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Andy Serkis' Gollum born of a feline muse

Nov 1, 2010, 5:00 GMT

British actor Andy Serkis (R) and wife (L) arrive for the BFI London Film Festival\'s annual Awards EPA/DANIEL DEME

Andy Serkis based his portrayal of Gollum on his cat.

The 'Lord of the Rings' actor - who is set to reprise the role of the ring-obsessed creature in fantasy prequel 'The Hobbit' - immerses himself in his characters for months in order to make the portrayal accurate, so spent a lot of time studying his pet in order to establish some distinguishing mannerisms.

He explained: "It's ultimately about putting your own life under a microscope and relating it to your character. And your life changes. You're altering yourself.

"I drew on all sorts of inspirations for Gollum, down to my cat. Coughing up hairballs.

"But also looking at him psychologically. How to relate to that person. If he was a person. And addiction, and what that does."

The British star's father used to work in Iraq and after spending many summers in the Middle East with his family, Andy now dreams of setting up a film festival in the country's capital city, Baghdad.

He said: "We used to go there every summer. I have really happy memories.

"Baghdad used to have a huge amount of cinemas. There were 64 in the centre. Now, there's not one working projector. I'd love to set up a film festival at some point."