Andy Serkis Quotes & Sayings

What's fantastic is that there's a real growing appreciation for performance-capture technology as a tool for acting. — Andy Serkis

Over the years, people have asked me, 'Do you think there should be a separate category for acting in the digital realm? Or hybrid sort of awards for digital characters?' and so on. And I've always really maintained that I don't believe so. — Andy Serkis

Basically we're puppeteers and if you're there and you're in the character, the puppet is going to look good. It's going to breath life and I think once they find out how to trust this system, you just forget about it and just perform, then it's just second nature, it just becomes easy. — Andy Serkis

I've done a fair amount of that stuff ... when we did Lord of the Rings the transformation sequence from Smeagol to Gollum was a 19-hour make-up job. You have to have a kind of zen button that you press and allow the mind to be focused in a certain way. — Andy Serkis

But the first time I had to stand up and sing with them was when we did the pre-record for the movie and it was that moment where I sort of said to myself: "S**t, now I actually have to do this and I have to stand up and do my stars in your eyes moment!" Wake Up and Make Love With Me was the first song and I thought: "Here we are with Chaz and all the boys ... " — Andy Serkis

I think even back as far as 'Lord of the Rings,' there was always the chance that 'The Hobbit' would be made, even way back then. Of course at that point, Peter Jackson didn't probably think at that point that he'd be directing it. — Andy Serkis

Gorillas are still wild creatures. That's made very clear when you observe them in nature. They charge and perform other displays that are terrifying by design. But they don't attack unless they feel threatened. — Andy Serkis

Performance capture, for me, is finding the essence of a performance. — Andy Serkis

Performance capture is a genre of acting which is not going to go away, it's going to proliferate more and more. I'm passionate about it, and I love it. It's the most liberating tool an actor has, because you are not limited by your own physicality, look, or color of your eyes. — Andy Serkis

Performance capture is a technology, not a genre; it's just another way of recording an actor's performance. — Andy Serkis

I have a road bike and a mountain bike, and I tend to use them both a lot. They help you keep your balance and your stamina. — Andy Serkis

Our family were outsiders, and I've always had a sense of the outsider, the underdog, and a strong sense of justice towards people who are excluded. — Andy Serkis

Middle-earth is a universe I know very well. — Andy Serkis

Mountaineering has always been a huge hobby of mine. — Andy Serkis

I had a body wax. It's the most painful thing I have ever done in my life. I had every single hair on my body pulled out, and I really bruised. — Andy Serkis

People think, 'Oh, well how can 'The Hobbit,' which is one book, become three films?' But you can take one line from an appendice and it turns into a whole sequence. — Andy Serkis

For me, I've never drawn a distinction between live-action acting and performance-capture acting. It is purely a technology. — Andy Serkis

I would love to direct an 'Apes' movie. It would be in the spirit of where I'm going with my career - avatars played by actors to say something about the human condition. — Andy Serkis

Having done a lot of theater, I'm used to sustaining characters over long periods of time. — Andy Serkis

35mm film isn't ticking away so it's subconscious - performances are allowed to breathe in a much more real way I think. — Andy Serkis

There's a huge gulf between people who can afford to go to drama school and those who can't. — Andy Serkis

When you do animation - well, straightforward animation, although it's not straightforward - the voice for a character or something, they're always singular experiences, really. — Andy Serkis

Second films are, you know, like 'difficult second albums', so it's a tricky position to be in but I think he's made a highly accomplished film. — Andy Serkis

There are no rhymes or reason, actually. Having said that, you know, cause there are people who are absolutely single-minded about their process and they can still come up with great work. But (what) I enjoy and it's the same, I suppose, as I became more of a family man, I enjoy, I enjoy an atmosphere where it, you know, doesn't have to be about conflict to get good results. — Andy Serkis

I do love nature, but I don't suppose I'd spent more time in zoos as a child than anyone else! — Andy Serkis

As I started to research gorillas, I began to understand that they're all totally individual and idiosyncratic, and they have their own personalities. — Andy Serkis

The thing is, I don't just take roles because they're performance capture. — Andy Serkis

Climbing's always been a massive hobby of mine up until, kind of, recent times when I've had family, but no, it's been a driving passion in my life, and, uh, I've always wanted to climb the Matterhorn. It was the mountain that, sort of, inspired me to climb, as a youngster. — Andy Serkis

What you can do with visual effects is enhance the look of the character, but the actual integrity of the emotional performance and the way the character's facial expressions work, that is what is going to be created on the day with other actors and the director. — Andy Serkis

If James Franco's wearing a costume, and I'm wearing a motion capture suit, we don't act any differently with each other because of what we're wearing. We're embodying our roles. — Andy Serkis

