My Pressures: The Bizarrely True Story of Andy Serkis

‘The characters choosing the actor … Would they, I wonder? Would they choose me? If I told them my life story, what would they think? What would I even say? Where would I even start?’

When Andy Serkis was asked to write his memoir, he knew he wanted it to be something different. This is his story, but not only his story.

He takes us from a childhood split between Ruislip and Baghdad to his early acting years, and into the making of characters including Gollum, Caesar and Ulysses Klaue.

There’s also a look behind the scenes of Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, the Marvel cinematic universe and Star Wars. Along the way, Andy Serkis explores the real and imagined lives bound up with his own.

It all builds to one irresistible question, sparked by a cat coughing up a fur ball that sounded uncannily like Gollum: what would his most iconic characters make of the man who brought them to life?