If you ask people if they know who Andy Serkis is, they may tilt their heads. However, most people will recognize him when they hear “Gollum.” He had been a nameless actor until he was cast in The Lord of the Rings, but his role was to be played with motion capture techniques, so even though the movie was a big hit, he was hardly recognized by people. Motion capture is a technology that captures facial expressions and movements and superimposes them on computer-generated images with a sensor attached to an actor’s body. In other words, an actor can act, but his appearance would not be shown in the movie.
After that, he was cast in the movie King Kong. He was conflicted with it as an actor to be cast for the motion capture role again, but he decided to play the part. It was because he didn’t want to be an actor who only wanted to become a star, just as Gollum chased the ring. Afterward, he played the role of one of the apes in the Planet of the Apes perfectly, which was a role with motion capture again. Then, he started to be called by many nicknames, “a master of motion capture,” “an actor who breathes life into fictional characters,” and “a famous actor without a face.”
It was not because a character or role he played was desirable, but because he did his best for the roles he played that made him a great actor.