Why doesn't he get regular non motion capture roles? He has great range and can do miracles with his voice but the only time he is in movies is as a digital being.
shareMostly because working on the Lord of the rings as an actor he helped pioneer motion capture on film. Just look what he did with Gollum. Basically there isn't another actor better or more qualified to do motion capture than him.
shareYeah, that is what I'm thinking.
Remember in "Singing in the Rain" when Lina Lamont forces Kathy Selden to be her ghost voice?
That is exactly what is happening here.
They are forcing Serkis to take up the slack and give their cartoons life.
Forcing? I thought he quite liked it, as he seemed to love getting the chance to be 2:nd unit director of the Hobbit. Of course it takes time from "normal acting", but it is by choice, not by force.
My respect for this man just grows with every thing I see him in.
"He helped pioneer motion capture"? Were you born yesterday? I doubt he was even an actor before motion capture. Anyone can pretend to be an ape. Some people are ape-like without even acting. He's so overrated - like what he can do is a unique gift.
But the real answer to the original question - why doesn't he get regular acting roles - take a look at him. He looks like a wino tramp.
You can see in differently. As I have written in another thread, mo-cap acting isn't obvious: it's a certain specialized skill. Other actors have other skills: dancing, singing, martial arts, horse-riding, handling guns etc.
When live-action roles are cast, producers look at a certain pool of actors. If you're very good looking, and a good actor, you have more chances to get such a role. Andy is less good looking than Brad Pitt :)
When mo-cap roles are cast, producers look for actors who can reliably deliver a mo-cap performance. And Andy has great experience with it (and he is very flexible with voices and accents, which is a plus). So he gets cast more often there.
He also seems to understand filmmaking as a whole, otherwise he wouldn't be hired as Second Unit Director in The Hobbit films. He's now directing his own films.
He gathered specific experience, understands the technology better than others, and quite possibly does not go balistic at DoP like Christian Bale. And he doesn't mind accepting roles where his face isn't seen. So he gets work.
If you're a musician, nobody asks you "You've been playing the guitar for so long, why don't you start playing the drums and violin now?"
But if you're an actor, some people seem to think that you have to be "universal". Well, some actors are good at many things, others, such as Andy, are more specialized.
A quick glance at his resume shows he gets lots of other roles. More to the point is that he's never memorable in any way in those other roles.
shareApparently you had the pleasure of missing his "acting" in "(St)Inkheart."
"Life is uncertain, eat dessert first!" -HOMER J.SIMPSON