MVPS OF MIDDLE-EARTH ``LORD OF THE RINGS'' OWES MUCH OF ITS SUCCESS TO SPECTACLE - BUT THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THESE 3 ACTORS WERE JUST AS PRECIOUSSS ...

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

As ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' marches along to what looks like Oscar glory, we thought we'd take a moment to remember some of the little people that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences forgot: actors who played key roles in the Tolkien trilogy's huge ensemble.

True, director Peter Jackson fills the screen of his third epic with some of the most amazing effects and action sequences ever slapped on celluloid. But really, would the pictures - and, especially, this moving and absorbing third one - be anywhere near as effective without the magisterial determination of the wizard Gandalf, the quiet and conflicted courage of the reluctant monarch Aragorn, or the psychotic complexity of the ring-corrupted Smeagol/Gollum?

Not in a million Middle-earth years. So, some brief reintroductions to our favorite ``Rings'' actors seem eminently in order.

ANDY SERKIS 

Although the multipersonalitied little monster who covets the ring above all else is computer-generated, Gollum is the trilogy's most complex character thanks to the full-blown, live-action performance that 39- year-old Englishman Serkis provided during the practical production.

In two different ways. And then, yet again, in a special effects studio.

``Peter's idea was to have the most integrated CG character in a live-action movie ever,'' Serkis, the father of two, explains. ``The essence of that was to have an actor invest in the role, psychologically, physically and vocally, and to get on set and act with the other guys. Normally, you'd have Frodo and Sam acting opposite a tennis ball on a stick. There would be nothing coming back, no reciprocal energy; the scenes would really be wrought from two characters' perspectives, not three.

``Therefore, I went down to New Zealand and I played Gollum thoroughly, as I would any other role on screen. Investigated him, worked out his physicality and voice, and acted off of Sean and Elijah (Astin and Wood, who play the film's heroic Hobbits and Gollum's prey) in the moment.

``Then we shot a whole other version with me speaking off-camera, with Sean and Elijah acting to the vacuum where I was. The animators would then have two routes to go down. They could paint, frame-by-frame, over my exact movements in scenes where there's lots of close interaction. Or the second way we worked was using motion capture, meaning that I reshot every single scene in a studio with 25 cameras while I wore a suit with dots all over it, which controlled the image of Gollum on a screen that I could see.''

Some view this as not quite acting. Others fear it's a technological threat to the craft. Having pulled it off better than anyone else, Serkis dismisses both complaints about post-digitized performing.

``People ask me if it's going to be nice to get back to proper acting, and I think no, this is acting, there's no difference. You may not wear a costume, but you're still drawing from the imagination. It's a lot more exposing, in a way, so you have to work harder inside. People who think actors are going to be replaced completely misunderstand this. There's more process, there's more acting.

``We have pioneered this portal that's been opened up to a new way of acting,'' he reckons. ``In essence, you can play any physical size, shape, creature or whatever. Providing you've got the acting chops to get inside the head of that computerized character, you're not limited.''

VIGGO MORTENSEN

Poet, publisher, photographer, painter, horseman, peace activist ... Oh, and really handsome.

Obviously, soft-spoken Mortensen was perfect casting for the soulful adventurer-king Aragorn. Even if he wasn't the first choice.

``I don't like the possibility of being the one person who, when you watch a movie, you say didn't seem to know what he was doing,'' admits the New York-born, Argentina-raised, half-Danish actor, who was called Down Under to Jackson's location when the original actor, Stuart Townsend, proved wrong for the part. ``But it was probably a blessing not to have any time to get nervous about it. I was jet-lagged when I arrived in Wellington, and they drove me to these old army barracks. Inside was sort of a small gym. Against the wall, kind of vibrating and all tensed-up and sweating, was a whole group of people. It was the stunt team, some of them had real scars and they were very scary-looking, holding all of these rusty, blood-stained implements of destruction.

``Bob Anderson, the sword-master, introduced them as the people I'd be fighting with for the next year-and-a-half or so. Then he gave me my sword, pointed me in their direction and said, 'Go.' They all came screaming, running at me. I didn't know quite what to do, so I sort of covered myself and they stopped right in my face, waving these weapons. Bob said, 'OK, good. You didn't run away, that's a start.' That's kind of how I got going on these movies. It was that way with everything.''

Mortensen made his screen debut in ``Master and Commander'' director Peter Weir's ``Witness'' and subsequently muddled through a hit-and-miss movie career (``The Indian Runner,'' ``G.I Jane,'' ``A Perfect Murder'' and ``A Walk on the Moon'' were among the more memorable entries). Although ``Rings'' has raised him to a new professional level, it doesn't sound like he plans to alter his work ethic anytime soon.

