Andy Serkis Quotes

#1. 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

#2. 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

#3. 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

#4. My livelihood depends on the art of animators.

Andy Serkis

#5. 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

#6. 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

#7. 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

#8. 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

#9. 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

#10. Any sort of role requires a certain amount of research and embodiment of the character and psychological investigation.

Andy Serkis

#11. Did you happen to catch the film I did between 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Kong?' It was a nice little Jennifer Garner comedy, '13 Going on 30,' and I play her boss. In my big scene, I get to moonwalk - pretty well, I thought - to Michael Jackson.

Andy Serkis

#12. 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

#13. Be magnificent. Life's short. Get out there. You can do it. Everyone can do it. Everyone.

Andy Serkis

#14. Gorilla tourism is vital to Rwanda's economy: It's the third highest source of income.

Andy Serkis

#15. 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

#16. I'm in the early stages of a film called 'Freezing Time' about Eadweard Muybridge, the Victorian photographer who was really the forefather of cinema. Digital animators still treat his images like the Bible. He was a very obsessed man.

Andy Serkis

#17. On lower budget things you're still working collaboratively, but the investment and your level of creative importance is higher on something like this.

Andy Serkis

#18. 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

#19. 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

#20. My very, very first moment on set on 'Lord of the Rings' in 2000 was me in a lycra suit, six and a half thousand feet up on a mountain in New Zealand, standing in front of 250 crew who were all wondering what I was doing - myself included.

Andy Serkis

#21. Hoodwink is a product of his environment. He grew up in Belfast, he was part of the UDA and he fought for what he believed in - or was brainwashed into believing - because of the people that surrounded him.

Andy Serkis

#22. Actors' performances do not stand alone in any film, live action or whatever.

Andy Serkis

#23. If 'The Hobbit' happens - and there's reason to believe that it will - then I think I'm in with a chance! Gollum is very much part of 'The Hobbit,' after all.

Andy Serkis

#24. Having done a lot of theater, I'm used to sustaining characters over long periods of time.

Andy Serkis

#25. Great actors like Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page and Samuel L. Jackson will go and do a videogame, because they understand that storytelling isn't just necessarily about filmmaking.

Andy Serkis

#26. A lot of people have asked me to do answer phone messages for them.

Andy Serkis

#27. I think when actors run away from their work that they're slightly crazy, really!

Andy Serkis

#28. I think parenting is very different now. We're totally governed by our children!

Andy Serkis

#29. I think I spend most of my time not living in reality, actually.

Andy Serkis

#30. The learning curve is 'The Hobbit' is being shot in 3D.

Andy Serkis

#31. In performance capture roles, it's not a committee of animators that author the role, it's the actor. I think that's a significant thing for people to understand.

Andy Serkis

#32. I guess I just tend to feel at home wherever I go.

Andy Serkis

#33. Gollum is my picture of Dorian Gray. He will be with me for the rest of life, and I will grow to look more like him as I get older.

Andy Serkis

#34. I had a cat called Dizz, after Dizzy Gillespie.

Andy Serkis

#35. I want to link together ancient forms of storytelling and the future.

Andy Serkis

#36. 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

#37. You're watching your kids playing football, and you're not present. It's like the worst ... it's horrible. I despise myself for it. I think it's a particularly male thing. Being present and in the moment with your kids is something a lot of men struggle with.

Andy Serkis

#38. 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

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

Andy Serkis

#40. 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

#41. 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

#42. (The) process of acting is no different to conventional screen acting, in that it's providing a perfect interface between the director and the performer. So there's no sort of long way around a viral committee of animators.

Andy Serkis

#43. Gollum is Gollum - though in 'Lord of the Rings' he's 600 years old and in 'The Hobbit' he's 540, so he looks a little bit more handsome.

Andy Serkis

#44. 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

#45. I think I'd like to be a lion tamer, actually. That - that would provide the most audience entertainment if something went really badly.

Andy Serkis

#46. 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

#47. Just being an ape is a workout.

Andy Serkis

#48. 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

#49. Originally when I went off to work on 'The Lord of The Rings' I got a call from my agent saying that I was just going to do a voice. But I couldn't really approach it like that. To get Gollum's voice I had to play the character.

Andy Serkis

#50. I play saxophone, I play tenor sax.

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#51. I am a bit evangelical, I know, but performance-capture is still misunderstood.

Andy Serkis

#52. You never really know why you become an actor: it's a visceral thing, an emotional thing.

