Serkis has been acting for the better part of two decades in more conventional projects like Topsy-Turvey and Among Giants, but has only begun to make real inroads into Hollywood in the last five years. Audiences got their first look at Serkis as the human embodiment and voice of Gollum in director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (you can also see Serkis sans pixels as the hobbit-like Smeagol in The Return of the King). Serkis followed this performance in 2005’s King Kong as none other than the titular ape himself (and, in human form, Loopy).

Serkis enjoyed his work as Gollum, but expresses his excitement at having put the role behind him. "I got very tired talking about Gollum and the blue suits and all," he laments. "If you read those interviews, you’ll see a lot of the same answers."

The only answer he has kept in his repertoire for questions about his work on King Kong focuses on the nature of the acting. You’ll notice the statement in every interview he does. It’s the only true talking point that he has. Serkis effortlessly works this sentiment into our interview in response to a question I’ve asked about whether he was ever tempted to look over the animators’ shoulders and give them added direction about the nuances of his performances. "You have to understand," Serkis says, "that acting is a process. It’s not like a divorced thing with Gollum and Kong even though those parts involved motion-capture work. The acting of those parts is no different than [a live-action part]. You’re inhabiting a character. You find the psychology, a physicality and an emotional range for the part." He sighs and finishes the thought for what could be the hundredth time, "When someone calls ‘Action,’ you’re inside the character."

The role of Kong seems like it might have been an easier role to tackle than that of Gollum–for one thing, Serkis doesn’t have to deliver any lines of dialogue–but quite the opposite turned out to be true. "Man," Serkis sighs, and trails off. "Gollum was a very well realized, well written character. He speaks, he conveys thoughts and when he talks to himself, you get to know his personality. Kong didn’t have any lines, but he communicates in all of those other ways. He’s representative of a true heart, I think. He’s like Lenny in Of Mice and Men. There’s this gorilla physicality to him and I had to get comfortable with that and the acting and the character." It’s an unusual job to say the least and Serkis is well aware of this. "It sounds weird," he nods, "but it’s just a matter of practice, practice, practice. I equate it to learning another language, where you have to get the grammar down before you can actually start to speak fluently. Fluent Gorilla here, as the case is."

Serkis is quite laid back and harbors no resentment at the fact that most people will not connect his name or face with his two most famous roles to date. However, as Serkis points out, in the span of less than four years, he’s had the opportunity to play two of the greatest characters in film history, something not many other actors can lay claim to.

Actors love to talk about the new challenges that they are provided with each and every day they appear on set. Sometimes this is an easy, cop-out answer that just rolls off the tongue. Sometimes though this is the spot-on truth. In Serkis’ case while working on both The Lord of the Rings and King Kong it is most certainly the latter.

"During the motion capture process, we spent a lot of time playing every single scene out in a very big spectrum," Serkis says. "One take would be completely gorilla, in another we’d play it very obliquely." Serkis shrugs, "There were times where I’d almost be like Mike Tyson coming off of a fight."

Serkis credits Jackson with this freedom. "Oh, if this were the Disney version of King Kong, they’d have Kong looking into Anne’s eyes all the time," he says. "But gorillas really don’t express emotion in the same way human beings do. They’re quite enigmatic, so we tried to reinvent and reinterpret the character as we were going along."

"Most people find it difficult enough to equate me with a three foot six Ring of Power junkie, so I don’t know how they’re going to figure this one out," Serkis grins about King Kong. "At least Gollum bore a strong resemblance to my facial expressions; but with Kong, he doesn’t look anything like me, so I don’t think I’ll get stopped in the street by someone who sees me and says, ‘Oh my God, you played Kong!’" Serkis laughs heartily and says, "It’s probably better that people don’t instantly see me as a giant gorilla."

Normally, I try to open my features with a crowd-pleasing anecdote; the more opinionated, outrageous and humorous the better. In the case of my interview with Jane, I can’t find anything that comes remotely close to filling this heading. Jane specifically avoids bashing her fellow porn stars by name--the most divisive thing she says during the interview surrounds actor Ron Jeremy when, after some slight prodding, she announces that fat, hairy and old isn’t "my type"–and goes out of her way to praise not only her co-stars in the AVN Award winning film, Pirates (think of Best Picture at the porn Oscars), but she talks glowingly of Digital Playground, the company to which she is contracted. It’s not that Jane is boring, far from it, it’s that she’s the most professional porn star you could think of.

While her answers to my questions fail to include mention of titillating stories of prurient sexual encounter, they are well formed and thought out answers nonetheless. Check that, they are extremely competent and professional answers, as professionalism is a very important quality to Jane both in herself and in her fellow porn actors.. "A lot of people in the adult business are of the mindset that you just show up on set and have sex," Jane says in response to my query about preparing for a day of shooting. "It’s like, ‘This is just a porno so I don’t have to care.’" She shakes her head and continues, "If you really care about the project and want it to do well, you’ve got to feel the acting, you’ve got to prepare yourself to get into that mode. You can’t just think, ‘Oh, I’m just doing a porno.’"

The ‘it’s-just-a-porno’ mentality bothers Jane deeply and she comes back to the topic throughout our lunch. "The difference between shooting a mainstream movie and an adult movie is that in the mainstream movies, the sex can be staged. You don’t have to capture real moments," Jane emphasizes. "The actors might not have any chemistry together--they’re just acting!" She punctuates the word ‘acting’ by gently slapping the table. "In our business though, you have to have a chemistry with your co-star. If it’s not there and you’re just faking it, you can tell." Jane pauses for a second and then finishes off the thought by stating, "People will make fun of you for that!"

