With the ubiquity of CGI in films and the advent of incredibly realistic de-aging techniques and whole digital characters, technology has not only made movie-making more interesting (and some might argue better) but is also ushering in a new era of uncomfortable questions and issues that Hollywood has yet to fully grasp. And this is something that actor/filmmaker Andy Serkis knows all too well.
As the man at the forefront of motion capture, Serkis is someone who understands the true power of what the technology can do. And in a new interview with Screen Daily, the performer is also well aware of the potential situations that could arise thanks to studios and filmmakers having creative freedom unlike anything previously seen.
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“When your performance becomes data it can be manipulated, reworked or sampled, much like the music industry samples vocals and beats,” said Serkis. “If we can do that, where does the intellectual property lie? Who owns authorship of the performance? Where are the boundaries?”
He added, “The ability to create photorealistic characters, to digitally de-age actors or digitally resurrect performances from actors who have passed, raises some serious issues.”
Of those issues, one of the major ones, in Serkis’ eyes at least, is the idea of resurrecting deceased actors for films. This has been done recently, and most famously, with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which used both digital recreations of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. He believes that if a studio uses a likeness of an actor to build a digital performance, then that actor should be compensated, full stop.
Another issue he recognizes is the ethical quandary surrounding the idea that any actor, with the use of performance capture, can play any person. This can be used for good, as in the case of actors with disabilities being able to play whatever character they want. But there’s also the issue when it comes to diversity.
“Performance capture is the end of typecasting,” he said. ”With it, there should be great opportunities for disabled actors to play able-bodied characters.”
He continued, “It would be possible for an actor of color to play Abraham Lincoln and for me, as a middle-class white man, to play Martin Luther King. The question is whether that is ethically right. Diversity is hugely important so I can understand sensitivities about this.”
These are interesting issues raised by the person that many would credit for the true innovation behind performance capture, with his work in the original ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, as well as the recent ‘Planet of the Apes’ films. However, it appears that Serkis is also aware of the future issues that can arise from this incredible technology.
Clearly, this is an issue that isn’t going to have a solution anytime soon.