Andy Serkis Says Snobbery Around Game Acting Is Disappearing

"“My first engagement with videogames was with a company called Ninja Theory, and we made a game called Heavenly Sword for PlayStation 3,” Andy Serkis, who played one of the game's antagonists, King Bohan, said in a new interview with Variety. “At that point, actors looked down on video games as like, 'I wouldn't get involved in a video game'. Now, young actors are coming out of drama schools, and they're like 'I really wanna be in a videogame.'”"

"Serkis, currently promoting his new and widely panned adaptation of Animal Farm, played Renoir in last year's hit RPG alongside several other high-profile talents. He said acting in games no longer has the stigma it once did, especially as movies borrow the technology and stories of gaming. “The irony is that Hollywood is using videogame engines to drive all of the previews for all of the big action sequences in all of the movies, but also for cinematographers to use pre-vis and to be able to place light sources or moonlight or sunlight very specifically in a shot,” he said."

"“It's an essential tool of modern filmmaking. And there has always been that snobbery about videogames not being anywhere near filmmaking but that's all changing. And certainly looking into the future when we have more immersive storytelling, which is what's happening.”"

Video game acting has shifted from being stigmatized to becoming an attractive career path for younger performers. Andy Serkis described early experiences where actors avoided games, contrasted with current interest from drama school graduates. He noted that film and television increasingly use video game engines for action previews and for cinematography workflows such as pre-visualization and precise lighting placement. This overlap reduces the cultural divide between gaming and filmmaking. As immersive storytelling expands, the role of games in modern screen production continues to grow, making participation in video games more normalized for established talent.

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