Academy Award for Gollum?

**Alfonso Casal** · 12th December 2002, 03:07 AM

Here is a link to a brief piece which says that the makers of TTT are campaigning for a "Best Supporting Actor" academy award for Gollum, a computer generated character. Sign of the times, I suppose.

CLICK HERE

Juan Aneiros · 12th December 2002, 03:34 AM

After seeing the film, it's the only character that would stand a chance since all the real actors get hardly any screen time. The most screen time is given to Gollum and Treebeard.

Gandalf has 10 minutes, Saruman 3 minutes. In fact, I think that all you see from Saruman is already in the trailer from The World Awards.

I am outraged because Saruman features more in the books than in the film and I hate to see his acting abilities wasted. Then again, I am biased and went to watch the film to see Mr Lee and not some talking tree. As an example of Mr Lee's acting, I prefer to watch "Jaguar Lives"

No doubt that this film is very good, but it is no masterpiece and definitely not better than the first. Visually it is stunning and the music is excellent. Great battle scenes and they did a very good job on Gollum.

A lot of cutting went on there. If you look at Mr Lee's screen time in the two films, he could have done his scenes in one day.

I'm afraid that it's not Oscar material in any department. What would be a disgrace, it they gave it some to make up for last year.

This time, there was not some much praising after the film ended and at the party, hardly anyone said a word about the film.

**Colin Bushby** · 12th December 2002, 10:25 AM

I had read something similar in yesterdays newspaper about 'Golum up for Oscar' and it went on to explain that animated characters can't win, something to do with accepting the award I think.:D

Btw, Alfonso the link changes daily so people will have to search the archives after today because it only goes back one day.:)

**Brandon Jones** · 17th December 2002, 02:25 AM

I think they could get away with giving Andy Serkis the Academy, along with the "team," who created Gollum digitally. That would make a little more sense, seeing as how Gollum wouldn't be what is he without Mr. Serkis.

Old Soul · 17th December 2002, 04:14 AM

Quote:

I think they could get away with giving Andy Serkis the Academy, along with the "team," who created Gollum digitally. That would make a little more sense, seeing as how Gollum wouldn't be what is he without Mr. Serkis.

This is true SR....

Andy Serkis is Gollum. They just needed the computer to creat his Gollum costume.

Old Soul

Juan Aneiros · 17th December 2002, 08:33 AM

This doesn't make sense. Gollum could be worthy of receiving an Oscar because the "CGI creation" is of such standard that would deserve some recognition. But Andy Serkis performance is not outstanding, so it deserves nothing. This has to go in the FX category and not that of acting. If there isn't one, then they'll have to create it but then many more should.

If the actor playing the CGI was to receive a nomination, then we would go to the level in which acting is no longer important but how cool and groundbreaking is the character played.

Based on this argument, the actor playing voice of Yoda should be considered too. The only difference is that the movements of Gollum are based on Serkis' but not the facial expressions. Take it a stage further and the guy on the computer creating Yoda's movements should get a nomination for acting? I think this is going a bit too far. Gollum is a CGI muppet the same a Yoda and many other past creations with the difference that the movements were taken from an actor. You could get them from a toddler and then what? You give the toddler and Oscar?

39steps · 17th December 2002, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Based on this argument, the actor playing voice of Yoda should be considered too. The only difference is that the movements of Gollum are based on Serkis' but not the facial expressions. Take it a stage further and the guy on the computer creating Yoda's movements should get a nomination for acting? I think this is going a bit too far. Gollum is a CGI muppet the same a Yoda

I agree with you on the whole; this is just a side note. Gollum and Yoda are somewhat different cases, because Yoda has only been CGI in one of his four films... in the previous three films, the voice actor was also the puppeteer (and I suspect he had a hand in designing the Muppet as well). Now, is that acting, I don't know... the debate could probably rage for years (hey, Muppet fans are dedicated). But Frank Oz was, until AotC, single-handedly responsible for Yoda, so, unlike Gollum, there was someone clearly responsible for the entire performance. (And Frank Oz may well be nominated for an Oscar some day, but more likely as a director than as a Muppet.) :)

**Alfonso Casal** · 17th December 2002, 06:07 PM

This may well be all hype. We've seen this before in animation. The "demon" in Fantasia's "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence was modeled on Bela Lugosi's movements; and Kim Basinger provided the voice and movements for "Jessica Rabbit" in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. No one mentioned acting awards for them.

saruman12 · 18th December 2002, 05:51 AM

Andy Serkis is every right to nominated as best supporting actor.
Because :

What is the difference between John Hurt wearing the latex mask in "The Elephant Man" and Andy Serkis wearing a Pixel mask of Gollum ?
(Quote by Russel Schwartz, New Line Marketing)

I think he has a good argument !

saruman12 · 18th December 2002, 06:00 AM

There is no difference. They are both human !

Go see this amazing film TTT !

Look at Gollums eyes ! Andy Serkis` soul is inside Gollum !

18th December 2002, 06:31 AM

It won't win the Oscar if "it" is nominated, simple as that.

Just remember that cgi films have their own best-animated film category for a reason, and they are never nominated for best picture. So I really can't see a cgi character winning best actor award. Maybe in the future they might make a new category for best cgi character.:P

I always embrace technology but I believe we should use it to make our life more confortable, not take over completely.;)

Juan Aneiros · 18th December 2002, 12:23 PM

http://www.bfca.org/criticschoiceawards.asp

Best Digital Acting Performance

Dobby - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Gollum - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Yoda - Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

That sounds about right. As for an Oscar acting nomination, that is not going to happen.

18th December 2002, 07:10 PM

See I told you. Damn, I'm clever. :D

**Stacie Herman-Laurence** · 19th December 2002, 01:01 AM

Quote:

See I told you. Damn, I'm clever. :D

and quite the modest one too... :-D

gogglebox · 23rd December 2002, 06:21 AM

I realise that this is a christopher lee site but im getting a bit bored of Admin dismissing TTT because it doesnt have enough Christopher Lee in it. The film is incredible and of course we would have loved to see more of Christopher Lee in it but i dont think the film suffers because he isnt in it all that much. The film is very much an ensemble piece and not every character can have shedloads of screen time even with the extensive running time of the film. Surely Admin needs to realise that the film in fantastic (albeit suffering slightly as it does not contain a great deal of development) and it is excellent whether it contains one minute of 90 minutes of Christopher Lee. Im sure Mr Lee is humble enough to realise that if less screen time for him creates a better, tighter movie then that is the best option. As for Gollum well i believe that Andy Serkis does deserve an award for best supporting actor as he really is the spirit of the character but i fear we must accept the academy will never give him one.