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Entering the 'Ring'

As Tolkien's 'Lord' epic wends toward war, we meet 'Towers' kin and creatures

By Susan Stewart | Special to Newsday

December 15, 2002

They're back! And they're slightly different. While "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," which opens nationwide Wednesday, boasts its share of familiar faces - Frodo, Sam, Aragorn and others are right where we left them at the end of "Fellowship of the Ring" - it also introduces a bevy of new characters from the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien. They are as complicated, interrelated and potentially confusing as the ones we met in the first part of Peter Jackson's film trilogy.

Most of these new folks are human. They hail from the kingdom of Rohan, where the architecture is equine (horse heads are everywhere) and the relationships are Shakespearean. Enter aging King Theoden (Bernard Hill), who seems to be losing his grip and is becoming increasingly dependent on Wormtongue (Brad Dourif). Then there are Theoden's loving niece Eowyn (Miranda Otto) and her brother, the warrior Eomer (Karl Urban). All will eventually play a part in the epic battle between good and evil that is the centerpiece of the trilogy.

Meanwhile, the hobbits Frodo and Sam continue their journey to take the crucial ring to the evil kingdom of Mordor. Along the way they are joined by Gollum (Andy Serkis), a gnomelike creature whose inner conflict mirrors the larger one around him.

Feel as if you need a scorecard? Otto, Urban and Serkis recently sat down to talk about their characters - and themselves.

Andy Serkis

For all the brutal battle scenes in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," no actor had a harder physical role than Andy Serkis.

The whiny, crawling, grotesque degenerate creature Gollum? Serkis plays him. Sort of.

We don't see Serkis in the second "Rings" movie; he played Gollum throughout the filming, then was replaced by a hideous computer-generated creature. This wasn't because Serkis did a bad job; it was the plan all along to have a fine actor create a human template for the computer creature.

"We'd shoot two scenes," Serkis explains patiently, "one with me in a bodysuit, which was very attractive, and one with me doing the voice ... then we'd do the motion capture, which is where I go into a studio and put on a suit with dots all over it that basically map all the joints in my body."

Then, 18 months later, Serkis did it all over again, "like a virtual puppeteer."

The 38-year- old Brit, who looks normal except for a very high pompadour, sighs cheerfully. "The other actors could go home at the end of the day and say, 'I nailed it!' but I always knew that even if I had a scene in the can, I would have to do it over and over again."

And in that voice! The wormlike Gollum talks as if he's inhaled an entire helium canister. And then he changes voices, in tour de force scenes in which he displays two personalities: Gollum and his alter ego, Smeagol.

"Gollum is gutteral, Smeagol is nasal. We designed this drink called Gollum juice: honey, lemon, ginger and warm water. I drank buckets of it."

When he wasn't drinking throat-soothing Gollum juice, Serkis was observing his 2-year-old son, who inspired his mannerisms.

"You know, the charming mock theatrics children use when they throw themselves on the floor in the middle of the food market. ... You can't be so closed off creating great art that you don't see what's going on around you."

Serkis may have created great art, but will anybody notice? Director Jackson says his work is "as relevant an acting performance as John Hurt in 'The Elephant Man.'" Hurt got an Oscar nomination. Could Serkis?

Jackson: "He absolutely deserves one, but the problem is that people are not aware of the technical process."

Is Serkis, hidden under his computer camouflage, bitter? "At first I thought, 'Oh, why can't I play Gollum? Just let me play him!' But then I began to understand Peter's view."

With a thriving career (Mike Lee's "Topsy Turvy"), Serkis doesn't pine to be a leading man. "Marginal characters are more interesting. But I wouldn't turn down a hunky male lead if anyone were so foolish as to offer me one."

Suddenly Serkis looks embarrassed. He's not trying to be the next Harrison Ford, but he's not sitting still, either.