I read a brief article this morning on Andy Serkis and motion-capture acting that I thought was interesting. It seems we have another year of Oscars where the contentious motion-capture acting isn't quite "there" yet in terms of becoming widely accepted as a legitimate award-worthy ACTING performance. There was discussion over this type of work when Serkis played Gollum in the The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003), when Serkis played Kong himself King Kong (2005), and then two years ago with Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington getting snubbed for Oscar acting roles in Avatar (2009), and now again with Serkis playing Captain Haddock in Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and playing Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).

Andy Serkis is certainly credited for pioneering (with the help of digital technicians and what must be hundreds of computer animation geniuses) the realm of motion-capture acting ... meaning, he's there, he's present, he's playing the character (Gollum, King Kong, Caesar) and delivering a performance that translates to what we see on screen. It's not Serkis' face we see, but it's his acting that makes the character real. On portraying Gollum, Serkis said: "Everyone has their own interpretation of what he is, what he looks like and how he sounds. So it was up to me to just trust my own instincts."

Here's what Serkis himself has to say about acting through motion capture:

"What’s fantastic is that there’s a real growing appreciation for performance-capture technology as a tool for acting. Over the years, people have asked me, 'Do you think there should be a separate category for acting in the digital realm? Or hybrid sort of awards for digital characters?' and so on. And I’ve always really maintained that I don’t believe so. I think it should be considered acting, because it is. My part in it, what I do, as say the authorship of the role, the creation, the emotional content of the role, the physicality up until the point of delivering that for the director, it is acting.

... This is not taking anything away from [visual effects technicians], because their work is accoladed and has been for some time. So for instance, [at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards], 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' won the visual effects award and that’s fantastic, and quite rightly so; the way that those apes are brought to life is extraordinary. What was great about getting a supporting actor nomination [for my work in 'Apes'] is that it clearly shows, it defines an understanding within the industry that it is acting.'

So, the award nominations for Serkis haven't been non-existent. It's just The Oscars aren't there yet. And, as Ricky Gervais put it this year at The Golden Globes, "The Golden Globes [and pretty much all other awards shows] are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton." What happens at The Oscars kind of matters.

Serkis goes on to say that motion capture is simply another form of art: "Actors often ask that question, 'Are we going to be replaced by digital characters?' I think this is all part of the bigger debate about the notion of what performance capture really is all about. For me, I’ve never drawn a distinction between live-action acting and performance-capture acting. It is purely a technology. It’s a bunch of cameras that can record the actor’s performance in a different way. In terms of animation, animators are actors as well. They are fantastic actors. They have to draw from how they feel emotionally about the beat of a scene that they’re working on. They work collaboratively. They all have to understand the psyche of the role that they’re developing. And that will never change. It’s an art form."

This article provides a counterpoint and claims that what the actor does is only a part of the story in bringing the final motion-captured character to life, and that it's not fair to put these actors in the same category as a traditional actor. "With all the kinds of changes that I’ve pointed out, how would Academy members be supposed to judge these performances were they to be nominated in the traditional acting categories? Where is the boundary between acting and special effects? Despite actors’ and directors’ claims to the contrary, the movements and expressions caught by performance capture are changed in many obvious and not so obvious ways. A close inspection of the comparison photos reveals the details of the transformation, but in watching the film, the viewer cannot necessarily gauge what sorts of changes were made. I can well imagine that actors like Meryl Streep or Jeff Bridges would be justified if they objected to competing in the same Oscar category as what are essentially hybrid performances seamlessly combining the original acting and the digital transformation." The argument here is for a separate consideration of motion-capture acting.

While I can appreciate what this person is saying, I think to say that there are other animated factors contributing to the final on-screen character and that inherently takes away the uncut, original and real performance of the actor is just wrong. Aren't there already a million things that enhance an actor's final performance to what we see onscreen?? Actors have body doubles and stunt doubles. The director cuts and edits performances in a way he or she sees fit as it composes the final story. Actors even go do sound pick-ups months after wrapping shooting, where they sit in a sound studio in their street clothing and do voice-overs to their own original performance to enhance the sound quality. How is that any different than an actor providing a voice to a pre-constructed animated character? Okay, it's slightly different, but you get my point.

Anyway all that to say I (not surprisingly) agree with Serkis that what he does is acting, and it IS on par with other acting roles and should be recognized as such. Just because technology is a part of it, doesn't mean Serkis and others aren't acting and bringing the character to life.

Serkis will be playing Gollum again in The Hobbit films (2012, 2013). Perhaps we'll see him get a nomination for those!


For more reading:
When Will a Motion-Capture Actor Win an Oscar?
Oscars snub 'Avatar's' motion-capture actors