Special Oscar Needed for Performance Capture Actors?

2 Mar 2010

Lord of the Ring's star Andy Serkis has claimed that there is no need for a separate category at the Oscars for "performance capture" actors.

Serkis who is famous for playing Gollum in the fantasy trilogy told the BBC that the increasing use of performance capture production sparked an "interesting debate".

Movie fans had been watching to see if Zoe Saldana would get an Oscar nomination for her role as an alien in Avatar. James Cameron used the technology to capture an actor's movement and translate it into CGI but in the end Salanda who only appears in computer generated form did not make it onto the Academy Award shortlist.

However, it has reignited the argument that motion capture artists are unable to compete on a level playing field during the awards season.

Serkis, who used a motion capture suit to play Gollum and King Kong, told the BBC that "It's a very interesting debate," he added that "the industry is going to be using performance capture more and more in films.
 
"Personally I've never believed there should be a separate category because the essence of the performance is pure acting."

Serkis has recently been seen in Sex drugs and Rock and Roll playing Ian Drury, without the help of CGI but will be back in his performance capture suit to play Captain Haddock in Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's Tintin trilogy.

Avatar is up for the best film category at this month's Oscars but Betfair are offering odds of 139/100 that it will take the trophy. Paddy Power has priced the Hurt Locker as favourite to take the best film gong with odds of 5/6.

Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock is favourite to take the prize for best actress with Boylesport giving odds of 4/6. According to the bookies her nearest rival is Meryl Streep with Bet365 pricing her at 2/1.


The 82nd Academy Awards are due to take place on March 7th 2010 and this year will be hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

All odds correct at time of writing and are subject to change.