Andy Serkis nearly said no to ‘The Lord of the Rings’

Actor Andy Serkis almost turned down the offer to portray Gollum in the popular Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The 53-year-old shot to fame through the Peter Jackson-directed franchise, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. At first, Serkis thought the part was just a voice role and he came close to snubbing the part that changed his career.

“I certainly didn’t intend to [become a performance-capture expert]. When I started doing The Lord of the Rings, I liked the gamble,” Serkis said.

“Originally, I heard it was going to be like doing a voice for a digital character, and I wasn’t interested, but then I met Peter Jackson and he said, ‘We want an actor to play the role, be on set and make decisions for that character’.”

Later, he went on to play the title role in the 2005 film King Kong.