The Lord of the Rings: this actor played 132 characters!

Amazing Andy Serkis. If we already knew that the actor had not only played Gollum in the film trilogy of the Lord of the Rings signed Peter Jackson, we learn today that he lent his voice to more than a hundred different characters for the audiobooks based on the work of JRR Tolkien!

Guest of Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the promotion of the film The Batman, in which he embodies Alfred Pennyworth, Andy Serkis has revealed he precisely voiced 132 different characters for the audio adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The opportunity for the 57-year-old actor to remember this experience behind the microphone that we imagine exhausting.

“I’ve done quite physical roles, but sitting behind a microphone for six weeks to record The Lord of the Rings in its entirety was, I think, one of the most exhausting things I’ve ever been given. to do in my career”says Andy Serkis.

“Audiobooks are not easy”he continues. “I’m a physical actor, but this is a real test. “It was a real emotional journey to do that. I consulted friends who had already done some of the voices, and then I came up with some new ones as well.”

On the set of Stephen Colbert, Andy Serkis then explained how he went about remembering all these characters (132, we remember!), how he managed to differentiate them. “Some only appear once, we take them a bit on the fly, if I may say so, and then we improvise”he explains.

“But others, of course, are coming back”continues the actor. “And the only way I had to really, really remember everyone was to remember approximately how I physically positioned myself, for everyone, in relation to the mic.” And Serkis to walk the talk by overtaking Gandalf, Elrond and Gollum in front of an audience as amused as it was fascinated.

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