The cast members who portrayed the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings trilogy recently reunited and undertook a unique challenge: attempting to mimic the voice of Gollum. The blockbuster movies, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novels, first debuted in theatres almost twenty years ago. Under the direction of Peter Jackson, Tolkien’s world was brought to life in theaters across the globe. The massive success of these movies led to the creation of The Hobbit trilogy and an upcoming Amazon series called The Rings of Power.
The original Lord of the Rings movies focused on a band of unlikely heroes, four hobbits and their accomplices, as they set out to destroy Isildur’s Bane and bring an end to Sauron’s bid to dominate Middle Earth. As their journey progresses, they are also joined by Smeagol, a creature with an alternate personality named Gollum who is fixated on The One Ring. When the audience is introduced to the character, he has already been disfigured by his time hoarding the ring. His large eyes, emaciated body, pale skin, and unique voice easily distinguish the character from the rest of the party.
The original hobbit actors recently reunited at Fan Expo Dallas to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the initial film. During the Q&A session of their panel, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd were challenged by an audience member to attempt one of Gollum's lines from the movie. The actors took turns reciting the quote, resulting in some incredibly accurate and hilarious results. Watch below to see how each of the actors faired in their attempt to recreate Smeagol’s iconic voice.
Andy Serkis portrayed Gollum for the majority of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, establishing the character’s unique voice and mannerisms. However, Wood and Monaghan might be able to give the Smeagol actor a run for his money. The duo, most notably Wood, gave impressive impersonations that were extremely accurate to Serkis’s performance in the movies. Boyd and Astin, on the other hand, proved just how difficult voice acting can be by delivering lines that didn’t come close to resembling Gollum's voice, with others even commenting that Boyd sounded more like Larry the Cable Guy.
Although Serkis’ Gollum made an appearance in The Hobbit after filming The Lord of the Rings, it doesn’t appear that the character will be involved in The Rings of Power considering it is set over a thousand years before Gollum is introduced. Luckily, there is some good news for those infatuated with the character. A new video game, Gollum, is scheduled to be released later this year. While the game's Gollum will not be voiced by Serkis, the audio lines in the trailer do sound similar to the actor. Even so, after hearing Wood’s impersonation, developers would have been wise to hire him to do the game’s voice work instead.
Source: Fan Expo Dallas