When Andy Serkis tells you that a Science Fiction or Fantasy story is special, believe him. An integral part of the most recent “The Lord of the Rings” and “Planet of the Apes” cinematic franchises, the celebrated British actor and filmmaker knows how hard it is to balance real-world themes in fantastical worlds. Perhaps then, it’s not a surprise that creator, writer and executive producer Tony Gilroy was keen on having him play a pivotal role in the Peabody Award winning “Star Wars” series, “Andor.”
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“Look, the scale and the intimacy and the brilliance of Tony’s writing and the social commentary, saying something about the world that we live in about oppression,” Serkis says. “And as he will say, it is a kind of an anti-fascist piece. And we are living in a world now, well, it happens to be this version of tyranny that is going on at the moment. Tyranny exists in every era. And it just felt, it really plugged in. It was quite a zeitgeist. And I think, it is like watching ‘Star Wars’ on the ground up from the human side. And for having played someone on the other end of the spectrum, who has enormous power and is scared of losing power, Snoke. And then to go to the other end, to play the polar opposite was a real challenge and a great thrill.”
Over the course of our conversation, Serkis touches on the two powerful scenes he’s at the center of, whether his character, Kino Loy, is returning for season two, how he’s working on the animated “Animal Farm” every day and much, much more.
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The Playlist. You’ve worked with so many great filmmakers on so many great projects over the years. When did you realize that this might be something special?
Andy Serkis: I mean, when I met with Tony Gilroy first off, I mean I’d had hesitations before because I just thought, “Well, this is going to get so confusing for the fans.” Snoke theories abound. And I just thought, “Well, am I going to go back in there and are people going to think he’s some strange relationship to Snoke?” And so I was quite concerned about it, but as soon as I met Tony Gilroy and he told me the story, and I was a massive fan of “Rouge One” and what I loved about “Rogue One” was its groundedness and its reality. And it’s a very, very human side of “Star Wars.” I loved the more operatic and the space odyssey kind of version of it. But this whole series felt like it was real people going through real things and a series about great big oppression. And so when I talked to Tony, first of all, I was like, “Yeah, I know mean it sounds awesome.” Then I read the script and I just thought, this is a great character.
When I spoke to Denise Gough, she said that Tony gave her no backstory for her character. Was that the same in your case, or did he tell you more about Kino Loy than maybe was on the page?
No, no, no he didn’t. I mean, I created a backstory for myself, which was so necessary. I had to do that, but well, you do [that] anyway [with] whatever character you’re playing. But for him, it was important because I just wanted to know who this guy was before he was incarcerated, who is the man there before any of this. And for me, it was all about creating a man who has a family. He is a principled man, a highly principled individual who was perhaps a like shop steward or a union rep who was quite a firebrand, quite political, stood up for his fellow workers in worker rights issues, and was good at galvanizing people, good at bringing people together, and then was then incarcerated for that very reason, that he was a voice and then that he was put behind bars for perhaps being a threat. So, that seemed to be a good place to start so that when you meet him and he’s a bully and very, very curt with everyone and just tough and heartless and really disconnected from himself, that hwen he starts to really find his voice again and find who he is and his humanity and his desire to bring everybody together through engaging with Andor, that seemed to me a good journey.
Did you assume the reason why he was so focused on “the job” or the idea if he does the job, he’ll get out because he’d been traumatized in this process? Or was it because he just believes in the system?
No, no, I think he really shut down when he was incarcerated and just wanted to serve his sentence and just keep his head down, get the job done, pump out as many of the pieces as was required, hit the targets, not make a noise, be quiet, eat his food and get through it. And that was that. So I think that was that, and I think that’s what he wanted. That was what he tried to imply to everyone that this was the best way forward for everyone. Don’t allow yourself to emotionally think about anything. Just get through it.
The other aspect of his character is he couldn’t jump in the water. He is saving everyone around him while he knows he probably will die. It has been announced, tell me if I’m wrong, that you are in season two. Is that …
I can’t say either way.*
*Serkis effectively confirmed his involvement in season two in a number of interviews following this conversation.
O.K. Well, did Tony tell you what his ultimate fate would be when you first met with him? Or was it, this is what’s going on in season one?
No. It was purely season one. Beyond season one, there was nothing.
Why do you think is such a good person that he’s willing to go through all this and risk his life, even though he thinks he won’t escape?
That’s what I’m saying, kind of in his past, he has put his neck on the line for other people. I think that is part of his core character and that is why I wanted him to go on that journey of shutting down and actually just thinking about himself and self-survival until he realizes what is going on and that there is no hope and that rebellion is the only way to have any kind of escape. And then he’s all in to help everyone.
Do you remember how you wanted to play that scene, that last scene where he just says, “I can’t”? Because it’s so fast. It’s faster than I remember, but it sticks with you.
This was the very last day of the shoot, in fact, of the whole series.
Oh, wow.
In fact, one of the last scenes, in fact, we literally wrapped pretty much straight after that. And so everyone was very emotionally charged and we were literally shooting that scene as people were jumping off and doing these big dives down into these big thick mats. And Toby Hayes, who was the director of our arc, did such a great job and he really did allow some exploration of the way of doing that final line. And I tried very different versions of being angry, of being resigned…so almost like finding it darkly humorous. And we’ve just really experimented because there are so many ways you could do it, but I’m really glad that with what he chose, the way that we finally ended up with it in the story, which is just a quiet resignation really. And that, I think there’s something very simple and direct about that.
He has a lot of great moments in his episodes but one of the more memorable is he gives the speech to tell the rest of the prison that they can run, that they’re free. And Andor actually has to kick him to do it saying, “What are you doing?” And I’m curious, did you do a lot of different takes in that as well?
That was a big day because it was like everything had been pointing towards this moment and it was scary. It was quite scary thing to do those speeches. So I was actually fueled with real sort of energy of that to be like, “Am I going to get through this? I don’t really know if I can do this.” Because you do feel like that when you have to deliver. It can be scary sometimes. And so I really allowed that to affect me, and that’s great when you go Cassian and gives him a shove and says, “Come on, man. Is that what you got?”
When you saw the final series and the episodes came out, what did you take away the most? What were you most impressed with as a director and an actor?
I just think, look, the scale and the intimacy and the brilliance of Tony’s writing and the social commentary, saying something about the world that we live in about oppression. And as he will say, it is a kind of an anti-fascist piece. And we are living in a world now, well, it happens to be this version of tyranny that is going on at the moment. Tyranny exists in every era. And it just felt, it really plugged in. It was quite a zeitgeist. And I think, it is like watching “Star Wars” on the ground up from the human side. And for having played someone on the other end of the spectrum, who has enormous power and is scared of losing power, Snoke. And then to go to the other end, to play the polar opposite was a real challenge and a great thrill.
You mentioned how this show is an anti-fascist sort of drama for our times. I know you’ve been working very hard also on “Animal Farm,” which is another always timely tale. And I know that I saw in an interview you said you’ve got a whole nother year of it sort of to go. How many hours a week are you spending checking up on this? How much is it part of your work day?
Oh no, I’m working on it. I’m working on it every day. It’s every day because it’s an animated feature. So, I’m working with a brilliant team, Cinesite, who is the animation team and visual effects company. So, I work with them sort of two to three hours every day, a lot remotely. I’ve recently gone up to Montreal to see them and they’re just the most phenomenal bunch and brilliant, such a great energy. And I’m really enjoying the process. Really super talented people.
“Andor” is available on Disney+