Close-ups of Serkis' face were used to create Gollum's various expressions. 'Those dots were picked up by cameras and fed into computers,' he said. And then we painted Andy out.'įor other scenes, Serkis spent months in the 'motion capture' studio by himself, wearing a suit with 'dots all over it, and those dots refer to joints in my body,' Serkis said. 'So we have a version of all those scenes where you can see the computer-generated Gollum and, because he's skinny, behind him you can see Andy in the leotard doing all the same movements. 'Then the animation department would animate Gollum over Andy. Serkis appeared in scenes with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, who play Frodo and Sam, 'wearing a skintight leotard (and) acting like Gollum,' Jackson said in a recent interview. Which means it was created in the computer using actor Andy Serkis as model.

Gollum is a 'performance-based digital creation,' according to the film's promotional materials. But the character itself is something to behold as well.

Not only is Gollum a compelling addition to the quest by the Hobbit Frodo and his faithful sidekick, Sam, to destroy a powerful ring - Gollum's 'precious,' which is coveted by the forces of evil.

But it could be argued that the piteous monstrosity Gollum, with his monkeylike physicality and catlike yowling, steals the show. Tolkien's fantasy saga, has epic scope and action to spare. 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,' the second in director Peter Jackson's film trilogy of J.R.R. He walks, he talks, he rolls on his belly like a snake.īy gosh, it's Gollum, the Hobbit-like creature Smeagol whose body has been deformed and whose mind has been warped by desire for his 'precious.'

Gollum lord of the rings actor