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THE SERKIS COMES TO TOWN
by DANNY SCOTT
The Sunday Times (London)
November 18, 2012 Sunday
Edition 1; National Edition
The Hobbit actor Andy Serkis, 48, on staying sane with the help of
Skype, the joys of the school run - and why Gollum is never far away
I'm a shockingly bad sleeper. In bed very late. Awake at the crack
of dawn. I've been like it for years. But there's no point in staying
in bed past 6.30 because I'd feel I was being cheated. Cheated of time.
Cheated of this day.
The kids are often awake. Ruby is 14, Sonny's 12 and Louis is 8,
so I'll either hear the TV or the Xbox blaring away. I'll usually go
down and stick the porridge on, listening to Radio 4. Ruby and Sonny
are good at getting themselves sorted and off to school, but either me
or my wife, Lorraine, will do the school run with Louis. I love it. I
spend so much of my life away that even the most mundane task is a joy.
Me and Lorraine did have a few arguments over the choice of the kids'
schools. Private versus state and all that. I didn't want to go down
the private route, but it just didn't work out that way. I suspect
that education is one of the most difficult choices you have to make
as a parent and sometimes your beliefs will be... er, challenged.
Once the kids have gone, I can start my day. And I can finally get
in the bathroom. Most mornings I look in the mirror and think: "God!
Who's that?" I've got massive bags under my eyes and my face doesn't
spring back like it used to. On very bad days, I look like a crumpled
duvet. I don't shave if I can avoid it and I try not to wash. No,
that's not true, but I do have an issue with our bath. It's an
old-fashioned slipper bath. You can't stretch out in it and you
can't stand up to have a shower. You just end up "dousing" yourself
in soapy water.
Exercise is important. I play a lot of physical characters - like
Gollum - so I need to be in good shape. Most mornings, I try and fit
in a jog or a bike ride and I've just joined a local rock-climbing
gym in north London.
Like the Lord of the Rings, filming The Hobbit was a long haul. The
principle shooting was done in New Zealand and took about 18 months.
It was a hell of a long time to be away from my family, and all
I can say is thank God for Skype. While I was having my breakfast,
I'd leave it on and watch Lorraine and the kids having dinner. Seeing
them potter around was tremendously comforting.
Being away so much has forced me to reassess things from my childhood.
As a kid, my dad was away a lot, and that bothered me [his father, an
Iraqi of Armenian descent, was a gynaecologist who opened a hospital
in Baghdad and was briefly imprisoned under Saddam Hussein's regime].
Now I'm the one who's away. It's for very different reasons, but I'm
still repeating that pattern. As you get older, life starts to get
you like that - it catches you out.
The news goes on at lunchtime, as I'm trying to brush up on my culinary
skills. I haven't eaten meat since my teenage years, but I now call
myself a flexitarian. I eat fish and do my best to rustle up something
interesting. On Sundays I like to get the whole family out of London
for a pub roast, topped off by a bit of nature. It's easy to get
caught up in a city like London... sometimes, you just need to breathe.
Over the last few years, I've definitely mellowed. I used to be what
you'd called an angry young man. I wasn't always sure what I was angry
about, but I was still angry. Having kids changed all that. It gives
you a sense of what really matters. If there's tension in the house,
I used to meet it head on, but I've learnt to step back.
That's not to say we don't argue. Well, I call it debating. When the
kids get back from school, I order in a curry and get us all round the
dinner table. Politics has played a big part in my life and I like us
to talk about what's happening in the world. Everyone's opinionated,
and I like that. Some parents stamp their authority on a family,
but we like to listen. Between the five of us, we seem to make it work.
I tend to get a second wind after the kids have gone to bed. Me and
Lorraine watch the news, then I get started on emails and scripts
and writing, maybe listen to a bit of jazz. At the moment, it's Wayne
Shorter's album, Speak No Evil.