Yeah, I mean, climbing's always been a massive hobby of mine up until, kind of, recent times when I've had family, but no, it's been a driving passion in my life and, uh, I've always wanted to climb the Matterhorn. It was the mountain that, sort of, inspired me to climb, as a youngster. So, it was great to be able to get to do it. — Andy Serkis

More and more good actors are now transmigrating into the videogame space and playing roles there because it's where my generation of kids get stories from. — Andy Serkis

I think Caesar is one of the most empathetic characters that I've played. I think that's the key to a successful leadership. Being able to keep your ears open at all times. — Andy Serkis

Gorilla tourism is vital to Rwanda's economy: It's the third highest source of income. — Andy Serkis

When I first did 'The Lord of the Rings,' I was acting on the set with the other actors, but then I had to go back and repeat the process on my own to do the physical capture on a motion capture stage. — Andy Serkis

Be magnificent. Life's short. Get out there. You can do it. Everyone can do it. Everyone. — Andy Serkis

I love the ability to transform because that, for me, is a liberation. — Andy Serkis

I'm quite contrary. If people agree on something, I tend to gravitate the other way by my nature. I don't like to be told what to do. I think it goes back to school. I like to do things I want to do and I really don't like doing what I don't want to do. — Andy Serkis

The reason that some motion-capture films don't work is if the scripts are not good, and the characters aren't engaging, then you don't believe in the journey, and you're not connected to it. It's not the technology's fault. — Andy Serkis

I had to relearn how to ride a horse like an ape. I had to change how I jumped off and how I gripped them with my thighs and distribute my weight differently. — Andy Serkis

I play saxophone, I play tenor sax. — Andy Serkis

I never felt totally, 100%, patriotically English ... I'd seen a lot of the world by an early age - sort of spent a lot of time traveling around Lebanon and I'd seen Babylon, and Damascus, and all sorts of places in the Middle East by the time I was ten. Then we'd return to Ruslip in West London ... Done a fair bit of traveling really. — Andy Serkis

I think acting really helps as a director. It's just no question, because you totally understand the acting process. — Andy Serkis

I think there will always be a particular generation of actors who ... think that they're going to be replaced by robots. But certainly the emerging actors ... understand that that's part of the craft. — Andy Serkis

I've always been really in touch with my primal instincts. In my profession, you have to be. — Andy Serkis

Gollum's never really gone too far away from me because he's indelibly kind of printed into my DNA now, I think. — Andy Serkis

Gorillas have a belch vocalization, which is sort of like, 'I'm OK, you're OK.' They do a pig grunt, which is reprimanding. They sing, they laugh, and they hoot, which grows into a chest-beating display. — Andy Serkis

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. — Andy Serkis

People used to say, 'Andy Serkis lent his movements to Gollum,' and now they say, 'Andy Serkis played Caesar.' That's a significant leap. — Andy Serkis

I do listen to myself sometimes and think, 'Is my moral compass so easily swayed by the characters I play, or is it me growing as a human being?' — Andy Serkis

I grew up with 'Star Wars' and was a massive fan of the original films. — Andy Serkis

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. — Andy Serkis

When I'm working on the scripts or working with the other actors or rehearsing with the director, and when the director is cutting the movie, and we've shot the scene, the director is not looking at the visual effects. — Andy Serkis

Looking back, when I was Gollum, I suppose I did break the mold to a certain extent. I'm proud, and very thrilled, to be a part of that. — Andy Serkis

But I think there's something wonderful and extraordinary about climbing on your own and just that kind of relationship to the environment. I'm very addicted to the mountains. You know, so, I do like that solitude. — Andy Serkis

I think parenting is very different now. We're totally governed by our children! — Andy Serkis

When I was in theater I was forever trying to inhabit a space which puts yourself under the microscope as an actor and your personality and your take on life, but actually through another portal of a character. — Andy Serkis

'How To Train your Dragon 2' is an amazing film. I think it's an extraordinary film. The animation in it is fantastic. — Andy Serkis

Actors' performances do not stand alone in any film, live action or whatever. — Andy Serkis

My first job when I got my equity card was acting in 14 plays back-to-back. Playing that many roles, you look for ways of differentiating the characters physically, which goes hand in hand with understanding them psychologically. — Andy Serkis

In terms of animation, animators are actors as well. They are fantastic actors. They have to draw from how they feel emotionally about the beat of a scene that they're working on. They work collaboratively. — Andy Serkis

I love acting and certainly won't give it up, but it's part of a bigger canvas for me now. — Andy Serkis

I have a company in the U.K., a performance-capture studio. We're looking to push the boundaries of performance-capture technology in film and video games, but also in live theater, using real-time performance capture with actors onstage, and combining that with holographic imagery. — Andy Serkis

