True Talent Destined to Take Trophies

Celebrity classics like Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks instantly trigger facial images and appreciation in multiple fans of all ages, but one star, Andy Serkis, delivers equal talent yet remains underrated.  Critically acclaimed for his phenomenal performances as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the giant ape in King Kong and Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis masters extremely difficult roles compared to more common catchy characters; yet, he falls lower on a fan’s radar ranking his top actors.  This mishap mainly occurs because computers often digitally transform his appearance when printing it on the screen.  Characters like Gollum transform Serkis into a gangly frog/troll/only God knows what monster, and it’s hard to recognize him as a chimpanzee or gorilla until his name rolls up on the credits.  Serkis, nonetheless, breathes life into these characters with every particle of his innovatively passionate body.  Little changes in the lines curving his creepy to childish smile on Gollum’s face or innocent to wild movements of the apes all stream from Serkis’s imagination, often with little direction from the director.  In an interview of extended footage, director Peter Jackson admitted that he originally planned on having computer graphics control Gollum’s character, but then he watched Serkis’s audition.  Abandoning plan A for plan B (and designing a suit Serkis wore while acting so computers could sense his facial expressions and movements that then simply digitalized his appearance) drastically changed the results of the trilogy.  People can strongly argue Serkis’s performance as Gollum radiantly influenced why this $285 million budget trilogy took home 17 out of 30 Academy Awards.  Still, he receives multiple nominations but fewer trophies than deserved despite his brilliant contribution to the cinematic world (Serkis has won the Empire Award, a Saturn Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award).  On the horizon, Serkis will return as Gollum in Peter Jackson’s, The Hobbit released on December 14.  Perhaps this epic release can finally help him bring home much bigger dough (Oscar, anyone?).