Andy Serkis almost didn’t take on Luther role and had to shower after reading script

Andy Serkis has revealed he was almost close to saying no to the Luther movie after reading about his ‘psychopathic’ character.

In fact, the script left him so uncomfortable that he had to take a shower after reading it.

After a long wait since he was last on our screens in 2019, Idris Elba’s DCI John Luther is back in Netflix movie Luther: The Fallen Sun.

This time, he’s joined by Gollum actor Andy, who plays serial psycho-blackmailer David Robey, a shadowy man with such reach he manages to get Luther sent to jail in the first scenes after using his network to dig up the dirt on this ‘bad apple’.

Aside from his new look, in which Andy sports a wig, the 58-year-old was a bit taken aback to hear about his character, and wary of taking on the role.

Chatting to Susanna Reid and Ed Balls on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain, he said: ‘When I first read the script, I had to have a shower, it was one of the darkest parts I’ve ever been offered’.

He continued: ‘I did almost consider not doing it, because what’s brilliant about Neil Cross and the writing, is he makes the villains in Luther very, very real and around-the-corner, under-the-bed, it’s in our lives.

Andy plays the terrifying David Robey (Picture: Netflix / BACKGRID)

He almost said no to the dark role (Picture: Netflix / BACKGRID)

‘This one in particular is about the horror of the internet, the power of the internet, and someone like David Robey the character I play, manipulating people using that.

‘I mean, he’s a master of surveillance, he’s used to manipulating people. He’s an observer of people because he can’t connect with humanity.’

‘I sort of had to watch it behind my hands, it is pretty chilling, and your character is terrifying,’ Susanna had earlier commented, before recalling Andy saying he had to take a shower after first reading the script.

Andy opened up on the dark side of his character (Picture: REUTERS)

‘I’m really interested in you saying that there was something about the writing that was so powerful and this character was so psychopathic and manipulative that you had to shower and thought you might not take it on, is that because you didn’t want to inhabit that character, you didn’t want that character to be inside of you, or you were worried about how people might respond?’ she asked.

Andy replied: ‘No, not about how people might respond. What was exciting about it, I mean, I’ve played a number of dark characters before and I just thought is this what I want to do right now, but it was so current, and so important as a debate about the internet and how we’ve given our souls over to it, and given our lives over to it, and happy to almost being surveilled 24/7 through our laptop cameras and our phones.

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‘And David Robey, my character, knows how to use that. He’s a master of utilising, all the deep-fake AI, all of that stuff that’s hugely part of our lives now, we’ve given ourselves to those things.

‘The villain is us, we’ve accepted it.’

Luther: The Fallen Sun airs on Netflix on March 10, while Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1.

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Andy plays serial psycho-blackmailer David Robey.