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When I Played Gollum In 'lord Of The Rings,' If I Was Climbing Up The Side Of A Mountain, Which I Physically Did, You Know, I Was On Every Single Occasion Swimming Through Streams, All Of That, That Wasn't Captured. That Was Filmed On 35 Millimeter, And For Certain Of Those Shots, It Was Rotoscoped And Painted Over.

-Andy Serkis

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When I Played Gollum

Andy Serkis

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When I Played Gollum In 'lord Of The Rings,' If I Was Climbing Up The Side Of A Mountain, Which I Physically Did, You Know, I Was On Every Single Occasion Swimming Through Streams, All Of That, That Wasn't Captured. That Was Filmed On 35 Millimeter, And For Certain Of Those Shots, It Was Rotoscoped And Painted Over.

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The End Of The Day

My Agent Told Me They Were Casting For The Voice Of Gollum. I Hadnt Read The Lord Of The Rings, But I Read The Script And Realized What An Amazing Role It Was. I Developed A Voice For The Audition Tape, Then Met Peter Jackson And Fran Walsh At The Auditions And Fell In Love With Them Both.

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The End Of The Day

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Every Age Has Its Storytelling Form, And Video Gaming Is A Huge Part Of Our Culture. You Can Ignore Or Embrace Video Games And Imbue Them With The Best Artistic Quality. People Are Enthralled With Video Games In The Same Way As Other People Love The Cinema Or Theatre.

In A Personal Way, To Do With Family And The Father-son Relationship, In A Kind Of Artistic Way With Regard To Him Being An Art Student. I Also Studied The Visual Arts At Lancaster University. I Then Decided To Become An Actor As He Was Becoming A Musician. And Then As An Actor/performer, We Have Similar Sort Of Interests - Music Hall And That Whole World. So, There's A Lot That I Felt Connected With.

I Think What Traditional Studios Probably Don't Understand Is That It's A Genuine Advancement In The Actor's Tradition. And You Know, The Tradition And Craft Of Acting. And It's The Latest Step. You Know, We, We Tend To Find Forms Of Delivering Stories That Fit Our Times.

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I'm Working From Home A Lot. That's Very Unusual Because I'm Away A Lot, Sometimes Working On The Other Side Of The World For Long Periods Of Time. So, It's Hard To Manage In The Sense That I Want To Be The Best Dad I Can Be But It's Almost Harder When You Have Your Kids Outside The Door.

I've Always Thought Of Acting As A Tool To Change Society. I Watch A Lot Of Actors And I See Panic In Their Eyes Because They Don't Know Why They Act And I Know Why I Act. Whether I'm A Good Or A Bad Actor, I Know Why I Do It.

I Stayed In Baghdad Every Summer Until I Was 14. My Dad's Sister Is Still There, But Many Of My Relatives Have Managed To Get Out. People Forget That There Are Still People There Who Are Not Radicalized In Any Particular Direction, Trying To Live Normal Lives In A Very Difficult Situation.

Difficult Situations

I Love, First Of All, Reading And Discovering What The Common Perception Is And Then Trying To Figure Out... Well, How Does Your Life Cross Over Into That Character, Or What's An Angle On This That Might Challenge The Status Quo? It's Just A Great Journey As Well As An Education. You're Constantly Being Educated - It's Like I'm Back At School And Making Up For Lost Time.

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In 'tintin,' It's Like A Live-action Role. You're Living And Breathing And Making Decisions For That Character From Page 1 To Page 120, The Whole Emotional Arc. In An Animated Movie, It's A Committee Decision. There Are 50 People Creating That Character. You're Responsible For A Small Part.

It's A Really Unique Situation Where You Just - You Make Independent Films Or You Make Big Blockbuster Movies, But It's Very Rare When All Of Those Ingredients Come Together, And You Can Really Tell A Story That You Care About With A Character You Absolutely Love With The People You Love Making Movies With.

I Love The Whole Kind Of Notion Of Transformation For Me Is (what) Excites Me About Not Only Acting, But Storytelling. I Love, I Love That Notion Of A Slightly Larger-than-life Artistic Truth, You Know, Magnifying Real Emotional Truth (or) Finding Something About Human Condition (which), You Wouldn't Necessarily Think You Can Learn From Characters Such As Kong Or Gollum, But Actually They Are, You Know, These Huge Amplifications Of A Human Psyche And I Suppose Those Kind Of Roles Have Always Attracted Me Definitely.

Acting Is A Sort Of Pressure Cooker That Allows The Fizz To Come Out The Top. God Knows What I'd Be Like If I Didn't Have That.

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