I'll finally climb into bed about 2 or 3. I'm a really light sleeper
so I wake at the slightest noise and often end up having one of those
half-dreams about weird stuff. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
are full of dreams, but I've never really dreamt about Gollum or
Middle-earth. To be honest, I've been living in that world for the
last 10 years. I think that's more than enough
Andy Serkis is the curator of the Jameson Cult Film Club. Visit
jamesoncultfilmclub.com
INTERVIEW BY DANNY SCOTT
by DANNY SCOTT
The Sunday Times (London)
November 18, 2012 Sunday
Edition 1; National Edition
The Hobbit actor Andy Serkis, 48, on staying sane with the help of
Skype, the joys of the school run - and why Gollum is never far away
I'm a shockingly bad sleeper. In bed very late. Awake at the crack
of dawn. I've been like it for years. But there's no point in staying
in bed past 6.30 because I'd feel I was being cheated. Cheated of time.
Cheated of this day.
The kids are often awake. Ruby is 14, Sonny's 12 and Louis is 8,
so I'll either hear the TV or the Xbox blaring away. I'll usually go
down and stick the porridge on, listening to Radio 4. Ruby and Sonny
are good at getting themselves sorted and off to school, but either me
or my wife, Lorraine, will do the school run with Louis. I love it. I
spend so much of my life away that even the most mundane task is a joy.
Me and Lorraine did have a few arguments over the choice of the kids'
schools. Private versus state and all that. I didn't want to go down
the private route, but it just didn't work out that way. I suspect
that education is one of the most difficult choices you have to make
as a parent and sometimes your beliefs will be... er, challenged.
Once the kids have gone, I can start my day. And I can finally get
in the bathroom. Most mornings I look in the mirror and think: "God!
Who's that?" I've got massive bags under my eyes and my face doesn't
spring back like it used to. On very bad days, I look like a crumpled
duvet. I don't shave if I can avoid it and I try not to wash. No,
that's not true, but I do have an issue with our bath. It's an
old-fashioned slipper bath. You can't stretch out in it and you
can't stand up to have a shower. You just end up "dousing" yourself
in soapy water.
Exercise is important. I play a lot of physical characters - like
Gollum - so I need to be in good shape. Most mornings, I try and fit
in a jog or a bike ride and I've just joined a local rock-climbing
gym in north London.
Like the Lord of the Rings, filming The Hobbit was a long haul. The
principle shooting was done in New Zealand and took about 18 months.
It was a hell of a long time to be away from my family, and all
I can say is thank God for Skype. While I was having my breakfast,
I'd leave it on and watch Lorraine and the kids having dinner. Seeing
them potter around was tremendously comforting.
Being away so much has forced me to reassess things from my childhood.
As a kid, my dad was away a lot, and that bothered me [his father, an
Iraqi of Armenian descent, was a gynaecologist who opened a hospital
in Baghdad and was briefly imprisoned under Saddam Hussein's regime].
Now I'm the one who's away. It's for very different reasons, but I'm
still repeating that pattern. As you get older, life starts to get
you like that - it catches you out.
The news goes on at lunchtime, as I'm trying to brush up on my culinary
skills. I haven't eaten meat since my teenage years, but I now call
myself a flexitarian. I eat fish and do my best to rustle up something
interesting. On Sundays I like to get the whole family out of London
for a pub roast, topped off by a bit of nature. It's easy to get
caught up in a city like London... sometimes, you just need to breathe.
Over the last few years, I've definitely mellowed. I used to be what
you'd called an angry young man. I wasn't always sure what I was angry
about, but I was still angry. Having kids changed all that. It gives
you a sense of what really matters. If there's tension in the house,
I used to meet it head on, but I've learnt to step back.
That's not to say we don't argue. Well, I call it debating. When the
kids get back from school, I order in a curry and get us all round the
dinner table. Politics has played a big part in my life and I like us
to talk about what's happening in the world. Everyone's opinionated,
and I like that. Some parents stamp their authority on a family,
but we like to listen. Between the five of us, we seem to make it work.
I tend to get a second wind after the kids have gone to bed. Me and
Lorraine watch the news, then I get started on emails and scripts
and writing, maybe listen to a bit of jazz. At the moment, it's Wayne
Shorter's album, Speak No Evil.
I'll finally climb into bed about 2 or 3. I'm a really light sleeper
so I wake at the slightest noise and often end up having one of those
half-dreams about weird stuff. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
are full of dreams, but I've never really dreamt about Gollum or
Middle-earth. To be honest, I've been living in that world for the
last 10 years. I think that's more than enough
Andy Serkis is the curator of the Jameson Cult Film Club. Visit
jamesoncultfilmclub.com
INTERVIEW BY DANNY SCOTT