The Two Towers' Gollum up for Oscar nomination

By: Adnan Virk

Posted: 1/14/03

The one aspect of the smash hit film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers that's been causing the most buzz is the mesmerizing performance of Gollum, a ghoulish slinky rail-thin creature who's been driven mad by the power of the ring and left lusting for his "precious."

But this time, the "precious" he's looking for isn't a gold ring, but a gold Oscar statuette if New Line Cinema has anything to say about it.

But wait, why are critics and studio campaigns talking about Oscar nominations for someone who isn't even a real person?

Well, on the surface Gollum seems like just a computer creation, but behind those pixels lies an actor who gave the character his soul, 38-year-old British actor Andy Serkis.

Serkis was originally hired to just do the hissing voice of Gollum, but luckily, he caught the eye of director Peter Jackson when he started acting out physical mannerisms during recording sessions, and thus landed the gig of doing the movements as well.

To pull off this tricky feat, scenes with Gollum had to be filmed multiple times, first with Serkis on camera acting out the scenes with his co-stars and then a second time without him on camera.

Next up, Serkis donned a skin-tight motion capture suit covered in computer sensors which recorded all his movements and applied them to the 3D skeleton of Gollum, which were the exact movements you saw onscreen.

The CG animators then recreated Serkis' own facial expressions from the on-set footage when they animated Gollum's face, which itself was made to resemble Serkis' own face.

In other words, every jump, crawl, hiss, sneer or smile made by Gollum most likely came from Andy Serkis one way or another.

Serkis told the Associated Press the process was "like applying makeup after the fact, only the overlay isn't with latex before the performance. It's after the performance with computers."

Jackson agrees with the comparison and insists that Serkis' role isn't much different than an actor playing a part with heavy makeup and prosthetics (like in Planet of the Apes or The Elephant Man), calling Serkis "the driver manipulating this pixellated skin that we see in the film."

Regardless, the final result of this complicated process was an amazingly conceived character that's truly impressive in his ability to convey emotion. In fact, New Line was so impressed that they're openly campaigning for Serkis to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Convincing academy voters and the public to see Serkis as more than just a voice isn't an easy task since we're all so used to the traditional idea of actors simply voicing an animated character, but certainly nothing's lost by trying.

Jackson and Serkis are already out making the promotional rounds, new ads in the Hollywood Reporter (geared to voters) show split screen comparisons of Gollum and Serkis footage, and a new Two Towers commercial just hit the airwaves touting "the one performance that has everyone talking: Andy Serkis as Gollum."

Take it from a lowly film-loving fan; this is one to keep your eye on. Every year it seems there's some new advance in making all-digital characters interact with human actors, and this is going to be a pretty important indicator on how (if?) they'll be recognized.

Gollum is a rare case where the technology was used as a tool for a real person's performance, not as a way to replace him, and it shows. Whether Serkis gets recognized or not, at least we can hope that Gollum's success will be a message to other big budget filmmakers: all this effects technology is great, but a computer alone can't produce a soul.