Yahoo Movies Andy Serkis explains why he took on his darkest role for Luther movie
As good as Idris Elba is as John Luther, every series of Luther lived or died on the strength of the villain he was going up against.
For his movie debut, Luther might be facing off against the most terrifying killer he's ever faced — and that's saying something — in millionaire David Robey, played by Andy Serkis, who notches another franchise to his belt following Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Batman and more.
The chameleonic actor is the standout of Luther: The Fallen Sun, crafting a genuinely unsettling villain who revels in gruesome tableaux of corpses and very public displays of how much control he has over his victims. He's the type of serial killer you can only see in a Luther movie, and he's unforgettable.
Ahead of Luther: The Fallen Sun's Netflix release on March 10, Digital Spy sat down with Andy Serkis to discuss how he came up with Robey's distinctive look, the real-life themes that the movie explores and acting opposite the "formidable force" of Idris Elba.
You've said before that you felt like having a shower after first reading the script, so was there apprehension over taking the role and having to live in David Robey's psyche?
Andy Serkis: Once I'd come back from that moment of thinking, 'No, there's absolutely no way I'm going to do this', I thought, 'No, it's actually the subject matter that surrounds the characters is actually vastly important' and something that I really thought was worth investigating.
Apart from the character itself, the whole notion of how we've abdicated responsibility to the internet, literally handed ourselves over to a mechanism that allows for deep-fakes, artificial intelligence, hacking and giving up our identity and so on.
I just thought there was something really interesting about [...] a character who can master all of that tech and actually do what we know goes on, which is to surveil — and to probably greater depths than we would imagine.
At the same time, it comes from a place of isolation. I mean, he is a true incel character that is unable to really connect with humanity in a normal way. The lack of ability to really feel is something that I think David Robey represents. So as a debate, that's what pulled me back.
You have an ability to disappear into the role to the extent we genuinely forgot we were watching you as David Robey. Part of this for him is that distinctive look, with the blonde wig...
It was actually my hair, it wasn't a wig. [Laughs]
Now we feel bad. Sorry.
David Robey as a character is a construct in a way. He doesn't have his own style, he doesn't have his own personality. It's just what he observes from other people. So there's a mismatch in what he is. Even though he's got lots of money and could afford anything that he wanted to make him look very stylish, it doesn't quite work.
So that was what I was aiming for — that it was all observed bits and pieces, fragments of other people's lives that were pulled together, so it feels slightly off. That includes his hair, which was all my own, dyed.
Funnily enough, Cynthia Erivo came up to me on the third day and said: 'Oh my God, the make-up department have given you an incredible wig'. The hair's caused a bit of a stir, but I wanted for it to feel purposefully heightened and a bit fake.
There's an element of theatricality to him and certainly the way that he then operates and goes and creates an amphitheatre in Piccadilly Circus, and then in the Red Bunker. I think he's reached a point in his life where he wants to be the showman.
The other part of him is that he really wants to bring down hypocrites that he sees in the likes of John Luther, who would think themselves to be morally above people like him.
That theatricality certainly comes through with the gruesome first display of David Robey's victims. Was that all done practically on set?
It's pretty scary. It was really scary stuff. Jamie [Payne], our director, and Neil [Cross] for envisioning it in the first place, writing it.
His mind, we don't even want to go into it. Probably a lovely person, but…
He is the nicest bloke. Absolutely genuinely the nicest guy. I think of myself as a relatively sane, normal human being, approachable and all the rest of it. And Neil is exactly that. He lives in New Zealand on the Kapiti Coast, and he lives a beautiful existence.
To be able to climb in the minds of all of the psychopaths that he's created in the series and then this… I have played some dark characters, but this is certainly down the darkest end of the swimming pool.
On the surface, David Robey doesn't seem like the kind of person who could stand a chance against Luther, but their confrontations are genuinely electric and tense. How was it to work opposite Idris Elba, who totally is Luther?
They were really interesting and exciting scenes to play, particularly the Red Bunker scene. He's a formidable force. I know Idris, but being on set with him and witnessing his John Luther, there's a very, very fine line between him and Luther.
He's so present in the character because he's played him over the last 10 years. It's so part of him. It was thrilling to play opposite [him], and I think he's fearless, actually, in his choices.
He's so in the moment, and that's the great thing about Luther. He's so unpredictable because he works on instinct and his instinct takes him all over the place. And that's what Idris carries out so beautifully. You just don't know what he's going to do in the moment, which is great to act with somebody like that.
Without going into spoilers, it all builds to a dark finale set at David Robey's version of the Red Room, an internet myth. Did you know much about them before reading the script?
One gets a sense of the darkness of the internet and the dark. You hear the apocryphal stories or the stories that might be true. It makes perfect sense that these places exist. I'm sure they exist. They can't not exist. It's in our imagination, so if you can imagine it, it's there.
It is a slightly terrifying idea, but with human trafficking, with the way that young teenagers respond to peer pressure, internet pressure, social media, all of that kind of stuff, it sort of feels real.
At the same time, there is this level of theatricality [to the movie] that makes it a very zeitgeist blockbuster movie.
Luther is the latest franchise you've joined, so does it feel different when you're joining a world where fans have expectations or do you just have to approach it like any other role?
Even on the other side of the camera like with Venom, you're sort of custodians of a role or a project for a while.
I liken it very much to doing a play by a classic playwright like Shakespeare, where you're all about creating your own version of King Lear or Othello or whatever it is. You know next year someone's going to do another production and have a completely different interpretation.
I think it is about being the custodian of a franchise for a period of time and then investing it with everything you've got while you have that opportunity and platform to add your bit of creativity to a story.
Luther: The Fallen Sun is out now in select UK cinemas and is released on Netflix on March 10.
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