Via Ew.com:

Pay some attention to the man behind the curtain.

As part of the digital and Blu-ray debut of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, EW presents this clip of Andy Serkis as Snoke, with the computer-generated mask of the battle-scarred First Order ruler removed.

Instead of the towering alien humanoid in a golden robe, we see Serkis in his black performance-capture gear, face speckled with dots so that his halo of cameras can record every subtle expression.

The man behind The Lord of the Rings’ Gollum, Planet of the Apes’ Caesar, and the director of the upcoming Jungle Book adaptation Mowgli (debuting in October), walked us through what we’re seeing now that the veil of Snoke is stripped away.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What surprises people when they see you as you, performing a motion capture character?
ANDY SERKIS: I think a lot of people think that you have to almost pantomime the performance or heighten it in some way. What’s illustrated is, in fact, the opposite. And it would be the same if you were playing Caesar or Gollum for that matter, or any character. You don’t exaggerate facial expressions. You’re not pushing through any false artifact.

As opposed to prosthetics?
It’s the opposite of something like the original Planet of the Apes. They had layers of prosthetic makeup on their face that they had to fight through. I can remember seeing a documentary that Kim Hunter was explaining how she literally had to keep her face moving at all times just to create some sense of life in the character.

Tell me about finding the emotions and physicality of this creature.
I’ve always approached him as someone who is obviously in a position of supreme power, but actually, there is a level of vulnerability about the character. The way that his face is caved in, he has those deep scarifications. His skull’s almost been crushed.

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