God, that's an amazing character, which haunted my children for years to come.
Are you kidding me?
There's only one creature capable of leaving a footprint that size, the abominable snowman.
That was one of the characters that I played in Peter Jackson's 2005 King Kong and Lumpy the Chef.
You're a vulnerable snowman.
You know I'd been studying gorillas for months and months and months, going to Rwanda, and then I get to New Zealand to play Kong and Pete says yeah, and I think I'd quite like you to play another character as well.
Do you want to play Lumpy the chef?
This very bawdy, saucy chef.
What I invented for him was that he was constantly smoking and had a cigarette in his mouth all the time, to the point that his
From the smoke going into one eye, one eye was constantly shut.
As we've done on Lord of the Rings, the behind the scenes have been hugely important.
And I mean it was such a groundbreaking thing, sharing with an audience the process of making a film as it was happening.
And it began on Lord of the Rings, of course, and those, those behind the scenes, have become the things of legend, really.
And so many filmmakers I know started making films because they'd watched the behind the scenes of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings.
When we were doing Kong, it sort of became more official, really.
There were these blogs that went out every two weeks, or little mini videos.
And I remember making one as Lumpy the Chef.
He was one of those guys who gives it out and then meets a very, very grisly death, in fact, which haunted my children for years to come.
And in fact yeah Sonny, my oldest boy.
I remember him being five and seeing that film and I thought I probably shouldn't have shown him that, because this sort of rather phallic monster comes down and takes Lumpy in its claws and sort of sucks him in.
Yeah, it's a tragic end to Lumpy, which I know pretty much scarred Sonny for life.
LAUGHTER
Give it to us, Roar and Wriggling.
I mean, who couldn't say it was Gollum here from Lord of the Rings?
Is it Gollum or is it Smeagol?
Actually, that's a very good point.
Give it to us, Roar and Wriggling.
Yeah, no, it's Smeagol, actually.
It's absolutely Smeagol from The Two Towers.
Give it to us, Roar and Wriggling.
The first conversation I had about going to work on Lord of the Rings was from my agent.
It was like, Andy, they're doing this film on Lord of the Rings in New Zealand.
There's a potential digital character.
It's about three weeks voiceover work.
And I said, Lord of the Rings, there must be a dozen good parts in that.
Can you not get me out for a decent role?
That was literally my response.
And then it was just like, no, no, it's Gollum.
And I was like, oh, Gollum, that's an amazing character.
When I met with Peter Jackson, I realized what they wanted to do, which was to have an actor play the role.
But he said to me quite clearly, you know, you will not be manifested as yourself on screen.
It's going to be a digital character.
But we want an actor to play the role, because we can't have Elijah Wood and Sean Astin acting against a tennis ball and a stick, because Gollum drives a lot of the scenes.
But it was unclear at that point as to what my involvement would be.
I couldn't just do a voice on set.
I was like crawling about being the character and Peter said no OK, so we're going to change our idea of how we're going to do this.
Film Andy on set and then he can go back.
And when it's Gollum only shots, we'll use performance capture or motion capture, as it was at the time.
And that was the early days.
And it was literally the sound.
Someone held up a telephone of the scene that we had done that I was then doing the capture for of Elijah and Sean's lines.
And then I was acting in this tiny little volume with no facial capture but just the physical capture at that point,
Okay, here we go.
On program, that is from Andor.
I'm programmed!
To be honest, when I was offered the role, I was slightly worried because I'd been in the Star Wars universe as Supreme Leader Snoke.
And then I was thinking that was confusing enough for the fans.
I just thought they might think there was some weird connection between this new character that I was playing.
When I met with Tony Gilroy, I just loved where he was coming from with this script and this story.
And to talk about fascism through the lens of Star Wars, I thought was incredible.
Patience, patience, my love.
That's Lord of the Rings 2, and that is Smeagol.
Oh, or maybe it's Gollum, actually.
I think it's in Return of the King, and it's the scene, and it's reflecting in the pond.
Yes, and he's saying you know, let's bide our time, and then we'll kill Master Frodo, and then we'll take the ring.
Patience, patience.
I can't really talk about The Hunt for Gollum right now, but I mean that character's never gone away.
He's sort of always been lurking, and you know.
