Some actors are preoccupied with looking badass no matter what’s going on around them. Others are not—thankfully, since being the opposite of self-conscious is usually the most entertaining choice. Austin Abrams falls into that latter category; we saw him deliver a vanity-free performance in Weapons, and a bit of that goofy side also emerges in Resident Evil, his latest horror collaboration with Zach Cregger.
In a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Abrams was asked about the piercing scream his character, Bryan, lets rip on occasion amid all the zombie chaos.
“I wanted to look like the antithesis of the ‘cool action hero’ as much as I possibly could because that feels the most interesting,” he explained. “I haven’t seen it done as much. Shaun of the Dead lives in that realm as well. There’s a joy in being able to see this guy react naturally to all this crazy shit, and it’s just really interesting to watch.”
Bryan becomes a more relatable protagonist as a result, Abrams explained. “I always thought, How would this dude actually react to this? I just wanted it to feel really real-world. Whereas, if you have someone more experienced, it’s going to be a little less interesting to watch.”
Unlike viewers who are familiar with the Resident Evil games, Bryan has the additional barrier of not knowing what the hell is going on around him.
“One of the parts I really enjoyed is earlier on with the dog,” Abrams said, referencing one of the frights in Resident Evil‘s first act. “How do you even process a moment like that? What would you think that is? There was a period of time when I was like, Is this an alien? Does he think that these are aliens? That would probably confuse or frustrate audiences if my character was thinking it was aliens [because many of them already know what it is from the games]. But thinking about what it could be was a fun rabbit hole to go down while playing it.”
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