Andy Serkis Thinks Luther: The Fallen Sun Features His Darkest Character Yet
"Luther" has always been known as a dark and bloody series. The BBC crime thriller follows the titular rule-breaking copper as he tracks down some of the most horrific murderers and serial killers in television history. The Netflix follow-up, "Luther: The Fallen Sun," has kept up that brutal pedigree with perhaps the franchise's most depraved monster yet.
David Robey (Andy Serkis) is the stuff that disturbing urban legends are made of in "Luther: The Fallen Sun." A sinister tech-savvy millionaire and master manipulator, the killer has an entire team of hackers and researchers following people online and digging up their deepest, darkest secrets to blackmail them into doing his bidding, no matter how awful it might be.
Though Serkis has played his fair share of dark characters in the past, he told Table Manners that he thinks Robey takes the cake as far as that's concerned. "I've played some horrible people. I played Ian Brady," the actor recalled. Here Serkis is referring to the "Longford" movie, which was based on the Moors Murders committed by the real-life Brady and his girlfriend. Though Serkis conceded that Brady was "possibly one of the darkest characters" he's ever played, he said that his "Luther" character is "even darker than Ian Brady, I think."
Robey is the kind of monster that inspires Black Mirror episodes
Anyone who's seen the utter depravity of David Robey in "Luther: The Fallen Sun" will no doubt understand why Andy Serkis thinks this is his darkest character to date, despite the actor's penchant for playing villains. Having people film themselves leaping from buildings to distract law enforcement from capturing him is just one of his many horrific tricks in the crime thriller.
Serkis was so repulsed he nearly turned down the starring role altogether. "When I read it, I just thought, I literally wanted to chuck the script in the bin, and I wanted to have a shower," the performer recalled. "He's not a nice person."
That might be the understatement of the century. By the film's end, Robey has set up a Red Room on the dark web where similarly twisted viewers can watch people being murdered in real-time and even vote on how they want to see them meet their end. Still, Serkis thinks the terrifying nature of the character is a reflection of our times
"All of that stuff that we take for granted now, our Alexas, our cameras, our phones, our devices, all of that stuff. David Robey, the character I play, manipulates all that," Serkis explained. "He's a tech wiz and observes and studies people and surveils them in their homes. I mean, you will want to throw away your Alexas if you've got them or any other devices. Or even your TV, which has actually got a camera in it," the actor warned.