Andy Serkis says special effect films should win awards

Andy Serkis will return to his role as Gollum in The Hobbit next year

Andy Serkis says that films using special effects should be recognised at the Oscars.

The 47-year-old, who stars in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, says that actors work equally hard in films with special effects as they do in other roles.

"What is important is that it's understood as acting," he said.

"The emotional content of these performances live and die by what the actors bring to the roles on set."

He added: "I never approach a live action role any differently to a performance-captured role. The process of acting is absolutely identical.

'Digital make-up'

"It should be recognised that there are two parts to the process.

"The first part is capturing the performance. Only later down the line do you start seeing the characters being painted over frame by frame using pixels."

There was controversy in 2010 when 3D movie Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time, failed to win any major awards at the Oscars.

It won prizes for visual effects and art direction but missed out on the best picture award in favour of The Hurt Locker.

Andy Serkis stars in the film with Tom Felton, Freida Pinto and James Franco

Andy Serkis is no stranger to visual effect films, having previously appeared as Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

"Performance capture technology is really the only way that we could bring these characters to life," he said.

"It's the way that Gollum was brought to life, and King Kong, and the Na'vi in Avatar and so on and it's really another way of capturing an actor's performance.

"You don't have to wear a monkey suit and prosthetic make-up, that's put on after the performance using digital effects.

"That's all it is, digital make-up."

Andy Serkis also said he was ready to take a break from being Gollum for a while.

"I'm quite happy to [focus on] the ape instead of Gollum for a bit because I have to give Gollum a rest as he's coming back in the Hobbit next year," he said.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes premiered in California in July and also stars Freida Pinto, Tom Felton and James Franco.

It's released in the UK on 11 August.