Just when it seemed like celebrity Ukraine commentary couldn’t get any weirder, Andy Serkis threw his hat in the ring. On Wednesday evening, the Lord of the Rings actor appeared on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show with one job and one job only: to promote his turn as Alfred Pennyworth in the new Batman movie. Instead, he decided to comment on the unfolding geopolitical crisis in Russia and Ukraine—while in character as LOTR’s Gollum.
In a crossover event nobody asked for, Serkis slips into the villain’s instantly recognizable mangled accent to do an impression of Gollum as Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Gollum was on this side and Sméagol was on this side,” he says. “We wants it. We needs it. We must have Kyiv!” At this point, the camera cuts to Colbert, who sort of nervously laughs with his eyebrows raised.
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“‘No, Precious, they’re going to impose sanctions!’” Serkis continues. “‘Sanctions? Sanctions, my precious? If they do anything, we’re going to give them shit back.’”
What’s most bizarre about the whole segment is how seemingly out of nowhere the Ukraine reference was. Earlier in the interview, Colbert did mention the sanctions against Russia, which included The Batman’s theatrical release in the country being shelved. But by the time Serkis got to his Putin-as-Gollum impersonation, they had totally changed the subject, shifting gears to discuss how Serkis voiced an impressive 132 characters in the LOTR audiobooks. He demonstrated his Gandalf, Elrond, and Gimli voices, keeping the dialogue appropriately lighthearted and specific to Middle-earth, and then— bam!— “We must have Kyiv!”
Stay tuned for Serkis’ next late-night TV appearance, in which he will reenact the Zelensky “We are here” video as Aragorn.
