Serkis Says Drama School Grads Now Beg for Game Roles

"At that point, actors looked down on video games." That's Andy Serkis describing the climate when he first stepped into the medium for Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword on PS3. In a new interview with Variety, the actor says the attitude has done a complete 180: "Now, young actors coming out of drama schools, and they're like, 'I really wanna be in a video game.'"

That single detail tells you more about where the games industry sits culturally than any sales figure or awards tally could. When fresh graduates from drama programmes are actively chasing game work rather than treating it as a fallback, the hierarchy between film and games isn't just softening. It's dissolving. Serkis, who voiced Renoir in Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was reflecting on how the RPG reinforced his belief that the two mediums are creatively identical. "I don't see any difference between that and acting in films, or on stage, or TV," he said. "It's exactly the same. You approach the character and build a character in the same way."

Serkis also pointed out an irony that I think deserves more attention. Hollywood now relies on game engines to previsualize action sequences, plan cinematography, and place virtual lighting in shots before cameras ever roll. "It's an essential tool of modern filmmaking," he said. "And there has always been that snobbery about video games not being anywhere near filmmaking, but that's all changing." The fact that the same industry that once dismissed games as beneath it now can't make a blockbuster without Unreal Engine is a pretty damning indictment of how shallow that snobbery always was.

From Heavenly Sword to Expedition 33

Serkis's own maps the shift neatly. His first game role was King Bohan in Heavenly Sword, back when lending your voice to a game was seen as slumming it. Since then, the list of high-profile actors taking game roles has grown steadily: Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, Mads Mikkelsen and Norman Reedus in Death Stranding, Idris Elba in Phantom Liberty. But what Serkis is describing isn't just established stars crossing over for a payday. It's the next generation of performers viewing games as a first-choice career path. I think that shift matters more than any individual casting announcement.

Serkis was full of praise for Sandfall Interactive's debut, calling Expedition 33's story deeply emotional and its visuals beautiful. "These guys had never made a video game before. It was their first one, and they learnt on YouTube tutorials," he told Variety. The game has won multiple awards since launching last year and clearly left an impression on him.

His Expedition 33 co-star Charlie Cox has already confirmed he's set to star in another game, saying he'll be "much more involved" with the next project, suggesting full motion capture rather than voice work alone. If drama school graduates are lining up for game roles and actors like Cox are deepening their commitments to the medium, the old stigma isn't just fading. It's already gone for the people who actually do the work.