Gollum has always been one of my favorite literary characters. When I read The Hobbit for the first time in first grade – having already been read the book several times by my dad – I struggled through Riddles in the Dark
for days; at this point, I still read everything aloud, and I was
determined to get Gollum’s voice right. I love the way he talks. The
only Tolkien character whose speech patterns can begin to compete is
Samwise Gamgee, whose rustic colloquialisms I adore. Trailing at a
distant third is the rumbling Treebeard. It was Gollum’s wheezing,
jarring means of expressing himself that most drew me to him, but beyond
the voice I found myself sympathizing with this lonesome, emaciated
creature who traded riddles with Bilbo and later became devoted to the
hated hobbit’s nephew Frodo.
I once proclaimed my fondness for Gollum during a viewing of Rankin and Bass’ animated version of The Hobbit,
and my mom, apparently concerned by my lack of good character judgment,
yelled at me, provoking me into one of my famous
stomp-up-the-stairs-and-slam-the-door temper tantrums. But reading the
books, you really do get the idea that Tolkien intended his audience to
sympathize with Gollum. We see shreds of good in him and want as much as
Frodo to believe that he can be redeemed. While Sam’s frustrating
inability to see Gollum as anything but a monster leads to one of the
book’s most heartbreaking scenes – sadly left out of Jackson’s films and
replaced with two defining moments that leave the audience seething
with anger and betrayal instead of crying out with the anguish of regret
– the mercy, deserved or not, bestowed upon Gollum by Bilbo and Frodo
allow the quest to succeed even when the Ringbearer cannot.
When The Two Towers
hit theaters, Gollum’s complexity and uniqueness made him the most
popular character in the film. Although he was a CGI creation, he was a
fully realized character, a tortured soul who’d spent centuries
encrusting himself in bitterness and was suddenly beginning to recall
feelings of love and joy apart from the obsessive hold of the Ring. And
while it took a team of artists to construct his frame and animate his
movements, his humanity stemmed largely from the brilliant work of Andy
Serkis. As with me, Serkis’ experience of Gollum began with a voice.
Jackson called him in to read for Gollum’s voice and was so impressed by
Serkis’ convulsive movements that he decided to incorporate them into
the character. What started as little more than a voiceover for an
animated character led to one of the most difficult acting jobs in the
entire film. Serkis had to perform each scene multiple times, both with
the other actors so they could react to his movements and on his own so
he could be picked up by the motion-capture equipment that would
translate his motions to the animated Gollum, all without the aid of any
kind of costume beyond his skin-tight motion-capture suit. He also laid
down vocal tracks for the film in a recording studio, which required an
unconventional microphone setup due to his reliance on the hacking,
hunched-over posture in creating his Gollum voice; the initial
inspiration for how he would perform Gollum actually came after watching
his cat cough up a hairball.
The process of creating this
amazing character was so complicated and ground-breaking that Serkis
felt compelled to write a book about it. Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic
chronicles his character’s evolution as well as how his life and
Gollum’s became entwined during the filming process. Its fifteen
chapters, spread out over 120 pages, are filled with sketches, models,
and photographs, as well as commentary by dozens of people involved in
one way or another with Gollum’s creation, but the bulk of the book is
Serkis’ own narration of the events in his own life since his
involvement with Lord of the Rings and his explanation of the
processes used to bring Gollum to life. We learn of the sense of
isolation while he was in New Zealand that helped him identify with his
character but also left him feeling depressed at times. We are
introduced to his family: his partner Lorraine, whom he later married,
and infant daughter Ruby, as well as his son Sonny, who came along after
Serkis had begun filming. We discover the constant changes the
character underwent and how Serkis’ personal revelations contributed to
Gollum’s depth. And we absorb his frustration that although he did just
as much acting as anyone else in the movie, journalists consistently
thought of him as “just a voice.” In truth, Jackson had initially
expected Serkis’ work to last about three weeks, but it ended up
spanning more than three years.
Serkis’ narrative style is
readily accessible, and he manages to convey a sense of the work
involved in the technical aspects of constructing Gollum without
alienating unscientific readers. The commentaries throughout the book go
into more detail, and while I still don’t comprehend all that went into
Gollum’s creation, I have a very real sense of the passion and
dedication each crew member had for the project. While the stills from
the films are very nice, the most interesting illustrations detail
Gollum’s gradual transformation from bug-eyed alien to the Gollum that
finally made it into the last two films. The process was so lengthy and
ongoing that the first brief glimpse of Gollum in Fellowship of the Ring reveals a character that looks little like the star of The Two Towers, and while Gollum looks physically the same in Return of the King as The Two Towers, Serkis took a completely different psychological approach to the duality of Smeagol and Gollum in the third film.
I received this book as a Christmas gift from my brother, but with
Gollum’s eyes peering out at me from the cover every time I went to work
at Waldenbooks, I suspect I would have succumbed to the slippery
fellow’s charm before too long if the book hadn’t been under the tree
Christmas morning. At only ten dollars, it’s far less expensive than
most of the movie tie-in books and just as engaging. Anyone who loves
Gollum, or the films, or even film technology in general should find it a
“precious” addition to their bookshelves.
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