``I've always approached the business of trying to find work in some ways that are probably not so wise or practical,'' Mortensen says. ``That is, to wait for a story that I really like or that is a real challenge and that I can learn something from, to find me. I wait until that happens ... or I run out of money. I can't help but do it that way, and once in a while it works. Just like going fishing.''

Or painting, or writing, or ...

``In the sense that I'm curious about people and my surroundings, I've more or less kept alive my childhood interests in drawing and making up things and playing games,'' he explains. ``I mean, my tools for being present are looking with the help of, at least, the idea that I could take a picture or write it down or tell a story about it.''

Appearing next in the 19th-century Arabian horse race saga ``Hidalgo,'' Mortensen admits that the long but rewarding ``Rings'' expedition has shown him just how fulfilling the acting game can be.

``This experience could've gone the other way; we could've all hated each other after all of this time cooped up together,'' he notes. ``But we bonded so strongly that there's no way that the experience of shooting this, and getting through the good and bad times together, won't have had a permanent effect on us. There's this family connection in the crew and cast that's unlike anything I've ever experienced.''

IAN McKELLEN

Although he's appeared in movies since the late 1960s, the 64-year-old British knight primarily concentrated on stage acting until 1995. Now hugely popular as both ``Rings''-leader Gandalf and ``X-Men'' nemesis Magneto, as well as widely acclaimed for his performances in such films as ``Richard III,'' ``Gods and Monsters'' and ``Apt Pupil,'' the cordial and witty McKellen revels in his late-in-life celebrity.

It almost didn't happen, though.

``I'd always been nervous in a film studio,'' he admits. ``I'd always worried about all of those people behind the camera looking at me, judging me, mentally giving me notes. So I deliberately put myself through a course of acting on film. Then I did some small parts in movies, 'Richard III' happened, and suddenly I did gain confidence. I realized that all of those people behind the camera were not there to judge, were not the enemy, but were colleagues and friends who were wanting me to do well. I now bound onto a film set full of confidence and feel like I'm at home in a company, as I've long felt in the theater. That was a really big emotional and psychological breakthrough.''

So, McKellen says, was publicly acknowledging his sexuality, which he'd never actively hidden but kept on the q.t. for decades.

``The other boost to the self-confidence was, I think, coming out as a gay man, which happened about this same time,'' the actor reckons. ``Rather than my career collapsing, which is the general assumption of what will happen if you say you're gay, on the contrary my ability to honestly say, 'Well, I'm myself now and I'm going to get on with my life,' helped my acting. Particularly in films, where the camera gets very close and can detect any sort of lying. So here we are. I don't know whether all of this is virtue rewarded. I suppose it's just a life being lived.''

An integral part in a legendary film series didn't hurt, either. Asked if he feels ``Lord of the Rings'' is the greatest movie epic of all time, the classics-steeped actor responds, ``Well, what are we putting it up against? I don't think that it's got a challenger, really.

``It's an unbelievable achievement,'' McKellen continues. ``And it's not only huge in its ambition, but the response has matched its achievement and it's been resoundingly successful. Myths normally coagulate over long periods; I mean, Homer wasn't one person. But Tolkien did it on his own, with reference of course to other people's myths. And why I think people so take it to heart is that, although it's about good and evil, the concentration is all on the good people. You never see the villain; Sauron is just an eye, he's a notion, an idea, a threat that disperses like a black cloud at the end.

``There's no part for Tony Hopkins,'' he adds with a chuckle. ``Or Ian McKellen - but I get to play a good guy. Normally, I play the bad guy because they're the best parts: Richard III, Iago, Magneto. And I like how people respond to Gandalf and think they respond to the idea of a good fellowship of people. Not being told by any church leaders what's right or wrong - there's no source of morality in the Hobbit world - but that it's all within yourself and the people you associate with. Maybe that's the appeal. But who knows? Maybe people just like looking at wonderful pictures.''

One of which, of him as Gandalf, can be found on recently issued New Zealand money.

``And the stamps!'' McKellen adds, self-mocking and delighted at the same time. ``I took all of my Christmas cards with me to New Zealand and put Gandalf on the outside. It's astonishing, the sort of celebrity spinoffs. I'm on the popcorn tubs that you can get in the cinemas!''

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- cover -- color) In the `RING' with its stars

Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn)

Ian McKellen (Gandalf)

Andy Serkis (Gollum)

(3 -- 4) Andy Serkis, left, and his CG alter-ego, Gollum.

(5) Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, the king.

(6) Ian McKellen as Gandalf, the wizard.