Andy Serkis

#53. 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

#54. I can get on with all different sorts of people, and I never feel homesick, particularly, or I've never felt kind of patriotic towards any one country.

Andy Serkis

#55. Before I became an actor, I was a visual artist, and I've always hankered for the storytelling behind the camera.

Andy Serkis

#56. Put it this way: If I had to go back to 1968 and wear the makeup that John Chambers made for the original 'Planet of the Apes' series, I think I would rather wear a unitard.

Andy Serkis

#57. 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.

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

Andy Serkis

#59. I believe that when people experience an event as a community, it can transcend and change people's lives.

Andy Serkis

#60. 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

#61. 'The Hobbit' was one of the first biggish books I ever read. I remember vividly the 'riddles in the dark' passage, and it meant a lot to me to finally get to play it after all these years.

Andy Serkis

#62. I love playing real characters ... if they're not around anymore it's helpful because you won't get sued! But there's so much research involved and I love that part of the process.

Andy Serkis

#63. I think I have a lot of internal energy, which does need to come out.

Andy Serkis

#64. Middle-earth is a universe I know very well.

Andy Serkis

#65. Nowadays, there's no such thing as a stable job.

Andy Serkis

#66. I'm definitely moving more towards directing now.

Andy Serkis

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

Andy Serkis

#68. It was a fairly happy childhood. My father was working away, and my mum brought up five kids all on her own.

Andy Serkis

#69. The thing is, I don't just take roles because they're performance capture.

Andy Serkis

#70. 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

#71. My natural bent is to have an overabundance of energy, and motion-capture essentializes your every breath, your every move. Seeing yourself through that mask, you realize how far you can pull back and make the performance even more powerful.

Andy Serkis

#72. You can't just come up with an idea for a game and stick the drama on top. It all has to be one driving thrust.

Andy Serkis

#73. My take is that acting is acting. A performance is a performance. With performance capture, if you don't get the performance on the day, you can't enhance the performance.

Andy Serkis

#74. I've been writing and wanting to direct for a long time.

Andy Serkis

#75. My sons have to learn that you take the rough with the smooth and they've seen a lot of smooth in the years that they've been around. They didn't see the early years. But both my mum and myself are actors and we constantly tell them it's not easy. But they understand that.

Andy Serkis

#76. Thank God for Skype!

Andy Serkis

#77. 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

#78. You don't really think about 3D when you're acting. As a director, you do.

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#79. 'Macbeth' is an amazing story.

Andy Serkis

#80. My father was interested in justice, always working for people who needed to be supported.

Andy Serkis

#81. 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

#82. 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

#83. Britain has enormous amount of talent, as we've seen from the BAFTAs. It's all here, and it has to be allowed to flourish.

Andy Serkis

#84. (Greek) Theater started off and used masks and Kabuki, in the East, they used mask-work. And then, Commedia dell'arte in Italy and then, you know, we're part of an acting tradition and, and performance capture is no different.

Andy Serkis

#85. 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

#86. You'll very rarely find that you can enhance a performance to give it a real emotional centre and truth ... after the fact.

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#87. 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.

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#88. That's what I think is the biggest challenge, is just being still and learning how to just be present in that stillness and not over do it, not over act.

Andy Serkis

#89. 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

#90. Certain gorillas are more evolved than certain human beings I know.

Andy Serkis

#91. I think my mum wanted me to join the army or something, or become a surveyor - something with good career prospects.

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#92. I grew up with 'Star Wars' and was a massive fan of the original films.

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#93. If I hear someone say something, and they're 100 per cent about it, then it's almost inevitable that I'll take the opposite view. I guess I feel at odds with things like society. Absolutism is always a trigger for me.

Andy Serkis

#94. J.J. Abrams and I met, and we just had this incredible kind of vibe between us.

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#95. I'm a shockingly bad sleeper. In bed very late. Awake at the crack of dawn.

Andy Serkis

#96. Recently I read that half the world or more has read 'The Lord of The Rings,' but then I found out that something like 75 per cent of the world knows the 'Tintin' books.

Andy Serkis

#97. 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.

Andy Serkis

#98. People find it hard to get their heads around nominating a computer-generated character, but every time you see Gollum on the screen, that's me who is acting up there - even if it is behind a mass of pixels - and it's my voice you hear.

Andy Serkis

#99. 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.

Andy Serkis

#100. On 'The Avengers,' I've been working closely with Mark Ruffalo.

Andy Serkis