By now, we all know Andy Serkis as the motion capture guy. It’s not a bad typecast, since his Gollum and King Kong were among the most well-developed characters of the decade. Now, Serkis is giving his body a break, giving voice to an animated character in Flushed Away. Serkis plays Spike, a hitmouse on the trail of Roddy (Hugh Jackman) and Rita (Kate Winslet) in the sewers of London.
“It was very different,” said Serkis. “It was quite odd because usually as you know I’m quite used to working a long time on a character, being involved in it and seeing it progress day to day. But what I found about this is that you do three hours of recording when we started shooting and then six months would go by, and I was still working on King Kong, actually. Then I’d come back, do another three hours and go away for another six months. I’ve never done a voice over for animation before so it was neat to me.”
Serkis couldn’t help but perform with full action, even though he wasn’t wearing a spandex suit with computer markers on it. “You do to get into character. There’s no way you can stop, really. You don’t just stand there at the rostrum and read the script. Well, certainly I can’t do that. It is part of the energy. Also, Spike is a pretty energized character too so that’s kind of pretty much jumping about all over the place.”
Still, there’s no way a character like Spike could become as embedded in Serkis as his motion capture performances. “I don’t think that’s possible really because I spent four years working on Gollum and a year and a bit working on Kong. And as I say, there are these short bursts where you were just in for a few hours. They’re not really comparable in a way.”
Even in his infrequent sessions, Serkis was able to influence the character. “You end up kind of doing what’s there on the script. Then you start riffing, you start playing, and little bits come out that are incorporated. I think he became sort of a mommy’s boy actually. He sort of developed into it. He thought he was a big shot. He probably watched too many rat gangster movies, but actually he goes home and his momma irons his socks and his underpants. He can’t really cope with the real world. He likes to boss people around but then most people do with low self-esteem, which I think he does.”
And it’s well known the animators record video footage of the actors recording the voice, so even without motion capture, Serkis can see himself in Spike. “I suppose in his impatience and his temper, and then things backfire. Little bits and pieces.”
Even that came as a surprise to Serkis, since he only got to see Spike when the film was completed. “I think it’s a shock to me in the other sort of work where I’ve done a character that’s being manifested and developed over a long period of time, is having motion-capture stuff where you know exactly what the movements tied to, the emotion tied to the voice tied to the performance. This sort of like you’re voice would be doing something and I’d think, ‘But I’d have gone over there.’ Nothing specific, but just the sense of being out of control of your own limbs.”
Whether it’s voice acting, motion capture or just wearing elaborate costumes in live-action films, Serkis loves transforming himself. “That’s always what appealed to me about acting, is the losing one’s self in a character. That’s why I love motion captures because you lose one’s self in a character to the nth degree, to the point of total absorption without being recognizable at all. I love that, I really do. That’s what’s great about this as well. You get all the joy of finding a character and I grew up loving watching Lon Chaney and I loved watching Charles Laughton and people like that. I love Ray Harryhausen’s stuff. I’ve always loved the magic of acting, really. Going, ‘God, is that the same guy who did that? That’s amazing.’ I really love that.”
Flushed Away opens Friday.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Andy-Serkis-3784.html