Proving this very thought, Jane begins to moan a little too animatedly. "Oooooh," she coos. "Ooooh, you’re so big." She drops the act and looks at me. "Nobody wants to hear that. The girls are only doing it for show They start looking into the camera and winking. It looks stupid. A lot of people will see that and mention it to you." She sighs a long sigh and says, "It’s horrible. Why get into porn if you’re not going to try to enjoy it?"

Jane got into porn roughly three years ago after first working as a model for Hooters, among other companies. At present she is one of the biggest names in the industry and has not only won an AVN award herself for Best Actress, but actually hosted the AVN Awards in 2006.

This is quite a spectacular jump for a woman in the adult industry. Jane is proud of her meteoric rise, though she does note that "there are some girls who are so jealous of other girls who are moving up that they will do everything in their power to sabotage her relationships and her career." Jane shrugs at the sometimes catty nature of her fellow porn stars and attributes her success to two interwoven factors. 1) Jane is very aware of the fact that she is a product to be sold. "It sounds horrible, I know," she laughs, "But I am. [My name] Jesse Jane is a registered trademark." She goes on to relate that she is, "A marketing queen. I do a lot of radio shows because I can be me and promote the product. There are a lot of girls who are afraid to do radio because they’re afraid to talk. They’ll get asked a question and give one word answers... Not me!"

And 2) Jane puts a lot of energy into her work. When I ask her about the choreography of her scenes, she frowns at me and tells me that there is none of that with her. "That’d be awkward," she exclaims. "‘Hey, how do you want to have sex? I’m going to do you this way and then I’m going to do you that way.’" She shakes her head again. "You can’t do that. I’m a good performer because I don’t pose for the camera and have staged sex. My sex is raw. It’s crazy."

Jane’s approach to filming her sex scenes is, dare I say it, very method actor like. She gets into character, blocks out the cameras and production crew-members, doesn’t play to the cameras or do anything to avoid shadows ("That’s what the lighting guys are for," she chuckles). She summarizes her position on shooting as this, "My thing is that I always try to be in control. [The directors] would want certain shots. I just don’t listen anymore. I’m going to do my thing and you’re just going to have to catch it."

De Matteo articulates a similar idea about the promoting process, commenting on the release of her critically acclaimed performance in director Abel Ferrara’s latest film ‘R Xmas, "I don’t care about the movie coming out.  It makes no difference to me if anybody ever sees it. I couldn’t care less."

De Matteo then softens her stance a little on this matter, noting that, "The people that I care about and a lot of the people I know have seen it and that was fun for me.  But for me it’s really like theater; you do it that night and it’s great for you.  That might be really self-indulgent, but I just like the process."

De Matteo's approach to acting is not surprising given that she spent her childhood in the shadow of the theater and her mother who taught playwriting for thirty years. 

Eventually, de Matteo chose to attend film school and study directing because, as she puts it, "I was way too shy" to act.  "I knew I could write a screenplay and get into [NYU] without having to audition for the theater department."

Once at NYU, de Matteo soon began to overcome her doubts about acting and started to express an interest in the craft.  "They had a lot of acting classes for directors – you get to learn how to work with actors," de Matteo explains, "So if I went in to those classes nobody would judge me.  It was like ‘Guys, I don't want to do this, but you lunatics do.’  [In those classes] I was more in control of whether or not people were going to make fun of me."

Slowly transitioning from the directing world to that of acting, it took de Matteo almost two years to receive her big break after graduating: a guest starring role on "The Sopranos" that turned into a regular gig for her as Adriana. 

Rather surprisingly, de Matteo doesn’t look at landing the role as being entirely beneficial to her career.  "To be honest," she says matter-of-factly, "I probably had a better shot at certain roles before I got on The Sopranos than I do now."  She pauses and then says, "People really don't believe that I'm not my character on The Sopranos.  It's really unfortunate because this is a business run by people who are supposed to be creative and smart and they still can't figure out that I'm acting."

Still, it was her work on The Sopranos that allowed her a chance to work with director Abel Ferrara, a man she considers one of her directing heroes, in his film, ‘R Xmas. 

Even though she was delighted to be working with Ferrara, de Matteo is quick to note that she was miscast in the film as that of a Puerto Rican-American.  "The only reason why I agreed to do it is that Spanish is my first language," she sighs.  "I really didn’t think it was fair to Puerto Rican actresses who could’ve done a better job."  But it all comes back to Ferrara.  De Matteo smiles and says, "If I had to play a black guy, I would do it because he's fucking Abel.  He'll make it work.  He'll justify it for me."

Ferrara’s reputation for being a unique director sits well with de Matteo.  "The only difference between working with Abel and working with everyone else is you don't have to worry about hitting your mark," she points out summarily.  "You don't have to worry about being in the light.  You don't have to worry about your make-up.  You don’t have to worry about your hair.  You don't have to worry about any of that shit.  He doesn't care.  You don't have to get a line right.  He wants you.  He wants whatever is deep inside of you.  He doesn't give a fuck about anything else."

About the only concern in her life is still adjusting to life as a Hollywood actress.  De Matteo sheepishly admits that it means more time away from her New York hometown.  "I've been spending a lot of time in L.A., but I'm still a New Yorker," she adds quickly.  "And I will always be a New Yorker."