<P> According to Serkis's costar Lupita Nyong'o, who played the CGI character Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens, the actor coached her on performance - capture work, telling Nyong'o that "a motion - capture character you develop the same way as any other . You have to understand who the character is and what makes them who they are ." Serkis said of filming: </P> <P> It was quite an unusual situation . I worked specifically with Domhnall Gleeson and with Adam Driver . My first day was basically standing on a 25 - foot podium doing Lord Snoke without the faintest idea what he looked like...or in fact who he was! I was very high up, totally on my own, away from everybody else, but acting with them...we used sort of a "Kongolizer" method of having sound come out of speakers to give a sense of scale and distance for the character . So it was very challenging and scary, in fact probably one of my most scary film experiences I've ever had . </P> <P> Snoke, whom Abrams called "a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force", is the leader of the evil First Order . He is master to the film's primary villain, Kylo Ren . Serkis described Snoke as "quite an enigmatic character, and strangely vulnerable at the same time as being quite powerful . Obviously he has a huge agenda . He has suffered a lot of damage ." Serkis called Snoke "a new character in this universe", adding "I think it'd be fair to say that he is aware of the past to a great degree ." </P> <P> Explaining why CGI was the only way to create Snoke's unique appearance, Serkis said before the film's premiere, "The scale of him, for instance, is one reason . He is large . He appears tall . And also just the facial design--you couldn't have gotten there with prosthetics...he has a very distinctive, idiosyncratic bone and facial structure ." Chief of creature and droid effects Neal Scanlan said, "This character is much better executed as a CGI character . That's just a practical reality when he's 7 - foot - something tall; he's very, very thin ." Snoke's "scarred, cavernous face" was not revealed before the release of the film, in which he appears as a "massive, ominous hologram". The character's deep voice was first heard in the teaser trailer released on November 28, 2014 . </P>

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