STACK January 2017 Issue 147

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For its kick-ass star Milla Jovovich and
director-writer Paul W.S. Anderson,
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter represents
the end of a 15-year arc in which they met, fell
in love, married and now have two daughters –
their eldest girl, Ever Anderson, making her film
debut in the last installment of the franchise.
“It all came full circle having our daughter on
set, playing the Red Queen and being in
the same scenes with her," says
Jovovich when STACK chats
with her in Los Angeles.
"This whole experience has
been such a huge part of
my life, not just as an
actor but on a personal
level. My husband I met
through this, two kids
– it’s the family that evil
built… literally.
“But we’re good people
and so it was very emotional. It’s
hard having to say goodbye to Alice.
She has been such a part of my
life, as she’s grown I’ve grown and
I’ve been inspired by her. I feel like
she’s changed as I’ve changed. It’s
quite surreal thinking this is now
the end."
Franchise regulars Iain
Glen and Ali Larter return for
this last hurrah, alongside
newcomers Ruby Rose and
William Levy.
“We’ve always been
really lucky working on the
Resident Evil films, because
we’ve always managed to
get really interesting people
to join the cast, people who
love the games, love the
movies," Jovovich notes.
"Ruby is so lovely, just
serious and driven but a
lot of fun to be around.
When you’re shooting
16 hour days, with night
shoots and it's freezing
and its stunts, it can be challenging to say the
least. So it’s really important to have positive
energy around you. Ruby was amazing, always
smiling and laughing and having fun.
"That’s the thing that saves you when you
feel like, ‘Oh my god I can’t take this anymore;
it's freezing, I’ve been running all night and I’m
exhausted’. You need people around who are
going to motivate you to do it again rather than
people that get into bad moods, start
being divas or start lashing out at
the crew or their co-stars. It’s
nice to have a cast that is just
as motivated and aren’t spoiled
brats on set.”
With an earlier shoot date
already locked and ready to
roll, the husband-and-wife
team didn’t know how to break
the news of Jovovich’s surprise
pregnancy – they are now parents
to a second daughter, Dashiel, 18
months old.
“I thought the studio was going to
hate us, but they didn’t, they were
so nice about it,” whispers Anderson
between clenched teeth. “They
just said we’ll put everything
on hiatus and when you’re
ready we’ll go back
and shoot. Obviously
they were keen for
us to shoot as soon
as possible, so that
put a lot of pressure
on Milla to lose the
baby weight as fast
as possible, start
running and that kind
of thing. But she also
wanted to continue
breastfeeding.”
Jovovich was
relieved the studio
was so considerate.
“I couldn’t imagine
doing all the stunts
whilst being
It’s the family
that evil built…
literally
visit
10 JANUARY 2017
pregnant, although at the same time, I didn’t
want to have my stunt double do everything.
I gained so much weight with both my
pregnancies that I think half the special effects
budget would’ve gone into making me look
normal, and that would have been ridiculous.
“So it felt right to postpone it, but it was
definitely very scary having to call the studio
and the producers when Paul was literally about
to leave to start prep the day after, and the day
before we’re sitting there and we’re thinking,
‘Are we seriously going to do this?’ I mean
honestly, I’m an older mom in that sense, and
if anything happened to me or to the baby, we’d
never forgive ourselves. No movie is worth it.”
And so baby made four. “I have the most
amazing photos of these dirty, derelict locations
with like zombies and filth and burnt out cars,”
says Anderson. “Then in the foreground, there’s
Milla sitting on a little blanket breastfeeding and
she’s covered in dirt and blood.”
Definitely one for the Evil family album.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is in cinemas on
January 26.
The most successful video game-based film franchise
ever, grossing more than US$1 billion worldwide to date,
comes to a conclusion in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
CINEMA
BUZZ
RESIDENT EVIL (2002)
Alice enters the Hive, where
the evil Umbrella Corporation
has unleashed the T-Virus and a
zombie epidemic.
RESIDENT EVIL:
APOCALYPSE (2004)
Alice finds herself in Raccoon
City, which is now overrun by
the undead and facing nuclear
annihilation.
RESIDENT EVIL:
EXTINCTION (2007)
Alice is cloned and flees with a
group of Raccoon City survivors
to the Nevada desert, where the
undead and a flock of killer crows
are waiting.
RESIDENT EVIL:
AFTERLIFE (2010)
After destroying Umbrella HQ in
Tokyo, Alice finds herself in L.A.,
and new allies hiding out in the
local prison.
RESIDENT EVIL:
RETRIBUTION (2012)
Alice is captured by Umbrella and
traverses a VR simulation where
she discovers the truth behind the
T-Virus outbreak.
RESIDENT
EVIL
The story so far...
Words: Gill Pringle