So it's interesting that we worked on 25 years ago on Lord of the Rings and then going back and revisiting him in The Hobbit, and then I did the audiobooks and then coming back 25 years later to revisit Gollum again, and There's still more to investigate in the character, and that's the wonderful thing about it.
And actually what's been interesting is how he's been absorbed into public consciousness really.
And I think the whole notion of addiction, of the character, And that being addicted to the ring is something that certainly when I've met say, fans at conventions and they say, you know, I really relate.
I actually really relate to Gollum.
The inner voices and addiction as well, particularly people who have been through hard times.
They've sort of connected with that character.
So I'm really looking forward to re-examining him in the up and coming times.
Thank you.
You're just a child in a mask.
Star Wars, and this is a Supreme Leader Snoke line, as we were just talking about.
You're just a child.
That is literally one of the hardest roles I've ever played Snoke, I think because the definition of the character was very fluid and it was mysterious.
But it also stemmed from the fact that I wasn't entirely rooted in the character.
I couldn't quite...
I couldn't quite find myself in the center of it.
I did actually in the second film a little more, but just also the way we shot it.
In the first film, Force Awakens, I was like 50 feet away from the other actors and 30 feet up.
Yeah, it was not easy to connect with your scene partner.
When you read the script for these things, you go in and your phone's taken off you and you sit down and there's video cameras everywhere and you sit and you read the script.
And Rian Johnson had said this was gonna be a much better role, you know, in the second film.
So I was reading it and I was like, oh yeah, this is getting really good.
And it was getting really juicy and then suddenly, you know, And then snow gets cut in half.
And I was like, are you kidding me?
And I was like, I give up.
No!
That was Caesar's first word in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
I'd never thought I'd be playing another ape after playing Kong, because that was a big journey for that character.
And then I read the script for Rise of the Planet of the Apes and it was like this story is extraordinary.
I just kind of forgot what he was until this moment in the script where suddenly Caesar speaks for the first time.
I thought, this is an ape speaking for the first time.
It was really, really powerful.
When the day was coming up to shoot this scene.
I spent a long time coiling the spring as such and then kind of letting rip on it, and I remember Tom Felton's face.
It was truly magnificent to see.
Thanks.
I'll keep the light on for you.
I hope you find peace.
Hold on to each other.
I'll keep the light on for you.
I hope you find peace.
Oh, you got me there.
Nah, you got me.
I have no idea about this one.
I'll keep the light on for you.
I hope you find peace.
Ah!
Hold on.
They sent me the pitch deck and I looked at it and I just thought, this is so interesting.
What a video game.
And I'm so thrilled for these guys because I love the idea of it, but I love the visuals of it.
I just thought it was beautiful.
I'm so thrilled for their success.
These guys had never made a video game before.
It was their first one and they learnt on YouTube tutorials.
It's such an emotional story for a video game and it just looks extraordinary and the music in it is so powerful.
I don't see any difference between that and acting in films or on stage or TV.
It's exactly the same.
You approach the character and build a character in the same way.
My first engagement with video games was with a company called Ninja Theory, and we made a game called Heavenly Sword for PlayStation 3.
At that point, actors looked down on video games.
It's like, I wouldn't get involved in a video game.
Now young actors coming out of drama schools and they're like I really want to be in a video game.
The irony is that Hollywood is using video game engines to drive all of the previews, for all of the big action sequences in all of the movies.
But also for cinematographers to use previews and to be able to place light sources or moonlight, or sunlight, or you know very specifically where you know in a shot.
It's an essential tool of modern filmmaking and there has always been that snobbery about video games not being anywhere near filmmaking.
But that's all changing and certainly looking into the future, when we have more immersive storytelling, which is what's happening.
Thank you.
I could teach you how to fight, but I wasn't equipped to take care of you.
You needed a father.
All you had was me.
Alfred in The Batman.
I wasn't equipped to take care of you.
You needed a father.
All you had was me.
That was me being reunited with Matt Reeves after playing Caesar twice, with him directing and him saying to me I want to do a film where I just see Andy.
I just want to see Andy.
You know I really love Alfred as a character and he has no true paternal instinct and that's his tragedy.
I know, hugely important in my journey as an actor and a human being the role of the father and what that means as both as one myself, but also the relationship that I had with my father.
That was an important role in a way, to sort of succinctly brought those things together.
Trust me, laddie.
Trust me, laddie.
