安迪·瑟金斯：表演捕捉第一人

by Dave Davies

每當(dāng)我們談及電影制作時(shí)，視覺(jué)特效部門(mén)總是處在從屬的地位，特效演員總是有點(diǎn)低人一等的感覺(jué)。但在21世紀(jì)初，有一個(gè)演員憑著一套電影巨作中的一個(gè)非人角色打響了名頭，將原本不受重視的電腦特效技術(shù)一步步推向幕前——

Actor Andy Serkis has appeared in more than 30 films, but you wouldnt recognize him in some of his most 1)celebrated roles. When he played King Kong in the 2005 remake and the 2)tormented creature Gollum in The Lord of the Rings series, he appeared not as himself but as a computer-generated image.

Dave Davies (Host): You were filming that scene; youre there covered in a 3)Lycra suit, I guess, with these markers all over your face and a camera in front of you to capture this motion which will later be reproduced with the animation.

Serkis: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in the same way that I would if…I was in a costume and doing the same thing. The…the process of performance capture really is 4)transparent now. That enables you to completely, emotionally connect with your fellow actors and completely play the scene in 5)entirety, and…and it will have an emotional 6)resonance and a reality and a…a connectiveness that…that you couldnt possibly get if two actors were working in separate volumes.

Davies: And you also played King Kong in the 2005 remake there…where you had to, 7)in effect, express this emotional relationship between a 25-foot 8)ape and Naomi Watts. And what…youre known for very 9)rigorous preparation for your roles. Im wondering, kind of, what it does to your head to…to be in the 10)mentality of an ape for weeks or months at a time.

Serkis: I mean, certainlyphysically, it…it 11)takes its toll. After Kong, my…my 12)knuckles have never really recovered because I used…I had to wear, you know, every single day, I had to wear very, very heavy weights on my 13)forearms…or around my hips and around my ankles to get the sense of size and scale of the movement of the character.

That was another very challenging, physical and, you know, emotionally connective role. But it does leave you…you know, it does…you know, theres always a 14)decompression period after playing any…really any role that I…I get into because I…I take it very seriously, and…and emotionally, youre tricking your mind and body into these situations. You know, you are telling your body that you are this thing and that youre feeling these thoughts and that you are experiencing these experiences. So…so it does always take time to kind of…to come out the other end.

Davies: You didnt go home and stand on the dining room table and beat your chest in front of your wife and children?

Serkis: Im sure shed say that I did, actually.

Davies: Well, we have to talk about Gollum, your 15)portrayal of the creature in The Lord of the Rings films. This is really an amazing effect. And tell us about getting the voice. Is your voice 16)enhanced in any way, or is that just you?

Serkis: No, no, that…thats just my voice.

Davies: Wow!

Serkis: And the…the voice was created through trying to find…you know, Im not like a voice…like a voice actor, 17)per se. I dont just do voices. It only comes through character and through acting. And for me, its linked entirely to 18)physicality and through, you know, centering an emotion around a voice.

So…so Gollum, he…h(huán)e feels very guilty about murdering his cousin, and a lot of his guilt is trapped in his throat. And hes called Gollum—Tolkien calls him Gollum because of the way he sounds. So I had to find a voice that sounded like someone golluming.

Davies: Now, maybe this would be a good moment to talk about, you know, performance capture technology and how its changed because I gather when you did that role, Gollum, its different than in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Its more 19)sophisticated.

Serkis: Performance capture then took a big leap and took center stage in films like obviously Avatar, where youve got 20)virtual production, where the whole shoot is basically taking place in a m o t i o n - c a p t u r e studio, and you have 21)multiple actors acting with each other using this technique.

With Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this is the first time were moving out of a motion-capture studio and into the real world, where both the actor is being filmed using film camera, and the performance-capture actor is being film using the performance-capture camera so that, as I say, theyre both 22)intrinsically linked in the moment. Davies: Now, there was a debate about whether you should have gotten an Oscar 23)nomination for Gollum. 24)Modesty aside, what do…what do you think about the arguments for recognizing a performance-capture role like this and giving it kind of all of the recognition that other actors get with the Academy?

Serkis: I mean, my…my take on it is…and having worked in it for some years now, is that acting is acting, that performance is a performance.

Davies: I do sometimes wonder if you dont have an agent whos telling you, “Andy, you need to get some roles where people see you, dude.”

Serkis: (laughs) I…you know, it…its probably taken about, you know, five minutes to understand why I do it. I…I do a lot of…you know, I want to go back and do theater and, you know, there are other live-action roles that I want to play. But I never really draw a distinction between the two. I dont…I dont see a difference between playing a performance-capture role and a live-action role. Theyre just characters to me 25)at the end of the day, and Im an actor who wants to…to explore those characters in…in fantastically written scripts. The only…the only 26)caveat is…is a good story, a good character.

演員安迪·瑟金斯參演過(guò)三十多部電影，但你無(wú)法從一些最著名的角色身上認(rèn)出他來(lái)。當(dāng)他在2005年的翻拍電影中飾演金剛，以及在《指環(huán)王》系列中飾演痛苦的咕嚕姆時(shí)，我們看見(jiàn)的不是他的真面目，而是電腦合成的形象。

戴夫·戴維斯(主持人)：你在拍攝那一幕，你在那兒，穿著一件萊卡緊身服，我猜你的臉上還貼滿(mǎn)了標(biāo)記點(diǎn)，面前的攝影機(jī)在捕捉這個(gè)動(dòng)作，隨后再進(jìn)行動(dòng)畫(huà)加工。

