Andy Serkis Revives Lord of the Ring’s Gollum to Mock Putin: ‘We Wants It. We Needs It. We Must Have Kyiv!’

Andy Serkis mocked Vladimir Putin while on The Late Show, impersonating the Russian leader as his monstrous Lord of the Rings character Gollum.

During Serkis’ appearance on the late-night show to promote his film The Batman, Lord of the Rings superfan Stephen Colbert could not help but highlight the actor’s impressive voice acting on franchise’s audiobooks.

Serkis impressively voiced 132 different Lord of the Rings characters while recording the audiobooks, including the dual personality of Gollum and Sméagol, whom he famously portrayed in the films.

The actor showed off several examples of his character readings while on Thursday’s edition of The Late Show, largely following the dialogue from the books.

“You shall not pass!” Serkis said, giving his own version of Sir Ian McKellen’s Gandalf.

“Elrond, who is more kind of — he was more here, and I always did this with my right hand and gave him a little bit — and every time I moved my hand like that, it would get me back into character,” he said, miming his process.

Serkis later launched into his Gollum impression, giving it quite the twist.

“Gollum was on this side and Sméagol was on this side,” Serkis said to Colbert while explaining his voicing process. “And he would say things like, ‘We wants it. We needs it. We must have Kyiv!’”

The line was a clear dig at Putin, as the Russian leader launched an invasion of Ukraine last month.

“‘No, Precious, they’re to impose sanctions!’” he continued, while an enthralled Colbert couldn’t take his eyes off Serkis. “‘Sanctions? Sanctions, my Precious? If they do anything, we’re going to give them shit back.’”

Serkis’ Putin-as-Gollum impression earned thunderous applause from the crowd, as well as a standing ovation from the Late Show host.

Watch above, via CBS.