Actors love to disappear into roles, but few have done this as thoroughly as Andy Serkis. His voice, facial expressions, and body language give nuance and life to complex computer-animated characters, bringing him fame and accolades for his work while he remains largely unrecognizable in person. That’s unlikely to change as he joins the “Star Wars” universe and moves behind the camera, both with his own effects studio and other projects.
“I do feel incredibly liberated when I’m inside another’s skin,” Serkis, fifty, has said.
Serkis is currently filming an unrevealed part with the original heroes and a new cast for director J.J. Abrams’s “Star Wars: Episode VII,” a continuation of George Lucas’s saga in a galaxy far, far away. It’s slated for release in 2015.
Meanwhile, science-fiction and fantasy fans will see his work twice this year: first in July as the revolutionary ape Caesar in “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” and in December as Gollum, the conflicted Middle Earth creature in “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”
Learn more about Serkis in my piece at Word and Film today.