‘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 one thing for certain.

He wanted it to be a bit… different.

Sure, he’d tell the stories. He’d take the reader to his childhood divided between Ruislip and Baghdad. He’d tell them of his early days as an actor, and how he created the characters that made his name - Gollum, Caesar, Ulysses Klaue. And he’d take them behind the scenes of huge franchises like Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, the Marvel cinematic universe and Star Wars.

But soon he realised that his story wasn’t just about his own life. It was intertwined with the countless lives of extraordinary people, both real and imaginary, as well as strange creatures and emotional animals.

So, in this book, Andy invites us into a genre-defying conversation between actor and character, imagination and reality. And he provides an answer to a question that has been on his mind since the day he watched his cat coughing up a fur ball and making a noise that sounded very much like gollum…

What would Andy’s most iconic characters make of the man who brought them to life?

© Andy Serkis 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026