Rogue One's Alan Tudyk Weighs In On Motion-Capture Performances

One of the best things to come out of Rogue One was definitely Alan Tudyk as Imperial droid K-2SO. His dry sarcasm and competence in the battlefield make him a droid more efficient and less annoying than C-3PO. Since the dawn of mo-cap performance, there's been a debate going on about mo-cap actors getting nominated for Academy Awards, and Tudyk himself has decided to weigh in on the issue.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Tudyk was asked if motion capture should be considered for awards. He says:

"I would say they should be, because who doesn't want an Oscar? But they should be a team. It would be a co-award because it is not just one or the other. [To animator Hal Hickel] My art instructed your art. They meet. So, one wouldn't work without the other."

Rogue One animator Hal Hickel also weighed in on his thoughts, and brought up the example of John Hurt in Elephant Man. Hickel explains:

"I think absolutely a motion-capture performance should be honored in the Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor category. Where I differ is, I think we already have an award for visual effects. So for a character who's just amazing, who's a motion-capture character – this is not motion-capture, but think of John Hurt as the Elephant Man. We don't see his face in the whole film, but Oscar worthy performance. And, you could also nominate the make-up artist in the make-up category. That's kind of how I think of it."

Tudyk isn't the first actor that fans have been clamoring to be given an award. Fans have also been wanting Andy Serkis to get recognized for his performances as Gollum in Lord of the Rings as well as Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes movies. The thing is, the art of mo-cap falls in a very unique category for films.

Should actors be given full credit for mo-cap when a lot of the final performance relies on the animators? Mistakes can easily be edited out after all, so who really deserves the credit here?

Personally, I don't care about Academy Awards. They've become a genre in itself made for pandering to a specific audience instead of focusing on the complications of the art form. Tudyk doesn't need an Oscar to prove his worth… but like he said, who doesn't want an Oscar?

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