瑟金斯：沒(méi)錯(cuò)，就是這樣。我的意思是，這是同樣的方式，就像我要……就像我穿著戲服一樣，做的是同樣的事情。表演捕捉這一過(guò)程如今已經(jīng)透明化了，讓你可以和其他演員在情緒上徹底同步，讓這一幕的表演更有整體性……它能帶來(lái)情感上的共鳴，也更真實(shí)，還能產(chǎn)生一種聯(lián)動(dòng)性……如果兩個(gè)演員在不同的部分各自拍攝，你不可能得到這樣的效果。

戴維斯：你還在2005年的翻拍電影中飾演了金剛……事實(shí)上，你得表現(xiàn)一只25英尺（7.62米）高的巨猿與娜奧米·沃茨之間的感情。而……眾所周知的是，你會(huì)為自己的角色進(jìn)行嚴(yán)格準(zhǔn)備。我想知道這對(duì)你的腦子會(huì)有什么影響……你每次要連續(xù)幾周或者幾個(gè)月地保持那種思維方式呢。

瑟金斯：我的意思是，身體上肯定有一定影響。拍完金剛之后，我的指關(guān)節(jié)沒(méi) 能徹底好起來(lái)，因?yàn)槲以冶仨毚┲阒?，我每一天都必須在前肢上加上非常重的?fù)重物……又或者加在我的臀部和腳踝，才能體會(huì)到這個(gè)角色動(dòng)起來(lái)時(shí)那種龐大笨重的感覺(jué)。

那是另一個(gè)極具挑戰(zhàn)性的角色——在體能上不輕松，你知道，情緒還要入戲。但它確實(shí)會(huì)讓你……你知道，它……每當(dāng)演完任何一個(gè)角色，我總是需要一個(gè)減壓期，因?yàn)槲覍?duì)表演非常認(rèn)真，而且從感情上來(lái)說(shuō)，你要讓自己的腦子和身體完全代入這些角色。你知道，你要告訴自己的身體，你就是這個(gè)生物，這就是你的想法，這就是你的經(jīng)歷。所以我總要花點(diǎn)時(shí)間才能從戲里走出來(lái)。

戴維斯：你該不會(huì)回家之后還會(huì)跳上飯廳的餐桌，在你的妻子和小孩面前拍打胸膛吧？

瑟金斯：她確實(shí)說(shuō)我真的這么做了。

戴維斯：我們得聊聊咕嚕姆——你在《指環(huán)王》電影中飾演的那個(gè)生物。那效果真是太棒了。和我們說(shuō)說(shuō)他的聲音。你的音調(diào)經(jīng)過(guò)任何拔高處理嗎，抑或是那就是你的聲音？

瑟金斯：不不，那就是我的聲音。

戴維斯：哇！

瑟金斯：創(chuàng)造出那個(gè)聲音是通過(guò)尋找……你知道，我不是一個(gè)……我本身并不是配音演員。我不是單純配音，這聲音源自角色本身以及我的演技。對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)，這完全取決于角色形態(tài)，以及——你知道，通過(guò)圍繞聲音的情緒來(lái)表現(xiàn)。

所以咕嚕姆他……殺害自己表弟這件事讓他很有負(fù)罪感，而這些罪惡感基本都卡在他的喉頭。他被稱(chēng)為“咕嚕姆”——托爾金給他取名咕嚕姆，正是因?yàn)樗f(shuō)話(huà)含混不清。所以我要找到一種聲線(xiàn)，聽(tīng)起來(lái)就像“咕嚕咕?！币粯?。

戴維斯：現(xiàn)在也許正是時(shí)候了，你知道，談?wù)劚硌莶蹲郊夹g(shù)是如何演變的，因?yàn)槟阍谘莨緡Ｄ窌r(shí)的情況和《猩球崛起》并不一樣?，F(xiàn)在更先進(jìn)了。

瑟金斯：當(dāng)年的表演捕捉實(shí)現(xiàn)了大躍進(jìn)，在《阿凡達(dá)》這樣的電影中儼然成了主角——那些電影有虛擬制作部分，整個(gè)拍攝過(guò)程基本上都是在動(dòng)作捕捉攝影棚完成的，眾多演員用這個(gè)技術(shù)一起拍戲。

而在《猩球崛起》中，我們第一次離開(kāi)動(dòng)作捕捉攝影棚，第一次在真實(shí)情景中拍戲，一般演員用普通攝影機(jī)拍，表演捕捉演員用表演捕捉攝影機(jī)拍——就像我剛才所說(shuō)的那樣，雙方一下子就找到感覺(jué)了。

戴維斯：那時(shí)人們都在爭(zhēng)論你是否應(yīng)該憑借咕嚕姆提名奧斯卡。我們就不客套了，你怎么想……表演捕捉角色應(yīng)該像其他演員一樣獲得奧斯卡承認(rèn)，你對(duì)這個(gè)爭(zhēng)論是怎么想的呢？

瑟金斯：我的意思是，我對(duì)此的看法是……我已經(jīng)在這一行干了這么多年，我覺(jué)得演戲就是演戲，表演就是表演。

戴維斯：我有時(shí)會(huì)想，難道沒(méi)有經(jīng)紀(jì)人對(duì)你說(shuō)：“安迪，你要接幾個(gè)人們能看到你真面目的角色，老兄?！?/p>

瑟金斯：（笑）我……你知道，人們大概要花上五分鐘才能搞懂我為什么干這行。我有許多……你知道，我想回去演戲劇，我想演其他真人角色。但是我從來(lái)沒(méi)有在這兩者之間畫(huà)下分界線(xiàn)。我覺(jué)得扮演一個(gè)表演捕捉角色和真人角色沒(méi)什么不一樣。說(shuō)到底，這兩者對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)都只是角色罷了，我是一個(gè)演員，只想進(jìn)一步了解那些有精彩劇本的角色。我唯一的要求就是一個(gè)好故事，以及一個(gè)好角色。