Andy Serkis: Oscar Voters Look Down On Performance Capture Actors

Andy Serkis believes that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who awards the Oscars, overlooks actors who use performance capture technology because they look down on it.

The Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, King Kong, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avengers: Age Of Ultron actor is widely regarded as the definitive performance capture actor.

However despite his superlative work in the field, Andy Serkis still hasn’t received an Oscar nomination for his efforts, and now he thinks he knows why. He believes that they don’t consider it real acting. Andy Serkis spoke about his thoughts on the subject with Yahoo! Movies UK.

“No matter how much talk we’ve done, and over the years it has come up over and over again, people still fail to understand that it is acting.

“They think that in some way, what we’re doing is different to if you were standing there in a costume and make-up.”

“We have Matt Reeves directing the movie. We have people playing humans costumes. But we also have [humans playing] apes in their own costumes, in performance capture suits. We’re all acting in the same movie together and playing our roles.”

“What happens after that in post-production is that we’re manifested on screen as apes, but the authorship of the role, the defining of the characters… is not defined by any visual effects – it’s entirely performed.”

Matt Reeves, the director behind Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, also joined in the discussion on the matter. And as you probably guessed, he supported Serkis’ stance and insists that he should receive an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

“I think that people get confused because they think performance capture is something technical.

Performance capture is capture of a performance and if you are moved by Caesar in that story, you are moved by Andy Serkis, who is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with.

I really, really hope that he finally breaks through with the Academy [with Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes]”

There is more and more momentum growing for Andy Serkis to finally be recognized for his efforts using performance capture.

He originally gained attention for his work using this technology when he portrayed Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

However, since then, he has taken it to new heights, and in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes his performance as Caesar the ape was so natural and nuanced that it was arguably the best of any movie this year.

[Image via Melty]