Andy Serkis: His 8 Best Performances

The role that made him the legend he is today.

When Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was being released in the early 2000s, the films were pushing the boundaries of film in a great many ways but one of the most impressive advancements they made was with the character of Gollum.

Played by Serkis via early motion-capture technology, Gollum was an entirely CGI character who only appeared briefly in the first film but wound up becoming one of the most central characters in the second and third films. And for films that were made nearly twenty years ago now, all of this holds up unbelievably well. Sure, part of this is due to some truly groundbreaking effects work by WETA but all of it would be for naught without Serkis' absolutely incendiary performance.

As Gollum, Serkis is essentially playing a character whose two personalities are constantly at war with one another. In capturing both the innocence and good-nature of Sméagol and the menacing sociopath that is Gollum, Serkis is able to create this wide-ranging performance that is entrancing to watch. He plays ridiculously well off Elijah Wood and Sean Austin, yet some of his best moments are when Gollum is just talking to himself.