9 Completely Pointless Preparations By Method Actors

3. Andy Serkis Learned The Violin For A Film In Which He Never Plays The Violin

In 1999, the year Mike Leigh's Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy was released, hardly anybody had heard of Andy Serkis. He'd yet to become a pioneering figurehead of mo-cap technology after playing grey fish-man thing Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, so he, like any other working actor, was still searching for his big break. Having been cast as Gilbert and Sullivan's choreographer, John D'Auban, in Topsy Turvy, Serkis probably imagined that could be the break he'd been looking for. So he threw himself into the part, over six months studying ballet, Irish dancing and eccentric dance with a real choreographer for four hours a day, obsessively researching the period and learning to play the violin. Shame Serkis was only actually playing a very minor character who had his role made smaller during the editing process, with any scenes featuring his expert violin-playing ending up on the cutting room floor. Granted, Serkis couldn't have seen that coming, but his big musical scene being cut only serves to make his preparation seem even more excessive.