Andy Serkis

It was a fairly happy childhood. My father was working away, and my mum brought up five kids all on her own.

I think parenting is very different now. We're totally governed by our children!

When you have children, you realize that at the end, it's all about passing on, about handing down.

I stayed in Baghdad every summer until I was 14. My dad's sister is still there, but many of my relatives have managed to get out. People forget that there are still people there who are not radicalized in any particular direction, trying to live normal lives in a very difficult situation.

My natural bent is to have an overabundance of energy, and motion-capture essentializes your every breath, your every move. Seeing yourself through that mask, you realize how far you can pull back and make the performance even more powerful.

I do love nature, but I don't suppose I'd spent more time in zoos as a child than anyone else!

I'm quite contrary. If people agree on something, I tend to gravitate the other way by my nature. I don't like to be told what to do. I think it goes back to school. I like to do things I want to do and I really don't like doing what I don't want to do.

Gorillas are still wild creatures. That's made very clear when you observe them in nature. They charge and perform other displays that are terrifying by design. But they don't attack unless they feel threatened.

I had to relearn how to ride a horse like an ape. I had to change how I jumped off and how I gripped them with my thighs and distribute my weight differently.

I've always thought of acting as a tool to change society. I watch a lot of actors and I see panic in their eyes because they don't know why they act and I know why I act. Whether I'm a good or a bad actor, I know why I do it.

You'll very rarely find that you can enhance a performance to give it a real emotional centre and truth... after the fact.

You never really know why you become an actor: it's a visceral thing, an emotional thing.