'Lord of the Rings' star defends film's lack of diversity — next movie won't have 'politically correct' cast

A "Lord of the Rings" star was questioned by a reporter as to why there are so many white actors in the trilogies.

Andy Serkis, the iconic British actor who played Gollum and is now reprising the role, was forced to answer for the original work in an interview with the BBC.

'I don't think we will be doing a politically correct ... version of the film.'

#ShireSoWhite

Entertainment reporter Colin Paterson prefaced Serkis' answers with a declaration that "The Lord of the Rings" was made before "colorblind casting became common" and had "almost entirely white lineups."

Fearing the new movies might be the same, Paterson asked Serkis: "Why?"

Serkis immediately cited the original works, created by author J.R.R. Tolkien, who "himself was influenced a lot by Norse mythology; there's a lot of that feeling."

Readers will know there exists plenty of supplemental literature written by Tolkien where he specifically describes how and why the characters look the way they do.

"The Shire feels very, very much like a very white, you know ..." Serkis said, his thought trailing off. The actor then backed his LOTR team and crew and plainly explained why some might find the hobbits indifferent to our modern-day affinity for diversity.

"They're not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of the Shire, but they know they don't want people coming in."

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Junko Kimura/Getty Images

Monster mash

While Serkis admitted, "Yes, there have been criticisms," he mostly parried off his interviewer's queries with a final statement on the matter.

"This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But we don't think we will be doing a politically correct, just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film," Serkis stated. "So, it's only where relevant basically."

When the Tolkien story hit Amazon as "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," it was widely mocked for casting black actors as dwarves and elves.

It also took major liberties with Tolkien's monsters, recasting orcs from soulless creatures bred solely for war into family-oriented beings yearning for peaceful lives.

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Barry Brecheisen/WireImage

Poor lore

Reporter Will Witt described the show's changes in 2022 as an attempt to warp what the author stood for, "good triumphing over evil, western values, and Christianity."

"Tolkien's lore and description of his characters and timelines ... prove that these characters are cast wrong," Witt wrote.

The BBC has argued that Peter Jackson's 2001 film trilogy was cast according to the conventions of the time, rather than as a strict reflection of Tolkien's descriptions. Under that view, the films' overwhelmingly white cast says more about early-2000s filmmaking than the source material itself.

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