Quotes from Andy Serkis

You're watching your kids playing football, and you're not present. It's like the worst... it's horrible. I despise myself for it. I think it's a particularly male thing. Being present and in the moment with your kids is something a lot of men struggle with.

I would love to direct an 'Apes' movie. It would be in the spirit of where I'm going with my career - avatars played by actors to say something about the human condition.

When we, as humans, articulate, our tongues tend to hit the back of the teeth.

I've always thought of acting as a tool to change society. I watch a lot of actors and I see panic in their eyes because they don't know why they act and I know why I act. Whether I'm a good or a bad actor, I know why I do it.

What's fantastic is that there's a real growing appreciation for performance-capture technology as a tool for acting.

I do love nature, but I don't suppose I'd spent more time in zoos as a child than anyone else!

I think the actors in 'Greystoke' were amazing. They had a really good performance coach called Peter Elliott who's, of his time, one of the greatest simian performance coaches for actors.

When I first did 'The Lord of the Rings,' I was acting on the set with the other actors, but then I had to go back and repeat the process on my own to do the physical capture on a motion capture stage.

I think there will always be a particular generation of actors who... think that they're going to be replaced by robots. But certainly the emerging actors... understand that that's part of the craft.

I can get on with all different sorts of people, and I never feel homesick, particularly, or I've never felt kind of patriotic towards any one country.

The whole chameleon thing about acting. That's why I'm moving towards directing - it's a much more healthy occupation.

I'm definitely moving more towards directing now.

I love acting and certainly won't give it up, but it's part of a bigger canvas for me now.

Any sort of role requires a certain amount of research and embodiment of the character and psychological investigation.

I think that Gollum is really the character who is a very human character, and he's very flawed, like most humans are, and has good and bad sides.

In performance capture roles, it's not a committee of animators that author the role, it's the actor. I think that's a significant thing for people to understand.

I think I have a lot of internal energy, which does need to come out.

That's why I ended up going to Lancaster University, because they had a visual arts course, and in the first year it was like a broad visual arts course in sculpture, painting, graphics - all of that.

'How To Train your Dragon 2' is an amazing film. I think it's an extraordinary film. The animation in it is fantastic.

I believe that when people experience an event as a community, it can transcend and change people's lives.

I love the ability to transform because that, for me, is a liberation.

No matter how extreme things get, it still has that ring of truth about it that backs the characters - even though they're despicable and what they're doing isn't right you still care for their fate.

I love playing real characters... if they're not around anymore it's helpful because you won't get sued! But there's so much research involved and I love that part of the process.

Be magnificent. Life's short. Get out there. You can do it. Everyone can do it. Everyone.