Andy Serkis sat down with the Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex to talk about his acting performances–one of which, his role as Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” has garnered him a Critic’s Choice Movie Award nomination and is also getting Oscar buzz.

“What’s fantastic is that there’s a real growing appreciation for performance-capture technology as a tool for acting,” Serkis said when asked by the LA Times about receiving his nomination. “Over the years, people have asked me, ‘Do you think there should be a separate category for acting in the digital realm? Or hybrid sort of awards for digital characters?’ and so on. And I’ve always really maintained that I don’t believe so. I think it should be considered acting, because it is.” He went on to say that for him, motion capture is acting because of the amount of physicality and emotion that goes into the character.

You can read more of his interview–which also gets into how Serkis prepared for his roles as Caesar and Gollum in “The Hobbt: An Unexpected Journey”–at the LA Times. “The Hobbit,” directed by Peter Jackson and also starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Cate Blanchett, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly and Benedict Cumberbatch, will be released December 14.