Since motion-capture technology was still in its early phases, nothing Serkis did during principal photography for The Two Towers would wind up in the final product. In a way, while on set, Serkis sketched out an outline that he, Jackson, and the animators at Weta could embellish later. Serkis would need to do all of those things separately, and he wouldn’t do them alone. But most actors do all of those things simultaneously by themselves. On one level, Serkis is only describing what all actors do: using their physicality and voice to embody, and communicate the psychology and emotional drives of, a character. But I guess what I’m doing is really providing the acting side of it, the emotional drive behind the character, the physicality, and I suppose, most importantly, the voice.” “Now, the character of Gollum does tend to belong to a lot of different departments, obviously, as a computer-generated character. “I’m playing the character of Gollum,” Serkis says in the doc. He looks like a discount Moon Knight, or perhaps an angry larva.

He’s dressed in all white, complete with a hood. Serkis jumps all over the stage, pulled and pushed by Wood and Astin. Gollum has been tracking Frodo and Sam and is now attacking them in hopes of finally getting his distended hands on his precious, precious ring. We spy on Jackson as he shoots Gollum’s entrance into the film. Initially, all we see of Serkis in the documentary is a manic blur wrestling Elijah Wood’s Frodo and Sean Astin’s Sam.

Serkis first tried to explain his job in the making-of documentary that came bundled with The Two Towers’ DVD release. So each Wednesday throughout the year, we'll go there and back again, examining how and why the films have endured as modern classics. 2021 marks The Lord of the Rings movies' 20th anniversary, and we couldn't imagine exploring the trilogy in just one story.

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