Actor Andy Serkis, a highly accomplished British actor, director, and motion capture performer known for his outstanding performances, started his career in the theater in the late 1990s. However, an accident forced him to leave the theatre behind and he then gained recognition for his pioneering work in motion capture technology.
The actor knows how to bring digital characters to life. He got famous after he provided the motion capture and vocal performance of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Apart from this, the actor also worked in the Hobbit and Star Wars franchises.
An injury on stage forced Andy Serkis to quit theatre
Last month, actor Andy Serkis sat down for an interview with Collider to talk about his upcoming projects and shared some personal experiences as well. During the audience Q&A session, the actor was asked if there was an occasion when he felt like his “creativity was fragile” and if so, how did he work on it. The actor replied,
“I started life as an actor in the theater, and I did lots and lots of theater, and I adored it and felt it really connected with– you know, you communicate with an audience in a very profound way. I had an accident on stage when I was playing Iago in Othello at the Royal Exchange Theater in Manchester. There’s a scene, a very intense scene, in the middle of the play where Othello really goes for Iago, and the guy who was playing Othello pulled me so far back, and I had a disc injury in my back, and my vertebrae pincered my disc in half, and I passed out on stage in front of 750 people. I just completely blacked out, and I didn’t know where I was when I woke up. I haven’t been back on stage since, and that was 2002, and I’ve always wanted to go back on stage, which was the same year that the [The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers] came out, actually. And then I started getting involved in many more film projects.”
The actor further expressed his love for theatre and said it would be interesting to see where creativity goes in a couple of decades after artificial intelligence takes over the world.
The actor started acting in the late 1980s
Andy Serkis rose to fame in the 2000s after he voiced Gollum/Sméagol in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003). His work in The Hobbit trilogy (2012-2014) also helped him become a household name.
Through motion capture, he brought many complex characters to life and it earned him widespread praise, including numerous awards and nominations. He has voiced some memorable characters like King Kong in King Kong (2005) and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes trilogy (2011-2017).
Apart from his motion capture work, Serkis has appeared in live-action films, showcasing his skills as an actor. He has starred in some blockbuster hits like The Adventures of Tintin (2011), The Batman (2022), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Black Panther (2018).
Andy Serkis has been widely recognized for his exceptional talent and contribution to the entertainment industry. He has received numerous awards and nominations, including a BAFTA Award, a Saturn Award, and several Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.
Source: Collider