What's wonderful about Tolkien and Shakespeare is that they show up your own individual microscope. They're so infinitely vast. You can reinterpret them in so many ways. — Andy Serkis

I'm definitely moving more towards directing now. — Andy Serkis

When we, as humans, articulate, our tongues tend to hit the back of the teeth. — Andy Serkis

Performance capture is a tool that young actors will need in the next 10, 20 years. It's on the increase, as you say. It's not going away. — Andy Serkis

I remember kind of doing early acting and thinking, 'God, they don't paint behind the sets.' It's a bit of a shame, really - 'Oh, what's on the other side of this wall? Oh, you can see the plywood.' I was really disappointed. I just thought that these things were real, from watching things as a kid. — Andy Serkis

My dad was working abroad, in Iraq, and he was a doctor. We used to go and visit him, in Baghdad, off and on. For the first ten years of my life, we used to go backwards and forwards to Baghdad, so that was quite amazing. I spent a lot of time traveling around the Middle East. — Andy Serkis

Gollum is entirely based on the notion of addiction. The way that the ring pervades him, makes him craving, lustful, depletes him physically, psychologically and mentally. — Andy Serkis

It's a different rhythm than most movies. For a lot of the actors, you're 12,000 miles away from home. It becomes a way of life - getting up at five in the morning, shooting every day, day in day out, for 270 days. The new cast playing the dwarves were carrying incredibly heavy weights in their suits, they sat through hours of make-up every day. So it's quite challenging from a stamina point of view. — Andy Serkis

Everybody thinks performance capture is about thrashing around and doing a lots of movement, but it's actually about being able to contain and think and be believed in a close-up, as much as anything else. — Andy Serkis

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. — Andy Serkis

I think the actors in 'Greystoke' were amazing. They had a really good performance coach called Peter Elliott who's, of his time, one of the greatest simian performance coaches for actors. — Andy Serkis

Certain gorillas are more evolved than certain human beings I know. — Andy Serkis

People are mystified by it and so they kind of think, the acting community thinks they're gonna be replaced by CG characters and animators think they're gonna be replaced by performance capture (and) a lot of directors, particularly European directors, who have no experience of it. — Andy Serkis

I expect at some point I'll probably want to go back on stage and do some theater, because I've not done theater in 10 years. — Andy Serkis

On 'The Avengers,' I've been working closely with Mark Ruffalo. — Andy Serkis

Just being an ape is a workout. — Andy Serkis

That's why I ended up going to Lancaster University, because they had a visual arts course, and in the first year it was like a broad visual arts course in sculpture, painting, graphics - all of that. — Andy Serkis

I think I spend most of my time not living in reality, actually. — Andy Serkis

The fact of the matter is that an actor, if I'm playing a performance capture role and you're playing a live action role and we're having a scene together, there's no difference in our acting processes. — Andy Serkis

A lot of people have asked me to do answer phone messages for them. — Andy Serkis

As long as you have the acting chops and the desire to get inside a character, you can play anything. — Andy Serkis

I spent a lot of time on my own working out the physical vocabulary for how Gollum moved. As I say, I drew on a lot of Tolkein's descriptions of how he moves, but also the conceptual artist sketches. — Andy Serkis

I'd already started directing short films when we were doing 'Lord of the Rings,' then videogame projects. — Andy Serkis

I'd like to think that we strive in film and theatre to tell great stories, and I believe in the power of storytelling in our culture. — Andy Serkis

Working from home is so, so hard because I want to be present for them and yet there's so much to do work-wise. That's the biggest challenge for me. — Andy Serkis

There are parts of New Zealand that I absolutely fell in love with that I will miss going back to, but I kind of think that is the part that can continue and will continue on. I don't imagine I'll stop going back to New Zealand, because I feel part of the fabric there, really. — Andy Serkis

I've been writing and wanting to direct for a long time. — Andy Serkis

The art of transformation is a very important thing to me, and I always believe I can say something more truthful through characters that are further away from me. — Andy Serkis

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. — Andy Serkis

They [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. — Andy Serkis

'Macbeth' is an amazing story. — Andy Serkis

The fact of the matter is I have done so many parts. — Andy Serkis

Not a day goes by where I'm not reminded of Gollum by some person in the street who asks me to do his voice or wants to talk to me about him. But because 'The Hobbit' has been talked about as a project for many years, I knew that at some point I'd have to reengage with him. — Andy Serkis

The whole chameleon thing about acting. That's why I'm moving towards directing - it's a much more healthy occupation. — Andy Serkis

In the same way 'Lord of the Rings' was an interpretation of the book, 'The Hobbit' is being treated the same way. It will be faithfully represented with a fresh interpretation. — Andy Serkis

You don't really think about 3D when you're acting. As a director, you do. — Andy Serkis

I guess I just tend to feel at home wherever I go. — Andy Serkis