’s too short. I calmed down. Now I just think, ‘If you get it? Great,’” he explained.
He further shared that the performance used for Gollum was similar to the prosthetics team’s work for John Hurt in The Elephant Man. During the interview, he questioned why people understand the human effort behind a performance under a physical mask but seemingly fail to recognise the same effort when it is behind a digital mask. While the actor may have stopped talking about the technology as much as he claims to have in the past, he has continued to use it for several other roles.
He is set to use it once again in yet another film.
Andy Serkis will return as Gollum
Andy Serkis is returning with a new film exploring the magical world of The Lord of the Rings. He will reprise his role as Gollum in the upcoming film, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is still in works. Apart from returning to play the character, he will also be directing the movie.
Several names, such as Jamie Dornan, are in the conversation, while Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood are expected to return. This time, the actor will use the same performance-capture technology whenever a scene demands it. This suggests that while Serkis may not be a loud advocate for the technology, he is confident about it and has left the decision of recognition to others.
What do you think about Andy Serkis’ opinion on Performance Capture? Let us know your take in the comments.
