Wentworth Miller did a lot of research on Chris Redfield for his role in Resident Evil: Afterlife, including watching a montage.
Something that many fans have complained about with the Resident Evil films is the noticeable absence of Chris Redfield. This is changing with Resident Evil: Afterlife, where Redfield will finally be portrayed by Wentworth Miller. For Miller, this was a big role, and he recently admitted that he spent quite some time researching the role so his Chris Redfield wouldn’t be something people would be disappointed with.
When an actor portraying a favorite character admits he isn’t familiar with the source material, it tends to make fans nervous. Since Miller is pretty open about not being a gamer, he realized he needed a crash course in Resident Evil and Chris Redfield’s character.
The result was a two-word solution straight out of Kevin Butler’s playbook. Mon. Tage.
“I had to do my homework,” Miller explained in an interview with Movies Online. “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 videogame that explained or spoke to my character’s history or mythology. That was part of my research.”
Another big part of Miller’s research was finding out what the character meant to the fans. “In preparing for the role, I felt the need to respect what was already out there, in terms of the videogame mythology, and I did my research online, going to fan sites and blogs to find out what the conversation was about this character, what the expectations might be. But then I had to balance that with who I am as an actor, and what I inherently bring to the table, and who is the Chris Redfield that Paul W.S. Anderson establishes in this movie. He’s very specific to the feature film interpretation of Resident Evil, rather than the videogame. It was a question of balancing all three influences, and I’d like to think that I did my best.”
I’ve generally been a fan of Wentworth Miller for a while, even though I lost interest in Prison Break after the first season. That he apparently spent this much time preparing for the role makes me a little less hesitant about Resident Evil: Afterlife. While the first and third Resident Evil flicks weren’t masterpieces of cinema, I didn’t hate them like I did Apocalypse. Hopefully Miller and his cast-mates will be able to keep Afterlife in the “Pure Popcorn Fun” realm.
In the meantime, I’d kind of like to see the Chris Redfield montage. That just sounds like ten different kinds of cool.
Source: Movies Online
