Actor and director Andy Serkis, famously the motion capture artist and voice behind Gollum in the original Lord of the Rings film trilogy, always seemed like a fine dude. And he has done a lot of charity work in his life. Yet in the last few years, he’s seemingly turned into an anti-cancel culture, AI-apologizing doofus who recently responded to criticism about his upcoming Lord of the Rings movie having an all-white cast by saying he isn’t concerned about “politically correct” casting.
In an interview with the BBC, Serkis was asked about the controversy surrounding his upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum film and its very, very white cast. People had criticized the original Peter Jackson-directed films for similar reasons, so some were surprised to see such a white cast for the new movie. Serkis is aware of the criticism of the past films and his new project, but seemed oddly indignant about it all.
“Yes, there have been criticisms,” said Serkis. “This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film. So, it’s where relevant basically.”
He also suggested that the Hobbits’ home, The Shire, feels “very, very white” and added: “They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of The Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in.”
This is an especially odd thing to say considering some of the people of color cast in Amazon’s The Rings of Power were harassed so brutally online that Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan (who played Hobbits in the Jackson films) made an effort to defend the cast and calm people down. So Serkis using some of the same language that angry people online used about Rings of Power‘s non-white casting seems gross.
But in recent years, Serkis has repeatedly done and said stuff that has made me go, “When did you turn into a dick?”
Serkis on cancel culture and AI
In 2023, during a different interview, he shared his thoughts on actors getting canceled and suggested things were getting out of hand. “You can be cancelled for anything now,” Serkis told The Independent. “Literally anything, and what I really despise is trial by media.”
In that same interview, Serkis’ 2018 comments about Scarlett Johansson planning to play a trans man (before she dropped out of the project) were resurfaced. And instead of sharing that he had listened to people and learned that, hey, maybe we should try to have better representation, he doubled down on his stance.
“Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of how tall you are or short you are or what sex you are, regardless of how you identify, you should have the ability to play anything,” said Serkis in that interview.
Serkis also made it clear that he would love to play Voldemort in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, joking that he would cut his nose off to play the villain.
Then you have Serkis’ comments about generative AI. The director confirmed that some machine learning is being used to help de-age actors in The Hunt for Gollum and shared his thoughts on genAI in general, telling Variety that he thinks of AI as a “creative tool” and that, as “long as it’s not exploitative and as long as it’s not harming anybody or defaming anybody or telling mistruths, [it’s] valuable.”
“If you’re looking for reference material, say, in the old days you get reference images for something. Well, now you can prompt something and get a result. And I don’t have any problem with that,” added Serkis. The actor did make it clear that using AI to create non-consensual pornographic imagery or using it to steal or rip off others is wrong. And Serkis doesn’t think AI will be able to replace human performance, at least “not as yet.” But it’s clear he is fine with AI becoming a part of filmmaking. He even recently starred in Young Washington, a movie that features scenes touched up and modified with genAI.
Gollum and Animal Farm
Then we have Serkis’ recent projects. The Hunt for Gollum could turn out to be a great film, one that was well worth making, but it does smack of a cash grab. A way to bring back some of the original trilogy’s cast, like Elijah Wood, and try to squeeze one more story out of that popular franchise.
Earlier this year, Serkis released his long-in-development animated flick Animal Farm, a movie based on George Orwell’s original, much-lauded novel about fascism and power. Serkis changed much about the book, adding fart jokes, a new main character, and a happy ending, and downplaying many of the book’s darker themes and ideas. Critics hated it. And the movie bombed in the United States.
“There are bad movies,” wrote one critic. “And then there are movies that drain all life and joy out of a person’s soul. The new animated Animal Farm falls firmly into the latter category.”
In that previously mentioned interview with Variety, Serkis said the movie ends with a message in the credits “dedicated to those who are oppressed and that your time will come,” adding, “that’s the message of the movie.” And like, buddy, if you have to tell people the message of the movie at the end, you might have made some mistakes.
Animal Farm is the kind of project that makes me wonder what Serkis is all about, really. And his recent comments about race and casting have once again given me bad vibes.
