The actor behind Resident Evil: Afterlife's Chris Redfield isn't a gamer, so how did Prison Break's Wentworth Miller prepare to play this iconic character? With a montage - a Chris Redfield montage.
MoviesOnline.ca caught up with Wentworth during the San Diego Comic-Con earlier this month, where the actor admitted he's never been much of a gamer due to his family's emphasis on education. So how does a non-gamer prepare to play a gaming icon?
I had to do my homework. I was aware of the series and I remember specifically the trailer for the third movie with that shot over Vegas, and it's buried in the sand, it was very iconic and arresting. I asked the producers to put together a montage of significant sequences from the video game that explained or spoke to my character's history or mythology. That was part of my research.
Wentworth's Redfield isn't pulled directly from the game. The actor says his Chris Redfield is a balance of the video game Redfield, movie writer and director Paul W.S. Anderson's vision of Redfield, and Miller's own strengths as an actor.
I like the idea of a gaming outsider playing the role. The more familiar an actor or actress is with a video game character, the more likely they'll be playing a video game character instead of giving that character a life of their own.
But my reactions to Miller's casting don't matter to the actor. Neither do yours, or any other online fan reactions.
I didn't read those reactions. I felt like I already knew what they were going to be. I imagine that the reception is going to be across the board, it's only natural, and people become attached to a certain story or a certain character. They invest deeply, so they care when they finally see that character up on screen. They're going to have opinions, and that's to be expected.
We'll see if Miller's methods pay off when Resident Evil: Afterlife hits theaters on September 10.
Wentworth Miller Resident Evil Afterlife Interview [MoviesOnline.ca]