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Andy Serkis learned to direct from Peter Jackson


When Andy Serkis – who plays Gollum in both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies – got the call from Peter Jackson asking him if he would helm the second unit crew as director for their return to Middle-Earth, he was shocked. ”I was just going to come over [to New Zealand] and […]

When Andy Serkis – who plays Gollum in both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies – got the call from Peter Jackson asking him if he would helm the second unit crew as director for their return to Middle-Earth, he was shocked. ”I was just going to come over [to New Zealand] and do Gollum and then get on with my life,” says Serkis in an interview with Contact Music. “This wasn’t part of the game plan.” The second unit – which is responsible for subsidiary, establishing and secondary footage – was handed off to Serkis, who already had an established rapport with Jackson from their time together on the first Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Pete’s known that I have wanted to direct for many years and he’s always been very encouraging,” Serkis told Empire magazine, explaining exactly how the Hollywood titan coached him through the process: ”He would watch from his set, call: ‘No, no, it’s not working. Just bail out of the shot.’ He was mentoring me.” The duo would also work together in tandem sometimes, finishing each others’ sentences in order to get whatever scene they were working on that day. “‘There were different ways we worked,” explains Serkis. “We’d set up entire sequences, or he’d start a scene and I would finish it if there wasn’t time.” The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (as well as The Hobbit: There and Back Again and the as-yet-untitled third installment) will mark Serkis’ directorial debut, and he hopes to eventually move on to directing his own films.~Devin Garabedian

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