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And I'll Form the Head!

Andy Serkis, Motion-Capture Acting And The Oscars

by Jill Pantozzi | 12:26 pm, December 2nd, 2011


Andy Serkis is certainly a professional at what he does. The English actor now has motion capture roles under his belt for of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, The Adventures of Tintin,  King Kong and Rise of Planet of the Apes but the he may not be doing himself any favors for future job opportunities with comments he’s been making about the industry and who deserves to be recognized for what at the Oscars. 

Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter recently, Serkis discussed his most recent role first. When asked if Tintin should considered in this year’s animation category at the Academy Awards he said, “The category of animation should be under review because Tintin is entirely derived from actors’ performances created in a conventional live-action way and manifested onscreen in a painterly, animated fashion. There has to be a review of all these storytelling methods. It’s not necessary to exclude one from a category. A lot of people are being quite defensive about it. I think people should not be so Luddite. Don’t say, ‘No, traditional animation is this.’ They’ve got to think out of the box and start to embrace all these different methods and mediums. This year will be a very interesting watershed point in our understanding.”

Understandably, the actor is somewhat frustrated about people debating what he’s spent the last few years of his life doing. “Acting is acting,” he said. “Performance capture is a technology, not a genre; it’s just another way of recording an actor’s performance.”

Although he’s been outspoken on the subject before, Serkis may run into a little trouble with what he said when THR asked him if there should be a separate category at the Oscars for motion-capture acting.

It should be in the [regular] acting category because the acting part of the process is entirely the same. I’ve been bombarded by hate mail from animators saying, “How dare you talk about ‘your’ character when all these people work on it after the fact? We’re actors as well.” They are actors in the sense that they create key frames and the computer will join up the dots, carefully choreograph a moment or an expression and accent it with an emotion. But that’s not what an actor does. An actor finds things in the moment with a director and other actors that you don’t have time to hand-draw or animate with a computer.

I kind of don’t know where to side on this one. I definitely believe Serkis puts as much work into his roles as any other actor. He’s there every day acting out the part and while not all his roles have been speaking roles, I imagine it takes a great deal of preparation. But on the other hand, I can see why the folks behind the scenes are miffed at him for claiming the roles are his work alone. I agree though that the Academy is going to have to start reviewing awards based on the world of film that is changing around them.

Regardless, Fox announced this week they’ll be pushing for a Supporting Actor nomination for Serkis’ work on Apes.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1208921 Nikki Lincoln

    I think that this is where the Academy needs to draw the line. If they think the character is phenomenal because of the gestures, expressions and voice then they should nominate the actor. If they think the technology or graphics are incredible and the transformation from a human to an animation is remarkable then there are categories for that as well. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Claudia-Freitas-da-Silva/738763359 Claudia Freitas da Silva

    Animators should be considered for set art, makeup and art direction oscars when the movie uses motion capture. Because is what they a really doing right? Creating a scenery, doing the makeup so the actor looks as he/she should, creating wardrobe and whatever.

  • Frodo Baggins

    I think I understand what he’s saying. It’s not that the work the animators do is somehow insignificant compared to an actor, it’s simply a different discipline. Standing on a stage and behaving like a character takes different skills and training than drawing or keyframing said character, so they should be recognized in different categories.

  • Anonymous

    Can a voice actor say that the character they voiced is “their” character? I believe so. I’m finding it hard to distinguish between that and this.

    I would say the artists that work on the character post-production are directors more than actors. Frankly, that’s a better job title.

  • Anonymous

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  • Frodo Baggins

    Nah, because facial expressions and body language are such a huge part of what defines a character. Gollum wouldn’t be Gollum if he had the same voice, but stood stiffly erect and never frowned or smiled. On the other hand, Darth Vader’s face is unseen, and his body language fairly reserved and unexpressive, while his voice is what everyone remembers about him. So I guess it depends on the character.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Allena-Hail/579628821 Allena Hail

    I understand that Serkis does a lot of hard acting work, and I see no reason why that can’t be recognized. However – a big however – he obviously has no idea what goes into the characters after the fact. Animators don’t just make key frames and tell the computer to join them up; they do as much work on these mocap characters as he does. Frankly, his unwillingness to share the credit with the animators (and others artists) is selfish and distasteful. I would really like to see awards given to mocap characters as groups; including both the animators and the actors. 
    I’ve heard from animators who worked on Gollum, and they seem to really feel unappreciated and hurt by this idea that mocap makes their job easier, or does their job for them. 

  • Joey Cruz

    I think everybody just needs to lighten up. Yes, the academy should recognize specific contributors for their specific contributions. It’s obvious Serkis wants to be recognized as an Actor, not just a cog in the SFX machine, and likewise the SFX technicians want to be recognized as Artists. There’s no reason those things can’t happen, except that they’re so busy making half-assed statements about why the OTHER group isn’t as valid as they are when they could be forming a unified front and bringing the fight to the Academy.

    Fair is fair, but when people start getting butthurt and defending the validity of their art to the detriment of others, they’re only propagating the notion that their art needs defending.

  • http://www.facebook.com/s.k.hellstrom Sarah K. Hellström

    No, Claudia, animators are not ‘doing the makeup’ and that’s a common misunderstanding. Animators in fact animate, i.e. “brings to life”. Animation is creating emotions through motions, it has nothing to do with ‘makeup’, wardrobe or art direction, other departments deal with those aspects and in the context of animation or vfx, it would for instance be a joint collaboration between the model, texture, shading and lighting departments that would create what you refer to as ‘makeup’ – or more accurately, the way the character looks, from shape and size to distinct features and colors etc. So, animation ONLY deals with creating movements for the character and subsequently, what that character expresses emotionally in the context of the story.

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