| ChatMod: Hi everybody, thanks for joining us. I'm Ben
Trumble for SCIFI. Tonight we're thrilled to welcome actor Andy Serkis,
who gives life, voice, and movement to the character of Gollum in Peter
Jackson's epic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings.
ChatMod: Brief word about the drill. This is a moderated chat -- please
send your questions for our guest to ChatMod, as private messages. (To
send a private message, either double-click on ChatMod or type "/msg
ChatMod" on the command line - only without the quotes.)...Then hit Enter
(or Return on a Mac.)
ChatMod: Andy were you in NZ?
AS: Yes. I just got back. Extraordinary couple of days
AS: We basically -- the entire cast met with the NZ parliment. Then we
had a parade
AS: Then we were driven to the theater in classic cars
AS: There were 125000 people on the parade route.
AS: Then at the theater there were speaches and Peter spoke and
introduced us so we could say thanks
ChatMod: <ripley> to <ChatMod>: Andy are you playing King Kong?
AS: At the moment nothing is confirmed. But I would give anything to
work with Peter again
AS: And we've talked
AS: He's expressed a desire to work with a lot of the cast again
ChatMod: <LOTR4life> to <ChatMod>: how does it feel to finally be seen
in flesh and blood in ROTK(the gollum flashback)?
AS: I'm really excited to see that it's in the film. But people ask
that in a sense like I haven't been in the film. The way worked the CG
character and I are the same.
AS: The flashback is more important in terms of giving the character a
past
ChatMod: <LadyC> to <ChatMod>: Hello Andy, how was the response
different from media/fans this time around during the ROTK promotion as
compared to TTT?
AS: I think everybody is beside themselves with excitement to see the
story reach its end
AS: And there's a sense of sadness
AS: The ritual of each new film comes to an end
AS: I think we will all feel a bit sad and exhausted too when it's
really all over
AS: But we know that we'll see each other again
AS: The life cycle of the making of the film is finally over
ChatMod: <Hobbits> to <ChatMod>: <ChatMod> <Hobbits> to <ChatMod> how
did you get into acting?
AS: I was a painter in college
AS: And I worked closely on sets with the theater department
AS: I was asked to act in a production
AS: Then I was offered the lead in a play
AS: And...I changed my career goals
ChatMod: <ama1> to <ChatMod>: How did Peter choose you for the role?
AS: I auditioned
AS: I got the news from my agent -- who said it was voice work and
would last three weeks
AS: I couldn't do the voice without "acting" it on tape
AS: Then Peter came to London and was meeting people
AS: And he explained to me that he didn't want a voice, he wanted an
acter with a CG Shell
AS: That I'd need to actually make the movie.
AS: So three weeks became 4 and a half years
AS: The evolution was amazing. The motion capture, the animation. It
became my performance on the screen. Expressions were identical etc
AS: The face was the important thing
AS: His face had to be mine etc
AS: I was keen the way it happened
AS: Once I was cast as Smeagol pre-ring it made sense to use my face
later
AS: The animators key framed on the muscle structure of my face.
AS: I sometime feel like I have the most measure/scanned face in the
world
ChatMod: <Anarlina-Greenleaf> to <ChatMod>: Hello Andy, how has being
in the Trilogy movies changed your life as a person?
AS: Changed me hugely
AS: It can't be over stated how having this kind of publicity and
notice changes me as an actor
AS: People were clueless as to what my work was...then in the DVDs they
started to understand it
AS: Cyber-acting is being understood now as being no different from
conventional acting in terms of what I do and my body of work
AS: They see the continuum
AS: I played an extreme character. But it's still about character
AS: Gollum has opened up a new portal to a new type of acting
AS: We aren't bound by our physicality
AS: As long as you have the acting chops to get into the head and heart
of the character.
AS: I'm asked if I would do another CG character
AS: To me it's no different from other roles, so of course I would do
it again.
ChatMod: <moonmage82> to <ChatMod>: Hi Andy, Did you find yourself
having to refer to Tolkien's work to make Gollum come off as believable in
his actions and the way he carried himself?
AS: Very much so
AS: A lot of the physicality comes from the desciption in the book
AS: Tolkien's love of the character is obvious
AS: But I also used John Howe's sketches to sum up character
ChatMod: <LadyC> to <ChatMod>: Were you prepared for being recognized
worldwide after seeing the success of FOTR? What was in your mind then?
AS: I wasn't prepared for being recognized on the street
AS: I owe so much to Peter for making the world understand the actor
behind the character
AS: I think Gollum has entered our consciousness. Or maybe he was
always there from Tolkien
AS: People pity the character
AS: I think it would have been a bad choice to make him evil
AS: I'm glad we didn't make him a villain
AS: The rewards for that are the fact that the audience loved him
AS: He's deeply flawed. But human
ChatMod: <Dan> to <ChatMod>: Gollum Juice is what he drank to keep his
throat from getting sore. That's what my question is about....
AS: Because of the long days on the set and doing countless vocal
tracks I had to drink Gollum juice -- honey, ginger, lemon
AS: It changed over four years as everything with the character did.
ChatMod: <LOTR4life> to <ChatMod>: if you win the MTV award again, are
you guys planning to do another acceptance speech like the one from last
year?
AS: I don't know what we'll do
AS: I guess we'll have to do something
AS: Peter wouldn't waste the chance
AS: It's funny
AS: That speech is almost as legendary as the character in the film
AS: It's become a bit of history
ChatMod: <Singe> to <ChatMod>: How does your character change in the
movies that wasn't necessarily in the book?
AS: Yes. I think the character talking to himself is clearer in the
film
AS: And playing the character as an addict is a modern sense that may
not have been as obvious in Tolkien
AS: I think we root him in a human truth
AS: But the themes of the character are the same.
AS: And physicality
ChatMod: <dvilim> to <ChatMod>: If Peter Jackson decides to make "The
Hobbit", do you think you will have the role of Gollum again?
AS: I think if it ever came up I'd find it difficult not to do the role
if it was offered
AS: He's under my skin
ChatMod: <Anarlina-Greenleaf> to <ChatMod>: Andy, you must have known
the cast, could you tell us all who played the Nazgul (Blackriders)?
AS: I know that the voice of Fran Walsh did the high pitched sounds And
the witch king in the third film is my voice
ChatMod: <RingMasterAl1020> to <ChatMod>: Was there any part of playing
Gollum that you found particularly difficult?
AS: There wasn't any part of the story...What was difficult for me as
an actor was psychologically knowing that at the end of the day I never
had anything "finished"
AS: It really wasn't
AS: I would always have to go back to the studio again and again
AS: We all had to go back again and again for reshoots
AS: But for me it was all those years in voices and blue screen
ChatMod: Andy. I guess we've had you for our thirty minutes
ChatMod: Thanks for joining us
ChatMod: Good night
AS: Thanks very much for having me. Take care.
http://www.scifi.com/transcripts/2003/serkis.12.2.html |