5 actors who got Oscar buzz without appearing in their films

Critics have anoin𝔉ted Andy Serkis king of the jungle again, starting to buzzꩵ about his Oscar chances for playing Caesar, the superintelligent leader of a group of forest primates in this summer’s hit

It’s the fourth time Serkis has gotten an Oscar push for a film he didn’t physically appear i꧅n, but so far no one has ever been nominated for an Oscar for voice-over performance or for doing the kind of motion-capture wor🎃k that is Serkis’ specialty.

Theಞre is no rule against such nominations, though, so there’s hope for Serkis.

Let’s take a look🎀 at the other actors who got Oscar buzz for playing nonhuman characters. (So far only one actor in the history of the academy got an acting nod for playing a character who wasn’t human — Jeff Bridges as the alien in 1984’s “Starman.”)

Frank Oz as Miss Piggy in ‘The Muppet Movie’ (1979)

So believed was the Divine Miss P’s scree🦩n presence that two Cincinnati marketing execs launched the Committee to Award the Oscar. More than 25,000 supported the idea of giving𝓡 her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Strangely, no one seemed to mention Frank Oz, who went on to give an equally beloved voice-and-puppeteering performance as Yoda in “The Empire Strikes Back” the following year. Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog were invited to appear on the Oscar telဣecast to joke about it.

Robin Williams as Genie in ‘Aladdin’ (1992)

William♋s achieved a breakthough when he brought ad-libbing straight from his rapid-fire stand-up routine to . The Golden Globes gave him their first-ever special achievement award for the performance.

Eddie Murphy as Donkey in ‘Shrek’ (2001)

The many great Disney and Pixar animated movies finally s♍hamed the Academy into creating a Best Animate🔥d Motion Picture Oscar — but the first one ever awarded went to this one from Disney’s rival DreamWorks Animation.

Piജcking up on Williams’ pioneering work, and became the first voice-over actor n✨ominated for a BAFTA, in this case for best supporting actor.

Andy Serkis as Gollum in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ (2002) and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ (2003)

attract🌞ed loads of attention, including an Empire Award and an MTV award for best motion capture performance, but Serkis never got the precious Oscar nomination for either role.

Andy Serkis as Caesar in ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ (2011)

Many top critics, including Richard Corliss of Time, urged tha♕t the Academy break with tradition and nominate Serkis for . It didn’t happen, though Serkis got a Critics’ Choice nomination for the role.

Scarlett Johansson as Samantha in ‘Her’ (2013)

Variety, The Daily Beast, Salon and other outlets published pieces arguing fဣor Oscar love for Johansso🍌n, who played .

🍎Johansson, who took over the part after Samantha Morton was fired, received the best actress award at the Rome Film Festival for her performance.