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Today, Andy Serkis is one of the most respected names in motion capture, but back in the year 2000, it was a different story.

The world wasn’t familiar with the concept of motion capture back then, and production staff on The Lord of the Rings film saga weren’t sure what Serkis was doing there. Dressing in his motion capture suit and crawling around on the floor, he looked pretty ridiculous.

“These guys had been filming for about 4 or 5 months before I got out to New Zealand,” Serkis recalled during The Lord of the Rings reunion panel at C2E2 2025. “I was going through the preparations for becoming Gollum, and I was often on my own and crawling about, and kind of practicing, and doing what I was doing. And then the day came.”

“Film is all shot out of order, and my first scene was scene 765 of film 3, and I remember crawling onto the set, and sort of becoming Gollum with my think lycra suit on, and then getting into character. And then Pete Jackson laughing at me," Serkis told the audience. "All the crew were kind of going, ‘Who is that guy and what the hell is he doing here? Can you get him out of shot because we want to shoot here.’ I don’t think anybody really knew what I was doing there on the very first day.

“We then shot the scene and that was a very beautiful thing, but it was months of sort of preparation and then standing there. And it did make me laugh when I could see Peter standing in front of me giggling like a child, because here was this character Gollum coming to life, but all it was, was this guy with a shaved head in this very thin suit going, ‘[Gollum noise].’”

Jackson and the crew may have laughed, but history has proven Serkis’s work. His performance as Gollum stunned audiences, revolutionizing the way films use motion capture characters. Serkis has become an award-winning actor, and a critically acclaimed director in his own right. In fact, he’ll be directing and starring in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is due in theaters December 2027.

Something tells me the crew won’t be laughing when he dons the motion capture suit this time.

Popverse members can watch There and Back Again: A Lord of the Rings Cast Reunion from C2E2 2025's Main Stage powered by CGC x JSA for yourself as part of Popverse's all-encompassing coverage of C2E2 2025.

Did you miss a C2E2 Main Stage panel? Don't worry, we're filming it all thanks to our partners at CGC x JSA -  our official authenticator & grading partner. Here is the C2E2 2025 panel livestream & VOD release schedule.