Lance Reddick reveals his approach to playing Wesker in Netflix's Resident Evil
pcgamer.comLance Reddick, acclaimed TV and film actor (and voice of Destiny's Commander Zavala), wasn't a Resident Evil fan before starring in the Netflix show(opens in new tab) that releases this week.
«I had no idea that it was actually based on a videogame,» Reddick told PC Gamer in an interview this week. «I only knew the films so I walked into that kind of blind.»
Reddick said that not knowing about the videogame series and his character, the iconic villain Albert Wesker, helped his acting process.
«When I was doing it, I didn't think of having to play an already established iconic character, I just kept trying to bring what was on the page to life,» he said. «And then as the series gets further along, you see how my Wesker is connected to the Wesker from the games.»
Resident Evil pulls in the series' entire history for its backstory. Half of it takes place in 2036, which is 25 years after Resident Evil 8(opens in new tab), and the other half takes place in 2022. Wesker is alive despite getting blown apart in Resident Evil 5, and still working for evil pharmaceutical company Umbrella, but now he's a father with two daughters.
In the trailers, Wesker is depicted much more like a workaholic dad that's trying to develop a definitely-not-catastrophic antidepressant called Joy, while also keeping his angsty daughters from getting in trouble. Much like the games, the focus is on family and how those ties get pulled apart as the world is overrun with zombies. But if you've been following Wesker's moves from the games, you know that it all probably has to do with his master plan(opens in new tab), something that the show will likely get into before it's over.
Reddick's method contrasts with Henry Cavill's approach to playing Geralt in
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