Director Matt Reeves must be considering himself one of the luckiest men in Hollywood at the moment. Not only is he on track to delivering a promising looking sequel to 2012's reboot surprise Rise of the Planet of the Apes, while filming the movie he got to work with not one, but two of Hollywoods premier character actors - Andy Serkis and Gary Oldman.
Although every director counts themselves lucky when they have a talented cast, having one or more of those actors being method, character actors is truly a godsend. British actor Gary Oldman has embodied many roles in the past four decades, most recently appearing as Detective Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan's acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy. Oldman's portrayal of Gordon is so effective, so honed that we as the audience don't see the actopr at all; all we see is Jim Gordon - we forget that Oldman is even in the movie.
Andy Serkis, also British, has taken character acting to a whole new level, being known as the premier motion capture and voice character actor, having portrayed the likes King Kong, Gollum and Caesar. So recognized for his work is Serkis that J. J. Abrams has casted him in the forthcomng Star Wars Episode VII, purely based upon his performances and his reputation.