I know these parts like the back of my hand. is Captain Halleck.
One of my greatest moments pinch-me moments as an actor in this profession the lead-up to this, where Stephen had never used performance capture before, Peter had been through the whole process And James Cameron was getting ready to shoot Avatar.
And there was this one day at Marina del Rey.
The three of them were there.
And I was in my motion capture suit.
And Stephen was getting used to using a virtual camera.
And Pete was showing him.
And James was there.
And it was the three of the greatest directors on the planet.
Just think of the insurance in the room and me.
And then Zoe Soldano came and joined.
And it was just like, I actually can't quite believe that I'm standing here.
You know, we did a little scene and they were all having a camera off to see who would come up with the best shots.
It was incredible.
It was incredible.
Thank you.
You are responsible for whatever happens to this animal, doctor.
Is this from The Prestige?
Yes.
You were responsible for whatever happens to this animal, Doctor.
I actually really love watching that film.
There are very few films that are kind of comfortable watching that I'm in.
I think it's one of my favourite films actually.
Plus I got to work with David Bowie of course.
He was such a lovely scene partner and brilliant and hilarious and very funny and very self-deprecating, and he took the mick out of himself mercilessly about his own Serbian accent and he said I just think I sound like Clouseau, you know, and we had great fun.
I'm sorry.
I don't know what came over me.
Please let me fix it so I can break it again.
I know the rhythm of it, but which is the character?
It must be Captain Haddock again, surely.
No.
That's Tom Hardy.
Is that Tom Hardy?
Yeah, it's Venom.
Yeah.
I'm sorry.
I don't know what came over me.
Please let me fix it.
It's like a person of day.
I had an absolute ball directing Venom Let There Be Carnage.
I thought what Tom had done with the first one was just remarkable.
There's some similarities in the way that Tom and I approached characters and the respect that we have for the craft of acting and the fun also element of that we have with acting.
And he's very bold.
He makes bold choices.
And playing a character that has a symbiote living inside of him and a dual personality and, knowing my history with Gollum and so on, that was an important link for us both.
He originally was toying with the idea of using performance capture, but he didn't want to go down that route actually.
He wanted to only hear the voice, so he used to record his dialogue before we'd do a scene, have it in his ear Venom's voice because he wanted to be able to place Venom in his head wherever he wanted.
And so I fully understood that.
So that's how we went about it.
That's how I shot it.
So if you're going to fiddle with my brain this should be read with a South African accent and make me see a giant cuttlefish then I know you don't do business and I know you're not in charge and I only deal with the man in charge.
This was Age of Ultron, Age of Ultron.
I only deal. with the man in charge.
My first foray into the wikiwaki world of Ulysses Klaw.
And, yeah, I mean, a character I loved playing and...
Yet another character who had a bit of an early departure in my mind.
I thought he could have kept going for a bit longer.
It was such, such good fun to do.
And then going on to work with Ryan Coogler on Black Panther and working with the brilliant Chadwick Boseman was a real highlight.
And I loved developing this character.
He was so maniacal, crazy, you know, despicable, but funny.
And it's really, really weird.
You know, I started out as a theatre actor.
I never thought I would end up in the world of these big franchises.
Not for a second.
I thought I was going to be making arty, independent films.
Never considered that.
You know that I would be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars.
You know, it's just like incredible.
You know, I did pinch myself and kind of go, how did this happen?
Alrighty, everybody, let's farm.
Okay.
So now we come to the current film, which is Animal Farm.
Long time in the making, we set out to make it as a motion capture movie and then decided that if we'd made a live-action version it would have been much darker, and I'm really glad that we that we decided to make it as an animation and ultimately to make it for young inquiring minds who could sit with their parents and grandparents and have a very seminal political piece of work brought to them so that they could think about the future that they're going to inherit, the Earth that they're going to inherit, and somehow feel that they can have a discussion about it.
But it has been 15 years in the making.
And there are some people that we approached 12 years ago when we sort of knew what we were doing with the script.
And that was Glenn Close and Jim Parsons and Seth Rogen, all of whom stuck with the project because they were passionate about the book.
Randolph the Rooster is sort of the commentary as the utopia falls apart.
I wasn't actually going to play anything in this.
And everybody went, Andy, why don't you play Randolph?
And I was like, oh yeah, go on then, I'll have a go.
But I actually really loved playing him.
