Actor and director Andy Serkis, famously the motion capture artist and voice behind Gollum in the original Lord of the Rings film trilogy, always seemed like a fine dude. And he has done a lot of charity work in his life. Yet in the last few years, he’s seemingly turned into an anti-cancel culture, AI-apologizing doofus who recently responded to criticism about his upcoming Lord of the Rings movie having an all-white cast by saying he isn’t concerned about “politically correct” casting.
The absolute monster! How dare he not genuflect at the altar of woke!
People had criticized the original Peter Jackson-directed films for similar reasons, so some were surprised to see such a white cast for the new movie. Serkis is aware of the criticism of the past films and his new project, but seemed oddly indignant about it all.
As well he might, says anyone of a normal outlook. But this is Kotaku, which like most of the US based scifi review sites has been swallowed by the woke movement and is hopelessly in thrall to it.
“Yes, there have been criticisms,” said Serkis. “This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film. So, it’s where relevant basically.”He also suggested that the Hobbits’ home, The Shire, feels “very, very white” and added: “They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of The Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in.”
Sounds familiar...
This is an especially odd thing to say considering some of the people of color cast in Amazon’s The Rings of Power were harassed so brutally online that Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan (who played Hobbits in the Jackson films) made an effort to defend the cast and calm people down. So Serkis using some of the same language that angry people online used about Rings of Power‘s non-white casting seems gross.
But in recent years, Serkis has repeatedly done and said stuff that has made me go, “When did you turn into a dick?”
Perhaps he hasn't turned into anything?
Serkis’ 2018 comments about Scarlett Johansson planning to play a trans man (before she dropped out of the project) were resurfaced. And instead of sharing that he had listened to people and learned that, hey, maybe we should try to have better representation, he doubled down on his stance.
I'm guessing the reviewer, one Zack Zwiezen and yes, he looks exactly how I'd pictured him, can't see the trap in that sentence.
“Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of how tall you are or short you are or what sex you are, regardless of how you identify, you should have the ability to play anything,” said Serkis in that interview.
C'mon, Andy, we all know what would happen if a studio was to cast a white actor (or a woman!) to play Martin Luther King. We all know this only goes one way.
Serkis also made it clear that he would love to play Voldemort in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, joking that he would cut his nose off to play the villain.
HE'S IN LEAGUE WITH THE EVIL ONE*! And he supports stuff we (the Royal 'we' of course) hate:
But it’s clear he is fine with AI becoming a part of filmmaking. He even recently starred in Young Washington, a movie that features scenes touched up and modified with genAI.
Odly enough, the commenters don't agree, he's getting absolutely bodied in the comment section, so maybe there's hope after all.
*JK Rowling of course
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