Annoyed by all the secrecy surrounding Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Well, spare a thought for Andy Serkis. Talking to Entertainment Weekly recently, the actor revealed that he had no idea what the villain looked like when he was playing him, confirming that his appearance changed during all stages of production as J.J. Abrams and company looked to get this sure to be iconic new addition to the Star Wars Universe just right. So, what is the leader of The First Order up to? "Supreme Leader Snoke is quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful," the actor teases. "Obviously he has a huge agenda. He has suffered a lot of damage. As I said, there is a strange vulnerability to him, which belies his true agenda."
Damage? The same kind of damage one might suffer from being thrown down a shaft by a certain Darth? "He’s a new character in this universe," Serkis confirms, debunking about a million different theories with one sentence. "It is very much a newly-introduced character. He’s aware of what’s gone on, in the respect that he has been around and is aware of prior events. I think it’d be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree." That obviously leads to even more questions, and the actor made Snoke sound all the more intriguing when he revealed why he couldn't have played him using practical effects. "The scale of him, for instance, is one reason. He is large. He appears tall. And also just the facial design – you couldn’t have gotten there with prosthetics. It’s too extreme. Without giving too much away at this point, he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone structure and facial structure. You could never have done it [in real life.]" Thoughts?