Andy Serkis performs Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King through motion capture and voice performance.
Serkis supplied Gollum’s voice, movement, and acting performance, while digital artists transformed that work into the character seen on screen. His performance was especially important because Gollum’s expressions, posture, and physical instability communicate the character’s divided personality and long corruption by the One Ring.
Gollum appears in all three films, but The Return of the King gives him a major role in the story’s opening history and in Frodo and Sam’s journey toward Mordor. Serkis later reprised the character in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The performance became a landmark in motion-capture filmmaking. A common misconception is that motion capture means an actor contributes only movement; Serkis’s voice, timing, physical choices, and dramatic interpretation were central to the finished character.