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Oscar Hopeful Serkis 'Towers' Over CGI Brethren
http://www.reuters.com/
NEW YORK (Variety) - There was never any Oscar buzz for the performances of Jar Jar Binks or Dobby, but New Line is hoping that Gollum will be up for an acting Academy Award in March.
Andy Serkis is the British actor who performs the centerpiece role of Gollum in Peter Jackson's second installment of the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Only you might not realize it, because his personage has been painted out and replaced with a CGI creation. Other CGI characters were purely figments of the imagination, like Jar Jar Binks and Dobby.
The 20 minutes of "Two Towers" footage shown recently by New Line indicates a breakthrough with Gollum, who looked as real as a blue-tinted, bent and gnarled creature could look. And Jackson went back and subsequently improved the character, which the media observed.
New Line will push Serkis for a supporting actor nomination. And the actor has just signed with the Gersh Agency, hoping that his cyber-work in "Two Towers" and next year's "Return of the King" finale will propel him into regular Hollywood film work.
"This all started with an offer to do three weeks of voiceover work as Gollum," said Serkis. "I remember thinking, a voiceover? Why can't I get offered a decent acting role in a major movie? I'm known for being chameleon-like as an actor, and I've played a lot of quirky, physical roles in Mike Leigh's movies. This didn't seem that involved."
Serkis soon learned from Jackson and his screenwriting-producing partner Fran Walsh that vocal skills would be only part of the Gollum job.
"Peter had the idea to do something unprecedented," Serkis said. "Even though Gollum would be computer-generated, Peter wanted all the emotion and the physicality to come from a single performance."
Instead of three weeks, Serkis worked the better part of the last year, logging more hours than any other actor in the "Rings" ensemble.
First, Serkis acted the scenes with Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) as they carried the ring toward Mordor. Serkis repeated the entire performance, clad in a skintight bodysuit, wired to capture his every move and transfer it to the computer. Serkis did the role yet again, both to supply Gollum's slithery rasp of a voice, and to transfer his facial expressions to every enunciation. He spent countless more hours with the 40 animators who refined Gollum. The performance is signature Serkis -- even though the actor was erased from every scene.
"In a way it's a bummer, but I honestly feel strongly that the essence of what I've done is up there. Much the way that John Rhys-Davies hardly looks like the dwarf Gimli after being shrunk and wearing heavy prosthetic makeup, I feel like I'm wearing CG prosthetics. There is a satisfaction in playing one of the great literary character creations, being able to play Gollum without being pinned down by him for the rest of my life. Some anonymity is the actor's greatest weapon."

Well. I wonder if this is for real, or is just part of the marketing gossip and hype.

I have mixed feelings about that because I am hoping that Elijah Wood is the "one" who gets the supporting actor nomination this year, unless they can submit more than one.

And I also wonder what the rules are that distinguish between "best actor" and "best supporting actor". If Frodo's part is pushed to the front.... Elijah Wood might qualify for the Actor nomination. But Viggo may also... We are really looking at two distinct stories with different lead actors in TTT.

Viggo Mortenson will probably not be ignored, I don't think. He may be in the running... Since he is the Title Role in RoTK... perhaps they will push him for Best Actor in year three. But that might be Elijah's premier performance too.

And not having seen it... I am not sure the academy would go for it a Serkis nomination... Andy may have been the voice and the movement, but the "face" on the acting is not his... It will be interesting for sure!