Andy Serkis on Mo-Cap

The current issue of Wired has a Q&A with Andy Serkis, generally regarded as the Sir Laurence Olivier of motion-capture actors.

Two really interesting questions from it:

Wired: What's on your wish list as a digital actor?

Serkis: The environment you're working in for performance-capture is very clinical. There's no stimulation from sets or costumes; you're working in a black box with lots of lights around you. I want to be able to shoot a scene in costume instead of a Lycra suit. We need motion-capture studios that let directors use lighting, back projection and other forms of stimulation to help the actors feel immersed in the world of the film.

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Wired: You got dissed by the Academy because Gollum was considered a collaboration with the animators at Weta Digital. Will a CG character ever win an Oscar?

Serkis: For The Elephant Man, a whole team of prosthetics artists worked on John Hurt's character to help him create that performance. Whether or not the Academy can learn to see ones and naughts as a digital form of prosthetics — that is the question.