Andy Serkis – The Performance of the Year (so far) – And Other Standouts

If there is one central performance that currently stands out from the rest so far it’s the somewhat controversial work done by WETA and Andy Serkis in creating Caesar — the ape leader in The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  What is great about Serkis’ work here is that finally, motion capture has delivered on its promise to create seamlessly emotional, realistic performances.

Two years ago, this notion was being sold yet again with Avatar, as it had been when Andy Serkis delivered the brilliant Gollum.  It could be argued, looking back, that Zoe Saldana never could have given such a strong performance without the aid of a sophisticated performance enhancer.  How easy it is to tweak a little bit here or there to inch closer and closer to perfection.  Humans are not perfect.  Their performances are sometimes flawed — they can’t always nail it as precisely as the director would want them to.  And therein lies the threat.  Make no mistake about it: performance capture, animated performances of any kind, remain a threat to actors which is why the Academy will continually be reluctant to recognize a motion capture performance over a live action one.

What will likely happen is that the Academy will eventually create a new category to recognize performances like Serkis’ and maybe even voiced animated characters.  This is how they solved the problem of animated films suddenly being as good as or better than the feature film offerings when Beauty and the Beast shocked all by earning a Best Picture slot.

But whether the Academy decides to recognize Serkis or not (I’m betting they won’t; but more on that later) it doesn’t change what we audiences already know – that Serkis as Caeser is one of the most interesting characters on screen so far this year.  The only other performance that, to me, comes even remotely close to Serkis are John Boyega in Attack the Blog and Jean Dujardin in The Artist.  Those are the three that rise to the top, in my opinion.

The only one of these that has a chance of getting nominated, though, is Dujardin and that’s because he’ll have the mighty Weinstein co behind him and because he’s portraying someone much more traditional.  But Boyega is not well known enough and he stars in a genre movie and Serkis’ brilliant work will always be considered an other, a motion capture – that makes him appear to Academy members as an animated character.

Why this adherence to tradition?  We went through this with Zoe Saldana – it’s about facial recognition for actors.  This is their bread and butter – they build a whole career on their ability to use their instrument.  Their face is the most important part of this.  When you think of Caesar you don’t see Andy Serkis; you see that wonderfully animated, magnificently realized ape.

Still, In Contention’s Kris Tapley mentioned on Twitter that they might be amenable to a special recognition for Serkis.  I’m not so sure they will extend themselves for this movie – not without stellar reviews from critics.  It would need lots of scores of 100 for instance in order to keep in the running for year’s end awards.  We are still only in Summer.  The slate is about to wipe completely clean and by year’s end, Apes will be fondly remembered as a summer genre movie.

However, I’ll say this about it.  If District 9 could be remembered and nominated for Best Picture, Rise of the Planet of the Apes absolutely could also — the only caveat: with a ten nomination slots, that is.  Under the new rule, who knows how many Academy members will remember it enough to put it in the number one spot.  I’m betting it will sustain enough of a fan base to be seriously considered for Best Picture.  It deserves it and I hope it gets it.

I think it’s hoping too much for Attack the Block to get in there.  The Artist is a sure bet.  It’s going to be beloved and will have no problem earning enough number one votes to get nominated.  No problem at all.

Progress in the Academy is slow.  They aren’t evolving nearly as fast as the industry around them.  They seem to want things to remain as they always have been for 84 years of Academy history.  They don’t seem ready or willing, particularly, to even see genre movies as legit awards contenders.  The only thing that can sometimes bridge the gap are the critics – mainly New York and Los Angeles.  Apes doesn’t quite have the support it would need, but it’s so likable that one never knows where it could go, ultimately.

What do you think, readers?  Will the actors in the Academy ever see fit to recognize a motion capture performance as a real performance?  I’m guessing no.  My reasoning for this is that if they recognize a computer-generated performance they become almost instantaneously obsolete.