I feel at home here — Andy Serkis praises Kazakhstan’s storytelling power and cinematic landscapes
British actor and director Andy Serkis believes Kazakhstan’s rich storytelling heritage and diverse landscapes make it an ideal setting for epic cinema. Speaking on the final day of Comic Con Astana 2025, he shared insights into his creative philosophy and praised the country’s cultural depth and narrative power, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports from the event.
During yesterday’s Q&A session with fans, Serkis spoke warmly about his connection to the country, saying he felt a deep personal resonance with the Kazakh spirit.
"I feel like a nomad, so I feel at home here," he said.
When asked by journalists about the possibility of joining a local project based on a Kazakh legend or fictional story, the actor recalled his recent visit to the National Museum, where he and his wife were deeply impressed by “the power of storytelling that lies within this country,” which struck them the most.
“The coming together of so many different cultures and ethnicities that share different stories. It doesn’t surprise me that these magnificent old tales that bear so much emotion and truth and power and exist almost as if they have their own lore and power of storytelling. I would be delighted. I mean, it’s exactly the sort of material that interests me,” he added.
Serkis emphasized that he is always drawn to “human emotion in big epic stories,” as it allows him to reach broader audiences and deliver meaningful messages through film.
“I would be honored to come and make a film in Kazakhstan. In fact, I know it has an incredibly varied array of places to shoot film: from the mountains to rivers to the steppes to the deserts. It seems to me to be a perfect environment for epic storytelling like this,” he said.
Kazinform News Agency correspondent followed up by asking what kind of fictional universe Serkis might create, inspired by Kazakh legends.
“Well, that’s a difficult one to answer without knowing the myths in great detail. I can see from these images that these stories have profound truths behind them. I think one of the things that we need in this world at the moment is stories that contain truth. However expanded they are in terms of their mythical and their fantasy elements of the storytelling, I think it’s really important that they are believable and they feel historical and grounded in a truth that we all would recognize and understand,” Serkis said.
He noted that he values stories that emotionally connect the viewer to the characters “rather than it just being a spectacle of wild fantasy.” The actor concluded by saying he would need to further explore Kazakh myths and folklore before fully envisioning a fictional universe based on them.
Earlier, Kazinform also reported on Esai Morales and Scott Adkins, who shared their impressions of Kazakhstan and discussed their interest in participating in local film projects during Comic Con Astana 2025.
