"Luckily, Peter spotted what was going on and suggested we play the 'Riddles in the Dark' scene, which is very long, out in its entirety, to get me back into character and ease Martin Freeman into the role of Bilbo Baggins. That was a very clever ploy and it worked.
"It was great to play that scene because, as a kid, The Hobbit was one of the first books I read and I vividly remember the 'Riddles in the Dark' passage, and always dreamed about doing it," he adds, smiling. "So, it meant a lot to finally play it, after all these years."
There was another dream-come-true moment for Serkis, during filming, which meant even more to him: when Jackson asked him to help direct.
"That was a huge surprise," he says. "I was only supposed to be going down for two weeks to reprise the role of Gollum but, just before we started shooting, I got an email from Peter saying he wanted me to direct the second unit. I was stunned.
"It was an incredible honour and I jumped at the chance," he enthuses. "Actually, in many ways, it was perfect timing because I was already planning to direct a couple of films that we were developing in our studio. But instead of my first film being a small, independent one, it ended up being the biggest second unit possible, shooting in 3D, for 200 days - the equivalent of five independent movies. It was crazy."
- TimeOut