Andy Serkis was asked not to play Gollum in The Lord of the Rings

Serkis added, “I remember I was in Prague working on an adaptation of Oliver Twist actually and I said to this other actor I was working with, ‘I think I may be going down to New Zealand to do this digital character.’ He said, ‘Well, is your face going to be on screen?’ I said, ‘No, it’s not.’ He said, ‘Mate, I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.’”

Serkis played the role in the LOTR trilogy and reprised it in the first Hobbit movie, An Unexpected Journey.

Gollum was a wretched humanoid figure with a single-obsession – the One Ring, the primary MacGuffin in the LOTR trilogy. He was once a hobbit (albeit not of Shire) who was corrupted by his intense desire to possess and keep the One Ring. The character was fascinating and also provided much-needed humour when things got grim. The humour was due to Gollum’s grammar (he kept saying “We wants it” regarding the One Ring) and his two warring personalities – one childlike, innocent and helpful, and the other greedy, murderous and evil.