Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s hugely influential books of the same name, is arguably the most iconic fantasy film series of all time. Across three entries, audiences were introduced to a range of memorable characters like hobbits Frodo, Bilbo and Sam, king-in-exile Aragorn, the elf and dwarf pals Legolas and Gimli, and too many others to name. Really, we all know The Lord of the Rings and I don’t need to explain to you why.
Andy Serkis played Gollum, the grotesque cave-dwelling creature who had an obsession with the One Ring, his “Precious.” Serkis completely embodied the role and made a name for himself as a go-to character actor for emotive motion capture performances, which led to him getting roles like Cesar in Matt Reeves’ Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy.
Jackson famously shot all three Lord of the Rings films back to back over the course of five years, which is a long time for any shoot. Naturally, the cast and crew grew quite close over that time period. It’s common for people working on a movie to go home with some item from the project once it’s complete as a token of their time spent.
As it turns out, Andy Serkis got to keep something very precious to him from The Lord of the Rings…
Andy Serkis got to keep one of the Rings from Lord of the Rings
In a recent interview with Tara Hitchcock, Serkis was asked about the best gift he ever received or gave from a movie he’d worked on. After thinking a moment, he revealed that he’d actually taken home the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. Or one of the One Rings, we should say; Elijah Wood previously revealed that he also has a ring, and that he believed around 10 were made for the filming of the movies (per ScreenRant).
“Well, I can tell you that from a very great friend of the director, I was actually given one of the rings from The Lord of the Rings,” Serkis said. “So, the Precious came to me, and that was a pretty special gift.”
The fact that Serkis got to keep one of the rings feels extremely fitting — it was the sole driving force for his character Gollum throughout the series. The first film opens with a flashback of Gollum losing the Ring and Bilbo Baggins, Frodo’s uncle, finding it. At the climax of the last film, Frodo tries to keep the Ring for himself, but Gollum bites it off of his hand before tumbling down into the fires of Mount Doom, inadvertently saving Middle-earth. His final shot of the trilogy is sinking into the molten lava, holding the Ring up in his hand to try and protect it to his very last breath.
Hopefully it’s a bit easier for Serkis since his Ring is only a replica, and therefore free of Sauron’s corrupting influence.
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