One day, many years ago, actor Andy Serkis sat in his kitchen working on the voice for the character of Gollum in Peter Jackson's forthcoming adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings. It was then, unexpectedly, that he became inspired by the most unlikely creature imaginable: his cat, Dizz.
Dizz came into the kitchen and began retching up a fur ball. It was in this moment, as Dizz gagged and lurched forward, that a light bulb went off in Serkis' head. “I saw his spine kind of rippling and he started to go [retching sounds] and that is exactly where Gollum came from," Serkis told a crowd of spectators at FAN EXPO San Francisco in 2024. “My entire career I owe to my cat," Serkis quipped. And we owe Dizz for one of the most iconic voices in the movies:
At the time, Serkis was only focused on creating a voice for Gollum. Peter Jackson had told him that the film production team was considering using motion capture, but hadn't yet committed to the then-blossoming technology. Not only did the fantasy trilogy ultimately use motion capture, but Serkis' portrayal of Gollum cemented him as probably the greatest motion capture performer in movie history (thus far, at least).
Serkis would go on to use motion capture again in Jackson's King Kong, playing the titular ape; in the Planet of the Apes trilogy, in which he played Caesar; in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin, playing Captain Haddock; in two Star Wars sequel films as Supreme Leader Snoke; and in The Hobbit trilogy, where he played Gollum once again.
Serkis' expertise with motion capture allowed him to utilize the tool in his directorial efforts as well. In 2018, he directed and starred in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. His next directing project, an adaptation of the George Orwell classic Animal Farm, is scheduled to be released in July.
Serkis is also set to reprise his feline-inspired portrayal of Gollum in Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which he will also direct. That flick is expected to be released sometime in 2026.
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