Character building

Acting must be a strange art, if Andy Serkis' experience is anything to go by. He is one of those perfectionist method-acting types who want to leave his all on the screen, by going to extraordinary lengths to get into character.

And what characters! The likes of Gollum, King Kong, Rigaud (from Little Dorrit), Ian Brady, Captain Haddock and Ian Dury are not exactly routine roles. Mr Serkis is a chameleon taken to extremes, not unlike Robert de Niro or Michael Sheen but with more CGI effects.

Sometimes character-playing spills out into real life, which must get intense. I know of one theatre-in-education actor who found himself stuck as Richard III when he played the role 24/7, including taking planes, going on holiday and doing the school run dressed in character. It was as if he had gurned a face that got frozen into place.