Читать книгу Andy Serkis - The Man Behind the Mask - Justin Lewis - Страница 4

When The Two Towers, the second film in Peter Jackson’s lavish epic screen trilogy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, became a worldwide box-office sensation at Christmas 2002, the big mystery surrounded the grotesque, crawling and emaciated figure of Gollum. Because he had been developed via computer-generated imagery (CGI), it was assumed that the man who was playing the role of Gollum had merely donated a voice for him, as someone might do for any kind of animated character. In fact, Andy Serkis had played every aspect of Gollum – physical, emotional and psychological – and his physical movements and facial expressions were converted digitally into a specially created version of the character. But just who was the man behind the mask of Gollum? Who was Andy Serkis?

Perhaps one of the many reasons why Serkis’s Gollum made such an impression was that the actor was not a star name, and so few who saw the films had any preconceptions about him. He had been a versatile professional actor since 1985, constantly in demand with stage roles all over Britain. His virtuosic level of physical acting had made some theatre critics single him out of a cast by name, but, despite landing roles on TV and in films, it took the Tolkien trilogy to bring his name to millions.

The Lord of the Rings made Andy Serkis an internationally renowned actor, and he has remained loyal to Peter Jackson’s film work, having collaborated with him again on King Kong and, more recently, once more as Gollum in the forthcoming multi-instalment adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Meanwhile, his work with CGI has also been seen in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. But elsewhere he has continued to wear a variety of masks for other characters, too, both real and fictional figures, from Albert Einstein to Bill Sikes, culminating in his award-winning and high-profile interpretation of Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.

What Serkis brings to each and every part is a commitment, a determination to research the heart, soul and mind of whichever part he has been assigned – and then reporting back his findings to the audience. He also displays a generosity to his fellow actors and collaborators. He regards acting as sharing the limelight with the audience rather than monopolising his performance space.

In this book, we will follow Andy Serkis through his life and career to date. We will discover how his ambition to be an artist as a youth was overtaken by a raging passion for the stage. We will separately investigate his work for theatre and television, two strands that would intertwine from 1989 onwards, and then introduce a third strand: his first few years in film. Over three chapters, we will dive into Middle-earth and discover how he tied together all of this experience when helping Peter Jackson reinvent Gollum for the screen, before doing the same as Kong in 2004–5. Next, we will explore his thoughts and feelings about portraying villainy and evil on stage and screen, and discover that his highly praised screen performance as Ian Dury was by no means the only time he played a figure who had actually lived. And, finally, we will find out more about his accomplishments as a director, and examine some of his current and future projects. Along the way, we’ll also glimpse into his home life with his family and the woman who has been his partner and wife for more than 20 years: fellow actor Lorraine Ashbourne.

No matter who he portrays – ape, pop icon, killer or Gollum – there’s always a little bit of Andy Serkis behind the masks of the wide range of figures he has played. ‘You can always see yourself,’ he told the Guardian in November 2010. ‘People tell me they can see elements of my personality. It’s subtle – timing, eye movement and gestures – but it’s there if you look closely.’