The Fifth 'Resident'

Milla Jovovich discusses the horror/gaming franchise that keeps on going

It's hard to believe that it's been a decade since "Resident Evil," the first installment of the movie franchise based on the hugely popular Capcom video game, arrived on-screen and kick-started what has become the single most successful game-based film series in history. The cornerstones of the action/survival/horror hybrid have been star Milla Jovovich, who plays the steely and mysterious Alice, and writer/director/producer (and Jovovich's husband) Paul W.S. Anderson, who have provided a consistency to the series while delving in and out of the game mythology.

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After not directing movies two and three ("Resident Evil: Apocalypse" and "Resident Evil: Extinction") Anderson returned to the director's chair for 2010's "Resident Evil: Afterlife" and has stayed there for "Resident Evil: Retribution," which arrives in 3-D (like "Afterlife") on Sept. 14, 2012. With the series celebrating its 10th anniversary, we caught up with Jovovich at last month's WonderCon in Anaheim, Calif., to discuss "Resident Evil" past and present.

MSN Movies: When you guys did the first "Resident Evil," did you ever imagine 10 years later we'd be talking about No. 5?

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Milla Jovovich: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. I mean, when we did the first one, it was kind of, for me, like just a passion project for sure because it was my brother's favorite game. We used to play together when he was a kid, and so I thought, "Well, I've worked with all these amazing directors and I've played these really amazing parts, but he's only 13. For him ("The Fifth Element") is already kind of an old film. He doesn't care about Joan of Arc. He doesn't care I worked with Wim Wenders. These things mean nothing to a 13-year-old boy."

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What would mean something to him is if I was the girl from "Resident Evil," so when I went in to audition for the part, that was where I was coming from. If you talk to Michelle Rodriguez (who starred in the first film and returns for "Retribution"), it's the same thing. She is really passionate about the games and she is a big gamer, and for her it was about being in the "Resident Evil" movie. And Paul was the first one, the captain of the ship, who was a gamer, played the game, so it was all coming from fans to begin with. We just did it for the love of it and not for a paycheck.

Five films down the line how do you keep it fresh? How do you and Paul keep it fresh creatively? How do you keep the character fresh for yourself?

For me the character is fresh just naturally because I go into it more and more comfortable each time and I just know how she would react, so it's interesting to see things from her perspective after already living with her for so many years, but I think as a script and as a franchise, it's just become so much bigger. ... It's beautifully shot. It's cool. It's violent, but it's beautiful. To me it's like one of the only kind of Western-style movies that has a feeling of Chinese cinema when it comes to the action sequences, when it comes to the mythology. Alice is kind of that mythological creature in my head now, especially when you see this one. 

This is the second one you've done in 3-D ...

Paul is so enamored with 3-D. I mean, he's such a fan of it, so he really knows how to use it and how to make it the most immersive he can for people without making it distracting or kind of thinking about safety and thinking about what's going to make people's eyes hurt and how do you pan without making people dizzy. There are so many things that I picked up from him about 3-D that now when we go to see a 3-D movie, I'm like, "Whoa, is that supposed to happen, honey? Why did I get dizzy right then?" He'll be like, "It was a little bit too sharp of a pan," and we talk about why a shot didn't work. Then when we do the movie and we do a pan, we make sure that it works. So it's always like this learning process.

There was an interview where Paul had said that the next one after this could be the last one.

If there is a next one.

Can you see these going on and on, and in a way can you see them be almost like the James Bond series, where eventually someone would take over for you?

I would have no problem with that. That's for sure. That would be super-cool. I can't do it forever. That would be amazing. I mean, definitely Paul had an idea that we talked about a year ago for this movie and another one, with a story line that would culminate there. Would it be the end? I don't think he really knows, because he hasn't written the script yet. There was definitely a story line for five and six, but at the same time we've never worked that way, where we've done two films back-to-back and we've always been very much like, "This is a movie; focus on that and make it the best and then see how the fans react and cross that bridge when we get there."

I think that's part of what's great, too, about these movies. It's not every year there is a "Resident Evil." It actually comes out when organically he feels like writing a script for it. Sometimes it's two years. Sometimes three, but when it does come, people know that it's there for a reason, because he really was inspired to write it. ... It's organic, and I think that's the most important thing and that's what fans feel and that's what they react to, our passion for it and that honesty. We're not just trying to just have some machine that spits them out. It's real people doing these things and doing them with a lot of energy and will and force, and we love it.

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