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Andy Serkis never intended acting career

Feb 7, 2012, 6:02 GMT

Andy Serkis

Andy Serkis never intended to be an actor.

The 47-year-old star - who portrayed Gollum in the 'Lord of the Rings' series and King Kong in the 2005 movie of the same name - never harboured ambitions to be a big Hollywood star and only fell into acting when he took theatre studies as his second subject at college because he 'couldn't think of anything better to do'.

He told Collider.com: 'I actually didn't even intend to be an actor. I went to college to study graphics, painting and design. I was going to be an artist. And when I got to college, you had to do another subject in your first year, so I chose theater studies because I couldn't think of anything better to do. But, I started designing sets and posters and stuff, and then, I did a play, which completely changed my life.

'I found that this connection to the role I was playing was so intense, and the whole experience of doing it was so intense, that I completely changed my direction and decided to become an actor.'

Despite his previous lack of acting ambitions, Andy - who is set to reprise his role as chimpanzee Caesar in a sequel to 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' - found it 'relatively easy' to play the part of an ape because he doesn't see much difference to portraying a human being.

He added: 'I found it relatively easy, actually. For instance, playing a character like King Kong and playing a character like Caesar in 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes', you think, 'Oh, they're two apes.' But, as we all know, apes are 97 per cent genetically the same as us, so it's like saying, 'How do you play a human being?' They're all totally individual and totally idiosyncratic. It always goes back to character.'