LOS ANGELES: Famous for his role in ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise, Hollywood actor Andy Serkis feels that working with real animals for a movie is really “absurd”.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ star has strongly come out against the use of wild animals on movie sets.
While talking to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a video interview posted on YouTube, Serkis said, “The thought of shooting an Apes movie now with real apes is absurd.”
Besides playing Gollum in ‘The Hobbit’, the Hollywood actor is best known for performances in motion-capture films like ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘War for the Planet of Apes’, ‘King Kong’ and the upcoming ‘The Jungle Book’.
The actor also shared that computer-generated imagery and performance-mapping makes movies like the Planet of the Apes franchise possible without wild animals being made to perform on set.
He added, “We've matured as an industry and realized that that would be intolerable and cruel.”
PETA, which has been calling for the use of computer technology to replace real wild animals in movies, in a statement highlighting Serkis' comments pointed out that ‘The Revenant’, ‘Noah’ and the ‘Planet of the Apes’ franchise used digital imagery to create wild animals.