For years, Andy Serkis was known as the pioneer of performance capture — Gollum, King Kong, and Snoke; but now, he’s enjoying a hot streak of live-action roles including Kino Loy in the Disney+ series Andor.
The subject of conversation soon turns to Andor, Tony Gilroy’s acclaimed Rogue One spin-off, which hit Disney+ last summer. In it, Serkis played Kino Loy, a disaffected prisoner who (spoiler) is ultimately driven to join an uprising. It’s a subtle, affecting performance, and the highlight of a show that has turned into an unexpected critical hit. “I think it was a masterful piece of TV-making,” Serkis says. “I love that grounded Star Wars world – not that I don’t like the more operatic [style], because I do like that too. But it’s nice to see it explore the murky end of the swimming pool.”
Andor also delivered a more satisfying arc for Serkis in the Star Warsuniverse, after his somewhat abbreviated appearance in the recent sequel trilogy. Serkis had signed up to play Snoke, the enigmatic villain, in 2015’s The Force Awakens, but narrative disagreements between the two directors, JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson, resulted in his character being jettisoned early in the second movie. “Let me just phrase it like this. When I went in to read The Last Jedi, [I spent] the first 30 pages thinking, ‘This is the most incredible character.’ Then I turned the page: ‘And then Snoke gets sliced in half.’ And I was gutted. Gutted.”
Serkis had been integral in Snoke’s development, and, like many fans, had hoped the sequels might have explored the character further. “I actually really love that character. And I’m putting it out there: I wouldn’t mind if he came back.” (If you’re reading this, Dave Filoni, make it happen.)
Read the interview in full at GQ, and watch the first season of Andor exclusively on Disney+ now.
Image: GQ
