Serkis Talks Directing, Apes

In an interview with TheOneRing.net, Andy Serkis (Gollum) discussed his most recent role as the lead ape, Caesar, that leads the ape revolution in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He discussed using motion capture, must like done with Gollum but even more advanced especially with emoting. He also talked about returning to The Hobbit to continue his pursuit of directing as a second career. Below is the Hobbit related portion, the whole article can be found here.

The shoot for the two Hobbit films was even arranged to put all of Serkis’ acting work on the front of the shoot, leaving him free to run the second unit without shifting back and forth.

“Look, it’s a direction I have been heading a long time. I have been directing short films and performance capture and video games and theater. I am second unit director on The Hobbit and it’s a huge leap, a massive challenge and 3D and working on a huge film and crew but Peter Jackson is incredibly supportive. He has known I have wanted to direct for a long time so its wonderful that he has given me the opportunity to do so.

“I haven’t yet acted since I have been directing but actors can be really great directors actually. They know how to set up the environment for other actors and that is half the battle.

“Often on film sets actors are the last people to be thrown into the mix. Everything is going on around them and suddenly they have to come up with stuff. I am a firm believer in building everything out of performance and I am really happy to be able to do so.”