Rendezvous in ‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’

Express News Service

It’s only while talking to Tom Hopper and Avan Jogia that I realise how vast the Resident Evil franchise has become over the past two decades. The Milla Jovovich-led action horror film, Resident Evil, inspired by a Japanese video game of the same name, was released in 2002, and has since spawned six feature film installments, with the seventh title, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, on the way. The films prevail independently, while the video games continue to enjoy a separate, devoted fan base. Both Tom and Avan are quite inclined towards the games as well.

“I am a fan of the early games, but I’m not well-versed with the recent ones. As someone who grew up with the first few titles, it’s amazing how much the graphics have improved ever since I played them as a kid,” he notes. “The new games are scarier as well. When I was approached for the film, I remember seeing only the first and second film. My experience and association have been more with the games,” The Umbrella Academy actor adds.

Avan hops in to share his memories associated with the franchise. “I have so many childhood memories attached to Resident Evil 4, the game. I’m a fan…” he takes a brief pause, before making a statement that encapsulates the evolution of the franchise. “The best thing about being a Resident Evil fan is, there are multiple eras to be closely associated with. The late 90s games, the late 2000s games, so on and so forth,” he adds.

Avan is no stranger to zombie films; he played Berkeley, a pacifist who refuses to turn to violence even in an apocalyptic world where death is imminent. In Raccoon City though, the tables have been turned. Avan reprises the franchise’s fan-favourite rookie police officer, Leon S Kennedy, and he’s a part of several gory sequences. How does it feel to be on the set of a zombie film? “Well, it involves a lot of blood and guts, and if you are lucky, you don’t get drenched in it (laughs).

That would mean you have to sit in the make-up room getting the zombie blood applied over your face and hair,” he says. “I guess filmmakers want me to kill zombies. I have picked up a few tricks to survive in a zombie film as well; headshots are the key, but you shouldn’t use guns excessively. They are too loud and tend to draw attention; as far as zombie survival is concerned, you are much safer with something wild, a Kitano, perhaps.”

Tom, on the other hand, will be stepping into the shoes of Albert Wesker, one of the major antagonists in the Resident Evil universe, earlier essayed by multiple actors including Shawn Roberts and Jason O’Mara. Tom, who will be essaying the younger version of the character, however, admits he eschewed seeking inspiration from the actors who played the part in previous installments. Speaking of his approach to the character, Hopper shares, “I never looked at other iterations of the character.

My focus has always been on Johannes Roberts’ (writer and director) vision, and my job was to embody the new version presented on the page. The script is so raw and the characters, equally human and relatable. I aimed to encapsulate that essence. I’m aware that there are different versions of the character from games and films; there’s one that’s similar to Mr Smith from The Matrix, and my idea was to go against this version and break it. I wanted to make him more relatable. My performance had to be more than just mannerisms; you could easily fall for the trap of sounding like an artificial, dark villain. I tried to explore his villainous transformation through actions while sticking to the story.”

If both of them had to convince a person alien to the Resident Evil universe to watch Welcome to Raccoon City, how would they pitch it? Tom quickly hops in, “What 2020 could have been!” “I can’t top that,” Avan adds, laughing.